Last night I went to a book discussion at B&N (so cool!) and someone mentioned voldemort's youthful appearance. They guessed that Voldy must be around 50 but looks very good for his age.

So I was thinking that splitting his soul must have something to do with it. Instead of looking older, he just looks maimed or disfigured and creature-like (a snake).

And that reminded of me all the plastic surgery I see on TV. Many men & women dont want to look older so their faces (after face lifts and the like) started to look weird & disfigured instead of aged.

I wonder if Jo meant for one to represent those other. Could it be that those individuals in real life who get plastic surgery in order to stop the aging process are like Voldemort trying to stop death? Getting older is associated with death later on, right?

Umm--at what point does Voldythingy look good for his age?
As Tom Riddle he was a handsome boy, but his appearance gradually began to deteriorate as he became more evil.
The reincarnated Voldemort looks exactly like what he is--a monster.

Well, there is a pc game where the character has the choise to choose between noble and evil actions. There is a meter which measures his actions, and according to this meter the character is believed to be either good or bad. This character's appearence depends on his actions, and based on them he looks either angelic and handsome or demonic and weird, with red eyes e.t.c.
My point is that this reminds me a bit of LV. Apart from the many horcruxes that broke LV's soul into pieces, which probably affected his appearence, his evil actions might have also played some role. And actually that's all the symbolism I've got....I don't really think it has to do with JK's attitude towards plastic surgery.Altough what you suggested about LV wanting to stop death makes sense....
Just a thought.

Erm I'm not sure really, I think it depends on how you imagine him, though general old age wrinkles are never mentioned in the books.

Dumbledore I think looked younger than he was for quite a while to actually. After all in the memory at the orphanage, Dumbledore would be around 70 and his hair had not lost it's colour yet. Wizards do generally have longer life expectancies than muggles. Not sure by how much but I imagine middle age for some wizards would be around 50 I think if not older in some cases. So you would generally expect they would stay in better shape for longer.

Even Hagrid who is n his 60’s seems to be doing pretty good… though it’s hard to tell with the face full of hair. Face or not though he’s in pretty good shape, though that may also be to do with the giants blood and the wizard blood as a combination.
How old are Mr and Mrs Weasley anyway, there older than Lupin and Snape by possibly a decade if not a little more… that would make them around 50ish then.

Slughorn is defiantly getting on in years and from his conversation with Dumbledore and the memory I think it’s fair to say he’s into his 100’s. And still getting around pretty well for someone who wants to go into retirement.

Oh then there was examiner that was around when Dumbledore was in School, that would make him around 170 probably older (wow much). Looking old but still getting around hehe.

By the end of HBP, Voldemort is around 70 years of age, which in Muggle years would probably make him physically 35 or 40 or thereabouts. If he hadn't killed his looks, he'd probably still be a handsome man.

It's not so much the evil that has killed his looks, it's the Horcrux making. As far back as the incident with Hepzibah Smith, his eyes had that red gleam to them. And there are the other immortality experiments which he performed that we don't know about. Who knows what else that did to him?

Yes, this is the age I thought LV was as well.

I don't think this was an intentional allusion on Jo's part, but it is a very interesting parallel that I hadn't considered before

I definitely think that gerascophobia (an abnormal and persistent fear of growing old) stems, as you said, from a fear of mortality. Efforts to reverse the aging process are longstanding, as aging and frailty are often considered signs of weakness as well as steps closer to death. I think both the disfigurement from plastic surgery and LV's magical efforts to defy death, do consistently show that neither magic nor science can truly conquer nature, despite humans' best efforts.

I agree with Hi_Ginny that beyond LV's efforts to attain immortality altering his appearence, his evil actions and disposition in general towards others, I think could produce a similar result. It's like Roald Dahl says at the beginning of "The Twits"

Wow...LV about 70 years old? Doesnt he think he is alittle old to be trying to kill an 18 year old and trying to take over the world

You're right, age is the reason he shoudn't have done those things! LOL

I agree with Arianhrod. It isnt evil actions. Bear in mind some of the DEs were said to be almost as evil as Voldy and they werent disfigured etc. Bella was gaunt looking because of her time in Azzy, otherwise she would have retained the Black family good looks like Sirius n been a PRETTY evil DE:P
Its simply voldy's dark arts experiments and horcruxes that marred him. I also think he may have MADE HIMSELF look snake like and evil to be more intimidating, cuz lets face it, he loves snakes and slythie. What better way to pay them tribute than look like them?

His fear of death is one thing, and seperate, I think, from the issue of plastic surgery. I've always considered plastic surgery in contemporary culture to have slightly less to do with a fear of death than with an obsession of appearance and placing a heavy emphasis on finding one's personal value through one's appearance. I think Jo makes it obvious that she feels this should not be the case, but I don't think LV's physical transformation is related.

