One of the hallmarks of the Fourth Generation of ‘Rowling Studies’ is taking a larger view of Rowling’s work than her most recent work, the series in progress, or the fun but necessarily speculative guesswork about the book-to-come. Murray-Rowling-Galbraith has written enough books and screenplays and collaborated on a play that those of us who study or just read her work attentively are obliged at this point to pull back to see what ‘common denominators’ can be found in the opera omnia.
A lot of that work, of course, has already been done and has a lot to do with the other signature elements of the ‘new’ Rowling Studies. Pulling the ‘Golden Threads’ of the Complete Works is one, as mentioned, but it draws inevitably from the work done on another, namely, Explaining the Shed Artistry and its Effect on readers. [The last of the three elements, Identifying or Speculating about the Lake origins of the Threads in Rowling’s Biography, Bibliography, and Core Beliefs, links to the Threads less obviously.]
The first five of seven Golden Threads threads I hope are familiar to HogwartsProfessor readers: the ‘Shed Artistry’ points of Literary Alchemy, Ring Composition, Psychomachia, Christian content, and Mythological templates.
The sixth Golden Thread is Pregnancy Traps, a plot point I’ve mentioned here more than once, even asking for readers to review the texts to compile a create list of them, but which subject I have not explored in depth. This post is the beginning of my addressing that failing; it is the first of a series of ten or more posts laying out the textual sources of the major attempts by women characters in Rowling’s work to win a husband by becoming pregnant or by a fictional man to secure a bride by making his partner pregnant.
I’m starting with Merope Gaunt Riddle, the mother of Thomas Marvolo Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort, both because her pregnancy trap is at the root of the Harry Potter novels’ core conflict and because it is best to begin at the beginning. We’ll move in future posts from this launching point to work our way through the Pregnancy Traps in Casual Vacancy, the Strike-Ellacott mysteries, the Fantastic Beast screenplays, The Ickabog, and The Christmas Pig.
Each post will discuss the textual appearance of the Trap, its importance in the story or series in which it appears, and its unique and commonplace characteristics in relation to other Rowling Pregnancy Traps. I am writing a HogwartsProfessor Substack post for subscribers in which I will summarize the many appearances of this plot point in almost everything Rowling writes, discuss the effect of this story trope on readers, and speculate about its possible origins in Rowling’s Lake.
But first, Merope Gaunt Riddle, the witch whose pregnancy trap is the point of origin for the Dark Lord and all of Harry’s adventures — all that, after the jump! Merope Gaunt Riddle, hereafter ‘Merope’ or ‘Gaunt,’ does not appear in the series until the sixth of seven novels, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. My assertion that she and her pregnancy trap is the point of origin of the series’ conflict between the Dark Lord and the Chosen one may seem preposterous. How can a person who does not come on stage until book six of seven be the beginning?
First, because, as we’ll see in a moment, Voldemort’s conception, birth, and childhood were what made him the psychopathic monster he was. Rowling is explicit on this point with respect to his conception:
Ravleen: How much does the fact that voldemort was conceived under a love potion have to do with his nonability to understand love is it more symbolic
J.K. Rowling: It was a symbolic way of showing that he came from a loveless union – but of course, everything would have changed if Merope had survived and raised him herself and loved him. The enchantment under which Tom Riddle fathered Voldemort is important because it shows coercion, and there can’t be many more prejudicial ways to enter the world than as the result of such a union.2007 Bloomsbury Chat (emphasis added)
The PotterMore page for Merope also points to this “coercion” as being a critical part of the Dark Lord’s inability to love or even to grasp the power of love:
It might be argued that Voldemort grew up devoid of love because his mother died for want of it, and that his father’s love was stolen rather than earned. Perhaps if he’d had any understanding of the difference between genuine love and the kind that you compel, Voldemort might have had a better grasp of its power. ‘The Sad History of Merope Gaunt‘ (emphasis added)
Second, Rowling admitted as early as 1998 after the publication of Chamber of Secrets that she had the entire series plotted in some detail:
I: Did you know when you were writing Book 2 that Harry Potter would continue?
JKR: Yeah, I’d always .. from … almost from the start I’d envisioned it as a seven book series which would see him through wizard school and then he’d be a fully qualified wizard at the end of it. That was the big story … Harry qualifies as a wizard, you see. And there was another bigger plot that was going on but I can’t really talk about because it will ruin in for people who will read all the books. All of them were plotted in quite a lot of detail already. Which obviously made it easier in a way. It wasn’t as though I had to go back and think what’s the next book about – I already knew.
I: So the seven book cycle of stories is already written in your head.
