Merope father (Gaunt) was not very kind to her and when i read the book she seem very sacrd of him too.

I agree they treated her like crap, but that was because as a heir of slytherin, muggles and half-breeds are worth nothing. So the fact that she is betraying her blood line by being in love with a muggle is the reason they hate her. ALso, all the men turned out to be wizards, however, the one girl in the family turned out to be a squid, this is a degrading species, they aren't importnat to the wizarding world according to slytherin, They treat her like she was a mistake, a joke.

Wouldn't it be great if she was really alive instead of dead, maybe she could help Harry, that would be cool. But unfortunately I'm sure she is dead.

I think Tom killed his father because he wanted to make sure no one found out that he was a mud-blood, remember he hated muggles and mud-blood wizards/witches, he adopted slytherin's trian of thought on pure-bloods. No one knows that he is a mud-blood except harry, DD and probaly the restof the trio. Merope diminished b/c when she took the spell of of tom riddle senior (her husband) she hoped he would love her no matter what, but this wasn't the case, he fled asap. She was devastated and her health and witch abilities gradually disappeared until she died. I'm not sure if voldy had a hand in morfin's death, but it is possible. If he did, is was probably to protect his claim of being pure-blood, no one alive could know of his ancestery, not even the heirs of slytherin, they may have told anyone for the asking.

Thats all I have

I didn't think she was a squib - I thought she was very powerful, but her powers were affected because she was so unhappy, just like Tonks' were when she was depressed. I haven't gotten to that bit yet though, I'm in the middle of re-reading, so I'm working from memory.

The whole reason Tom was so angry was because she could have saved herself for his sake, but didn't...wasn't it? Ah, I really need to read that bit again...

But yes, I do think she was very badly treated and I felt very sorry for her. I don't suppose you could blame her for more or less giving up when Tom was born...it was really, really sad, that part... Poor Merope...

But I think she's definitely dead - Jo doesn't tend to like the idea of bringing people back once they've kicked the bucket. It defeats the purpose of why they died in the first place.

I agree with Dana_Scully once JK has killed a character she wont really bring them back (other than as ghosts and what ever you called them when they came out of Voldemorts wand in GoF) because this totaly misses the point of why she had them die in the first place.

But back to Merope, I think she was bullied from the moment she could carry pots and cook, Marvollo and Morfin (right spelling?) were just too lazy to cook and clean (if you could call the house clean) and simiply bullied Merope into doing it for them. And because of this bullying she became scared and depressed which affected her powers which Marvollo took for weakness or Squib like ness.

Then finally she gets a break, Both Marvollo and Morfin are taken away to Azkaban and like Dumbledore said Merope was finally free to use her powers as she wanted and not live in any one elses shadow.

Then she used her powers to get somthing (for possibly the first time in her life) that she wanted: Tom Riddle.

However after sometime she stopped using what ever power it was to make Tom love her, and he went back to seeing her as he had always done; as the tramp daughter of a madman, and even though she was pregnat with his baby, he left her.

Merope was now totaly destroyed, she had betrayed the only highly abusive family she had left, who certainly would not take her back after her 'blood tratior' actions, and she had lost the man who she loved and the father of her unborn baby, now the only thing Merope had making her cling to life was the thought that if she died, so did her baby.

However once the baby was born that was it, in her eyes after her egregious (10 points if you know what that means, or if your 'Local') life there was no point left in hanging on, and she died.

I like the rest of you feel very sorry for Merope, and I also think that had she held on to life, had she nurtured Tom Marvollo Riddle and keep him on the path of using his magic only when he should have and not for personal profit, we might not have Voldemort, just a great and extremly good Tom Marvollo Riddle.

Yeah, i felt really bad for her, she seems like a really nice person to, except for the fact that she practically forced Tom Riddle to marry her, but otherwise, she seemed like a good person.

Merope Gaunt was not a squib cuz Dumbledore said that she took control on Tom Riddle Sr. with a love potion and you had to be magic to make a love potion or any potion. So Voldemort is not a mud blood

Whether his mother was magic or not, his father wasa muggle, meaning that he still was not a pureblood, (the only thing worth being according to his own creed.) Sexy-lass you said somewhere that you thought Merope was so miserable because her son turned into Lord Voldemort. Are you thinking that she was still alive when he was in school? Because according to the book and the memories (or Dumbledore's interpretations of the memories) she died when she gave birth to baby Tom. Just wondering, it would be very interesting if it turned out she didn't die at childbirth, but pretty unlikely.

Just to clarify this Merope is not a squib. When her dad said that he was just trying to insult her. When she breaks the pot in front of Ogden her dad yells to fix it so she takes out her wand and the pot shoots away. So she'd have to be a witch for even that to happen. Also I think she could have lived but she really felt like she had nothing more to live for and thats why she didn't save herself if you know what i mean.

Merope and Tonks had something in common. Their powers were affected when they fell in love with men whose feelings were not returned.

Remus did eventually declare his love for Tonks, this enabled Tonks powers to return.

Merope died of a broken heart. Her depression prevented her from fighting for her life and the wellbeing of her newborn son.

I think Merope will play some role in the last book. Maybe Voldamort needs to be forced to face the love his mother never gave him, forcing his powers to be affected. Killing Voldemort and saving Tom Riddle.