I'd say that is more directly related to his loss of humanity. As he destroys his soul and becomes less and less human and more and more monster, his appearance changes to reflect this transition.

It's interesting to note that his appearance becomes less human as he loses his humanity, when some of the most 'human' characters in the book (such as Dobby) are not human. Creatures like centaurs and goblins are every bit as sentient and intelligent as human beings. Centaurs, goblins, and house-elves display many different aspects of 'humanity' and deserve to be treated with equal respect.
And yet here's LV, who was & technically probably even with horcruxes still should be considered, human, shows no trace of humanity. I'd say it goes back to highlighting the element of choice. Yet I still find it interesting that in his case loss of human appearance is associated with loss of humanity, and yet in other cases - centaurs, goblins, house-elves, and mer-people as well - they are distinctly NOT biologically 'human' and yet display much more of what we'd call 'humanity.'

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At the risk of going off on another tangent, in my humble opinion it's important to point out here that *plastic surgery* is a very generic term.
Cosmetic surgery is part of today's culture, in order to look younger, more attractive, just like dressing young. No one wants to be told that they look old, they'd much rather hear that they look young, or good for their age. Some people take this to extremes just in an effort to look younger, and oftentimes just look ... weird.
Reconstructive surgery is also a part of plastic surgery, needed as a result of an accident or assault, resulting in disfigurement.

While I dont think that LV had cosmetic surgery, or that (most) people that have cosmetic surgery belive it will keep death away, I do think that LV would have believed that looking younger than his age would in some way be cheating death or defying death. His whole raison d'etre, his whole *life*, was taken up by his consuming obsession to cheat death. I dont think he ever looked good, not as a young man or as snake-face. But, maybe he appeared younger or more attractive to himself, which he'd probably have gotten a kick out of, because anything that he felt defied death he probably thought added to the general thing of keeping death at bay.

Like sourringo said, LV is probably the least *human* of any character and this is reflected in his appearance.
Possibly having reptilian features could make a human appear to have had cosmetic surgery gone wrong (no offense to snakes implied) and thus by default appear to be an attempt to look younger.
I think if LV had been presented with the option of cosmetic surgery he would have taken it because he believed that superficial magic tricks could cheat death. And, he was probably obsessed enough to believe that looking younger actually made him younger ergo less close to death.

Cosmetic surgery is a very broad term, as you said 'Moose_Starr' it includes reconstructive surgical procedures and also I was surprised to be told by a friend, some forms of dental surgery. She was told she needed braces but her health insurance didn't cover it because it is classified as "cosmetic", so we are looking at it in a very limited context, but I do still see links between it and LV's quest for immortality.

Although many cosmetic surgery procedures are geared towards attaining a commonly perceived and often stereotypical standard of beauty, a great number are in defiance of aging such as chemical peels or botox for wrinkles etc.This is cheating the natural progression of time, just like attempting to defy death is an attempt to cheat the natural process of time.


This is actually a varying issue. Many teenagers and children(well girls at least) spend huge amounts of time and effort to look older. By 18(or 21 whichever one you reach legal adulthood at) this wears off until about age 25 where the focus turns to looking younger. This last's until about....70 according to the adults I know, who say their parents(well mothers actually ) start boasting about their age by this stage. I know my nana is an example of this I'm not sure what this says about us as people, but it's definitely something I've observed.

Very true, young teens want to look older, and elders are oftentimes proud of their age. lol, so many times I meet someone or am introduced to someone and instead of them saying *Hi how are you* or whatever, it's like *I'm 79 did you know?*

But, in the context of LV, I would guess that he doesnt want to brag about how old he is but rather how powerful and strong he is. Not that I'm implying that elders can not be strong or powerful but, in LVs case he probably would want to defy age because age is a marker of life (and death) and in the immortality quest, it's probably an inconvenience.
Sure, when we think of DD being over 100 years old (or however old he really was) we think that's some kind of wonderful, to be so old and strong, we look at his age with reverance and awe. But I somehow dont think that LV would think of it like that, it would too much a mortal thing, whereas he considered himself immortal and above mere facts of age, maybe.

Does Rowling take the mickey out of people who undergo plastic surgery?

Voldemort has never shown any interest in women (or men), so good looks (or looking younger) can't possibly be on his agenda. (What FOR?) He has snakelike features because he lived on snake venom for a long time, I think. It's a magical world, so it could be that the venom has seeped into his genes. He surely doesn't intend to look like that. He is simply afraid of dying. I can understand that a lot and I feel great pity with that poor, scared, neurotic creature - and also with people who have plastic surgery. (Like all the Hollywood actresses who surely don't want to have surgery but they have to.)

Great theory!