dickgrayson’s notes on tom riddle

(this is part of a assignment that was already stamped and graded, it’s gone through turn it in and it’s signed copyright to me so don’t even think about it)

Julia Kristeva uses the term ‘abject’ to refer to a “breakdown in meaning” [2] caused by human reactions of disgust, nausea, the expulsion of bodily fluids which are accountable to a loss of distinction occurring between the subject and object, between which, abjection lies. That which is abject is neither a subject nor an object, it is that which separates us as an individual – “how can I be without a border?” [3] – The me who is not me. The abject defines borders and boundaries and according to Kristeva, without the abject we cannot function as individuals. Tom rejects the Muggle (someone without magical ability) side of himself (through his non-magical father) in adolescence, as this complicates and threatens his singular identity as a powerful wizard. Whilst at school, he abandons his “filthy Muggle father’s name” [4] to become the powerful Lord Voldemort. This is the catalyst for Tom completely rejecting his non-magical origins and allows him to migrate into his own exclusively despicable and untouchable cast of wizardry.

Muggle is a term associated with that which is lesser within the text’s diegesis. Those of exclusively magical ancestry (purebloods) discriminate against those of ambiguous magical descent as they believe them to be undeserving of the ability to practice magic. This becomes most apparent through the derogatory, racial slur ‘Mud-blood’, denoting those of ‘filthy blood.’ This terminology is adopted by Pureblood supremacists in the novels, with the intent of antagonising Muggle-born witches and wizards who they deem to be of a lower social stratification than themselves.

This corresponds with Kristeva’s theory that puts forth the idea, “It is not lack of cleanliness or health that causes abjection but what disturbs identity, system, order.” [5] This is certainly applicable when considering Muggle-borns in Potter, as they disturb the status-quo of wizarding society. Where we have the Kristevan “body proper”[6] which denotes the pure, clean – ideal - body, we also have the impure body; the unclean, the dirty. Kristeva identifies taboos that exist surrounding bodily fluids such as blood and excrement.

“A wound with blood and pus, or the sickly, acrid smell of sweat, of decay, does not signify death. […] These bodily fluids, this defilement, this shit are what life withstands, hardly and with difficulty on the part of death. There I am at the border of my condition as a living being.”[7]

At the time of Kristeva’s key publication in 1980, AIDs was rapidly becoming recognised as a new disease[8] in epidemiology, transmitted by bodily fluids such as semen and blood causing fatal deterioration of the body. There was a societal stigma attached to bodily fluids at the time because of this growing pandemic. Kristeva explains that when we experience abjection through encounters of bigotry and racial prejudice, we are able to establish a division between the subject (person) and the object (words of racial terror) to express disgust and horror as a response. This example correlates with the blood prejudices expressed in the Potter novels. In Potter, anxiety exists concerning coagulation of magical and non-magical – dirty - blood as it produces a binary identity – between that which is magical and that which is not. A witch or wizard from mixed-magical parentage – a half-blood like Tom - disturbs the Kristevan social order thus, a muggle-born from a non-magical parentage is even more threatening in the eyes of Pureblood radicals.

Tom radically attempts to decree blood supremacy in the wizarding community in adulthood through his new identity as Lord Voldemort, despite his magically conflicted ancestry. Following the discovery of his descent from Salazar Slytherin, Tom sheds the skin of his orphaned upbringing to become his singular, sole-surviving Heir. He also inherits the rare ability to converse with serpents - a hereditary language passed through Slytherin’s bloodline – thus, it has a terrifying taboo attached to it.

“‘So?’ said Harry. ‘I bet loads of people here can do it.’ ‘Oh no they can’t,’ said Ron. ‘It’s not a very common gift. Harry, this is bad’”.[9]

This taboo is attributed to Slytherin’s controversially repugnant opinion that only those of purely magical origin should have been permitted to attend Hogwarts, causing his ostracising by their fellow Hogwarts founders. Therefore, the serpent becomes a powerful symbol for abjection and degradation which shall be expanded upon when we come to examine the Chamber of Secrets as being a significant site of abjection within the text. Tom eventually detaches himself wholly from his mortality when he performs the taboo magical ritual of splitting his soul to create a Horcrux (a dark object in which a witch or wizard conceals a part of their soul meaning they cannot die by natural means) to become wholly impenetrable and superior to all wizard-kind.

[…]

The site of Tom’s ancestral tomb, the ‘Chamber of Secrets’ functions as a significant insignia of his broken identity and solidifies Tom’s necessary moment of abjection (in which he is separated from the maternal) is his discovery that he is the Heir of Salazar Slytherin. However, this can only be assured in the child’s assimilation of language, which is confirmed in Potter as Riddle Jr. can speak Parseltongue (the language of serpents - that of his symbolic father Salazar Slytherin). It also stimulates the abandonment of his Muggle father’s name in favour of his symbolic father. Dumbledore refers to Tom as being “obsessed with his parentage”[31] and Riddle’s insistence that his mother cannot possibly be of magical origin – [“It must have been him”][32] - fuels a superficial image of the dominant father which ultimately when proven false, provokes significant trauma in Tom.