The Harry Potter<\/i> series boasts a lot of baddies, but the worst member of the wizarding world is definitely Lord Voldemort (sorry, sorry, we mean He Who Shall Not Be Named). The Dark Lord \u00a0is so powerful that he’s managed to \u00a0inoculate himself from mortality altogether by way of his array of precious Horcruxes. Some of these things are so yawnworthy \u00a0*CoughGauntsRingCough* that we don’t even get to read about their destruction, but others get way more page play, like the anagrammatic Tom Marvolo Riddle.<\/p>\n
Tom, a manifestation of Voldy in his peak days at Hogwarts that lives in a magic diary, is handsome, charming, highly talented, and totally evil. And we think we know just where J.K. Rowling got her inspiration for him: the equally dubious classic character in \u00a0Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/i>. \u00a0<\/i>Here’s our case for comparison:<\/p>\n Like Tom Riddle, Dorian first \u00a0becomes this \u00a0ageless being thanks to a whispered \u00a0wish-spell that connects him to a thing\u2014in his case, an \u00a0artist’s rendering of himself that will tarnish in his stead\u2014and so long as that device is left intact, his \u201clife\u201d span is infinite.<\/p>\n For Tom, it’s the same story\u2014as long as the magic diary he’s been attached to \u00a0continues to slip under the Hogwarts radar, he’s a forever fella.<\/p>\n Dorian \u00a0and Tom are both painted \u00a0as \u00a0similar portraits \u00a0of intrigue, \u00a0whose external beauty and savvy earn them many fans (and foes). On the inside, though, they’re both rotten hedonists who care \u00a0only about their own eternities and destroy lives in the process.<\/p>\n So, naturally, both of them have used people to get their ways of \u00a0making this arrangement happen, too. With Tom, it was a matter of coaxing out the details of the whys and hows of horcrux magic from his adoring instructor, Professor Slughorn. Likewise, Dorian’s radiance has affected \u00a0Basil the portrait artist so thoroughly that his masterpiece magically becomes an accidental \u00a0conduit for his muse’s everlasting youth.<\/p>\n Throughout the decades of their timelessness, these characters use their longevity of youth and existence for equal ill-doings.<\/p>\n In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets<\/i>, Tom \u00a0Riddle-in-diary-form manages to lure in and possess little \u00a0Ginny Weasley. That’s when he carries out his anti-muggleborn plan of \u00a0unlocking the Chamber and unleashing \u00a0a whole mess of Basilisk attacks on those wizards without pure blood by way of the ancient \u00a0beast’s \u00a0petrification power.<\/p>\n And Dorian’s not much better. He basically spends a full two decades indulging in every vice known to man\u2014breaking innocent hearts, abusing mind-altering substances, and, \u00a0yes, even cold-blooded murder\u2014while the picture bears all the wear of his bad behavior.<\/p>\n Skilled though they are with all their tricksy business, \u00a0each of these guys are eventually found out and suffer similar fates.<\/p>\n In Dorian’s case, the artist whose infatuation with him has started this whole nefarious adventure comes face-to-face with what he’s done\u2014by then, the portrait shows someone unrecognizably hideous and old\u2014so \u00a0Dorian decides to \u00a0takes him down. But Basil’s reaction to the pic gets under his skin. \u00a0Eventually, when \u00a0others start to catch on as well and try to harm him (and discover \u00a0his body is impervious to destruction), Dorian realizes that the \u00a0only thing really holding him back from \u00a0complete invincibility \u00a0is the painting, which acts as a physical tell and a constant source of conscience. So, he tries to rid himself of it with a quick canvas stab, but that violence \u00a0winds up reflecting back on him and destroys him.<\/p>\n Similarly, the source of Tom Riddle’s sorcery is discovered by Harry & Co., just as he’s taken on a \u00a0physical form after possessing Ginny’s soul, and while attacks on Tommy’s pseudo-body aren’t gonna hack it, a shot of Basilisk venom to the book’ll do the trick.<\/p>\n Even Voldemort, whose eternity \u00a0equation Tom Riddle was just a fraction \u00a0of, suffers a Dorian-esque demise. \u00a0He gets hit by his own rebounding curse while trying to destroy the final reminder of his fallibility\u2014Harry Potter himself, the Boy Who Lived through Voldemort’s Attack at Godric’s Hollow.<\/p>\n Have you noticed any other striking similarities between these two characters? \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Harry Potter series boasts a lot of baddies, but the worst member of the wizarding world is definitely Lord Voldemort (sorry, sorry, we mean He Who Shall Not Be Named). The Dark Lord \u00a0is continue reading<\/span>\n
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