JKR: Oh yeah, bits of all the books, bar five, book five is still the sketchiest of the lot, so if people are waiting longer for five than any of the others that’s why. ‘You heard it here first.’ Bits of all the other books, except five, are written already and the final chapter of book seven is written. For my own satisfaction, so I’m constantly reminded what I’m aiming for.
I: So the end is written?
JKR: Yeah, the very, very end is written. (Rowling’s 1998 ITN Interview)
As those who have studied the structure of Rowling’s novels and her series will tell you, though Merope does not enter the story line until Dumbledore takes Harry into the Pensieve to visit the nightmare Gaunt home in Little Hangleton, her storyline, which is the beginning and in large part the cause of the Dark Lord, is present as soon as Voldemort is mentioned with dread by Professor McGonagall on Privet Drive in Philosopher’s Stone‘s first chapter.
It would be very difficult, consequently, to overstate the importance of Merope Gaunt’s Pregnancy Trap for Thomas Riddle, pere. Without it, there is no Lord Thingy and without him, the Potter novels have no conflict or meaning.
Having established its centrality, let’s review the textual revelation of that Pregnancy Trap in Half-Blood Prince. The relatively short course in that is in the brief discussion between Dumbledore and Harry after meeting the Gaunts and the even briefer discussion after Harry learns about Merope’s New Year’s Day birth-giving and demise. We’ll start with that Prince Post Pensieve chat:
‘Very good indeed,’ said Dumbledore, beaming. ‘Yes, that was Tom Riddle Senior, the handsome Muggle who used to go riding past the Gaunt cottage and for whom Merope Gaunt cherished a secret, burning passion.’
‘And they ended up married?’ Harry said in disbelief, unable to imagine two people less likely to fall in love.
‘I think you are forgetting,’ said Dumbledore, ‘that Merope was a witch. I do not believe that her magical powers appeared to their best advantage when she was being terrorised by her father. Once Marvolo and Morfin were safely in Azkaban, once she was alone and free for the first time in her life, then, I am sure, she was able to give full rein to her abilities and to plot her escape from the desperate life she had led for eighteen years.
‘Can you not think of any measure Merope could have taken to make Tom Riddle forget his Muggle companion, and fall in love with her instead?’
‘The Imperius Curse?’ Harry suggested. ‘Or a love potion?’
‘Very good. Personally, I am inclined to think that she used a love potion. I am sure it would have seemed more romantic to her and I do not think it would have been very difficult, some hot day, when Riddle was riding alone, to persuade him to take a drink of water. In any case, within a few months of the scene we have just witnessed, the village of Little Hangleton enjoyed a tremendous scandal. You can imagine the gossip it caused when the squire’s son ran off with the tramp’s daughter Merope….
‘And Merope? She … she died, didn’t she? Wasn’t Voldemort brought up in an orphanage?’
‘Yes, indeed,’ said Dumbledore. ‘We must do a certain amount of guessing here, although I do not think it is difficult to deduce what happened. You see, within a few months of their runaway marriage, Tom Riddle reappeared at the manor house in Little Hangleton without his wife. The rumour flew around the neighbourhood that he was talking of being “hoodwinked” and “taken in”. What he meant, I am sure, is that he had been under an enchantment that had now lifted, though I daresay he did not dare use those precise words for fear of being thought insane. When they heard what he was saying, however, the villagers guessed that Merope had lied to Tom Riddle, pretending that she was going to have his baby, and that he had married her for this reason.’
‘But she did have his baby.’
‘But not until a year after they were married. Tom Riddle left her while she was pregnant.’
‘What went wrong?’ asked Harry. ‘Why did the love potion stop working?’
‘Again, this is guesswork,’ said Dumbledore, ‘but I believe that Merope, who was deeply in love with her husband, could not bear to continue enslaving him by magical means. I believe that she made the choice to stop giving him the potion. Perhaps, besotted as she was, she had convinced herself that he would by now have fallen in love with her in return. Perhaps she thought he would stay for the baby’s sake. If so, she was wrong on both counts. He left her, never saw her again, and never troubled to discover what became of his son.’ (Prince, 212-214, bold emphasis added)
Love potions are commonplaces in the Wizarding World. Molly Weasley used one back in the day and Romilda Vane tried to capture Harry’s affections that way, too. By definition, a love potion is “coercive” but it does not constitute a “trap.” When one escapes the effects of the potion, it is no longer the cause of one’s actions. Tom Riddle’s escape from Merope reflects that fact.