I did feel Sorry for her too.......She looked to me, very miserable type of character, I dont know wether she was squib or not but she was obsessed by her Father's and brother's comments. Her father Morvollo didn't know that she was in love with muggle, Gaunt told him, after listening to which she got more scared and her father intended to beat her. But the behaviour of her father was showing that He treated her like this from her childhood. Her father and brother both were seeming to me Psychi, they were poor but they were proud to be descendent of Salazar Sylithrin and didn't do any job!
She was obsessed by all these and she would like to live a free and prosperous life like her neighbour muggles. So, may be she wanted to leave Wizard community and her family. But unfortunately , Tom did'nt like her,( dont know why?). She used Love Potion on him...but why didnt she continued that......why did she let Tom go back......although she became pregnant also!!
I dont know.
May be she think that once getting attention of Tom snr. she can conquer his heart forever, but she was not succeeded.ANd she was tired of doing one sided love , and using Tom for her own will, so she decided to let him go where he want to go, because she loved him truely !!
She didn't get love in her whole life!! For how much time she build her stamina to give love...........so finally she gave up.........even she didn't think about her child......she was so used to be hated that she thought that one day her child would hate her too and she would not bear that.......so she gave up!!!!! ALAS!!!!!
She gave her child his father's name Tom Riddle, so that one day , may be he come back and accept him ........but he didn't, nor did Morvollo.

Father was rather cruel. I don't blame her for leaving him alone-how can he expect her to take care of him after all of that?

But that don't mean I like her-oh no!
She's still seems a bit evil-didn't care about her son.

I don't think that Tom's actions are a case of Detachment and abandonment issues. I think that he is the way he is because it is in his blood. Most of this story talks about teh way you should act because of who and what your heritage, blood line has done for ages. And that it is our choices that make us stray from sterotypical behaviors that are expected of people. HArry chose to go against the slytherin blood in him because of Voldy's powers in him. THe Weasleys are good because they chose to ignore pure-blood superiority, Sirius chose to be with James and Hogwarts and away from his family because he wanted to be good. Tom Marvolo Riddle chose to be a bully in the orphanage to all those kids, TOm chose to kill mudbloods "heir of the noble slytherin, " He chose to create horcruxes to stray away from mortality, and chose to become a murderer. He took diabolical to a whole new level. He chose to hate his mother becuase she was weak and died from mortality.

Merope's story is a saad one, their is no denying that, he powers weren't as evil and adaptive as the rest of her family's, and she loved a muggle, cast a apell on him, had a child and died during child birth, alone and sunk in depression. Yes we should feel sorry for her, she gave birth to satan, when all she wanted was to be loved and have a family. She deserved more, but didn't get it.

Perhaps this story is why Voldy despises love because he knew how it destroyed his mother's life and that he vowed he would never fall into that weakness, and that is why his life started with nothing but hate, but I guess Merope's love influence is one we won't know until the seventh book, if JK decides to explain it.

I felt since the first book like I was like Hermione. I knew I wasnt completely like her and ever since reading HBP I have felt even more like a combonation of Hermione,Merope and Malfoy's charecter in HBP.
I am singled out,bullied and dispised for my intellegence and being different to everyone else because of it. My intellegence has been both a blessing and a curse. Hermione is exceedingly intellegent yet she didnt seem happy until she had friends. Harry and Ron. They stopped her from being miserable. Merope was miserable for being different. Her own family dispised her and she had nobody to turn to. I believed she fell in love with Tom Riddle for one reason. He may have been kind to her once. Maybe something simple like helping her up when she fell over but it mattered greatly. He had shown her kindness when all she had ever faced was cruelty.This however was before he found out who she was. He then didnt bother anymore, even scorning her infront of other people because of her family. But she fell in love. It might just have been an overexcerted feeling of gratitude for showing her a different emotion she had never felt. He showed her a good feeling of gratitude when all she had had before was grief,dispair and hatred.
She went mad with the knowlege of other emotions. After living her terrible life for so long she had found a beacon of light. She reached out for it but didnt reach it. She was pulled back by her cruel father. This drove her to insanity. It wasnt freedom from her father that gave her magical power. It was her insanity. She made a potion and fed it to Tom Riddle Snr.He got her pregnant and her insanity, stopped her from feeding him the potion, sure he would stay with her. She was mistaken. Her insanity caused her to deteriorate and not care for herself. She did not ever show love to Voldemort. She was lucky enough, or unlucky enough, to stay alive for nine months. She gave birth and the effort killed her.
Dispite feeling like her I do not feel sorry for her. For a few reasons
1-She is fictional
2-There are people who have had worse than her
3-Everything happens for a reason. Even I, miserable as I am, feel this way. She was just unlucky

Michelle Dessler, you hit right on what I thought as well. Didn't Dumbledore explain all this in his meetings with Harry? Voldemort's family had a strain of instability in the family. This certainly explains Tom's personality. They all thought they were superior by blood. When they get one normal one (Merope) they scorn and mistreat her. The mistreatment caused emotional problems that interfered with her magical ability.

Voldemort had a chance at a good life. So many circumstances led to his and everyone's misfortune.

Tom killed his father because his father left Merope when she was pregnant. By the way, its Squib not Squid Sexy- lass.

she wasn't that innocent if she didn't do what she did to tom jedusor we wouldn't have to fight the dark lord

Merope does have something likeable about her but maybe its just because those around her are so awful. Do you think she and the Gaunts will be cast in the film?

i hope that the gaunts make it to the movie, as this the very background of Tom Riddle, the part of his life that he was most anxious of erasing, as though there was no Tom Riddle only Lord Voldemort did ever exists. the gaunts are important as to telling the story of voldemort, and to understand why he turned out to be the most feared dark wizard of his days and also to know his past is to know his vulnerabilities.