She did not release him until she was pregnant with his child, because she felt that, even among Muggles (per the Little Hangleton No-Maj assumptions of what happened), Riddle would feel obliged which is to say “trapped,” by the child of his that Merope was carrying.
Marvolo’s daughter, sadly, was wrong in this assumption. Riddle escapes her pregnancy trap and she is left with the womb-child and without a husband. What is to prevent her from moving forward in this condition, as unfortunate as it was?
‘But she could do magic!’ said Harry impatiently. ‘She could have got food and everything for herself by magic, couldn’t she?’
‘Ah,’ said Dumbledore, ‘perhaps she could. But it is my belief – I am guessing again, but I am sure I am right – that when her husband abandoned her, Merope stopped using magic. I do not think that she wanted to be a witch any longer. Of course, it is also possible that her unrequited love and the attendant despair sapped her of her powers; that can happen. In any case, as you are about to see, Merope refused to raise her wand even to save her own life.’
‘She wouldn’t even stay alive for her son?’
Dumbledore raised his eyebrows.
‘Could you possibly be feeling sorry for Lord Voldemort?’
‘No,’ said Harry quickly, ‘but she had a choice, didn’t she, not like my mother –’
‘Your mother had a choice, too,’ said Dumbledore gently. ‘Yes, Merope Riddle chose death in spite of a son who needed her, but do not judge her too harshly, Harry. She was greatly weakened by long suffering and she never had your mother’s courage. And now, if you will stand …’ (Prince, 262)
Harry learns about Voldemort’s birth and his mother’s death in Prince’s chapter 13, which Irvin K has established is the critical point in every Potter novel. In Prince, chapter 13 is Harry and Dumbledore in the Pensieve meeting the young Voldemort (and the younger Dumbledore).
‘Now, as it happens, she did,’ said Mrs Cole, who seemed to be rather enjoying herself now, with the gin in her hand and an eager audience for her story.
‘I remember she said to me, “I hope he looks like his papa,” and I won’t lie, she was right to hope it, because she was no beauty – and then she told me he was to be named Tom, for his father, and Marvolo, for her father – yes, I know, funny name, isn’t it? We wondered whether she came from a circus – and she said the boy’s surname was to be Riddle. And she died soon after that without another word.
‘Well, we named him just as she’d said, it seemed so important to the poor girl, but no Tom nor Marvolo nor any kind of Riddle ever came looking for him, nor any family at all, so he stayed in the orphanage and he’s been here ever since.’ (Prince, 266)
This is Rowling’s first and foundational Pregnancy Trap, with which all the others will be compared and contrasted. Note that the woman here tries to win her man by sex which results in a pregnancy for which he is responsible. The man balks and escapes the trap via a simple refusal to accept paternity. The child lives, but has something of a “half-life” because he can neither love another person nor accept love, not to mention even understanding it. The mother dies.
In review, then:
- a Pregnancy Trap, Merope Gaunt’s for Tom Riddle, Sr., is the foundation event of the Harry Potter series. It can be argued (because it is obviously true) that the cause of that event were the psychological and physical abuse of Merope by her father Marvolo and brother Morphin which makes that the foundation crime of the series. The Trap, however, is what conceives the Dark Lord coercively and its failing to work creates the psychopathic child and wizard — and the death of Merope;
- The textual evidence for this are in Half-Blood Prince and are corroborated in Rowling’s interviews on the subject; and
- The characteristics of this Pregnancy Trap, the first in the Golden Thread of traps that run through almost every Rowling-Galbraith series and story, are a woman from a background of abuse tries to escape her nightmare by having sex coercively with a man unaware of her intentions in order to become pregnant which obliges him to marry the child’s mother.
The next post in this series will be about the Pregnancy Traps of Casual Vacancy. See you then!
JKR planned the failed Merope Gaunt pregnancy trap way before she published HP6. The planning was so detailed that, mythologically (from Greek mythology, JKR nailed the failure in place by naming the Gaunt daughter “Merope”. Voldemort never had a chance at a good life because he’s part of one of JKR’s Greek tragic figures. And, as Merope’s son, Tom is as tied to Artemis as is Robin Ellicott.
According to Wikipedia, Merope is one of the seven Pleiades sisters, virgin companions to Artemis. Merope, being the faintest star in the Pleiades constellation, is the only sister who married a mortal and so became a mortal. (In one account, Merope is ashamed because she had an affair with a mortal.) So, you ask, why didn’t Merope Gaunt Riddle use magic to save herself after she married the lord of the manor’s son? Maybe she couldn’t because she wasn’t a witch anymore. (It didn’t help that she was eighteen and had had an abusive father and brother.) She herself had become a mortal, mythologically speaking.