Chapter 10 in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is entitled "The House of Gaunt". This brief assignment is to explain the significance of this chapter in context of the entire book, so that is what I shall endeavour to do. Thankfully, I still have the copy of the book from the library for another few weeks before Madam Pince takes it back. Or I shall just have to request to borrow it again.
Upon reading this chapter when I first read the book, I had no idea of the connection and the significance it had with the rest of the series as a whole.
This chapter begins with Ron, Harry and Hermione arguing over the possible identity of the mysterious Half-Blood Prince when Harry finds out he is going to be late for his lesson with Dumbledore. When he arrives at Dumbledore's office, the Headmaster explains to Harry that they will be finding out as much as they can about Voldemort's past... and that much of this is going to be guesswork along the way. To piece together the information, Dumbledore uses memories and the Pensieve.
They proceed to enter into the memory of Bog Ogden, a Ministry worker who worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. They follow Ogden to a mysterious house in Little Hangleton. It is interesting to note that the house appears to be deserted and in very poor shape; perhaps a parallel can be drawn between this house and the outside of Spinner's End. (Speculation: This might be part of what drew Snape towards Voldemort as a teenager.)
A second point of interest is the snake on the door and the fact that Bob Ogden cannot understand Marvolo and Morfin speak to one another. Since they are descendents of Salazar Slytherin - as stated later in the chapter - they both have the ability to speak Parseltongue and Merope can at least understand it (I don't recall her ever speaking it). Though they are not the "typical pure-blood" family that many readers think of when someone mentions "pureblood" (ie, the Malfoys and the Blacks would both be "typical"), there is strong evidence that Marvolo hates Muggles, as he screams at Merope and calls her a dirty Squib when she doesn't use her wand to repair a broken pot.
Third point of interest is when we see the tension between the Gaunt family. Merope has seen Tom Riddle, Sr. out the window and stares longingly after him. He's handsome and like any other teenaged girl, she's attracted to this. However, he is also a Muggle; both her father and brother view it as an abomination and disgrace for her to even glance at him. This goes back to the original reason for Ogden's visit (and hence the memory). Morfin, the brother, planted a nasty hex on Tom, which is against the law. The memory itself ends when Ogden leaves, running for his life.
When Dumbledore and Harry are back at the Castle, Harry finds out that Merope was Voldemort's mother and she bewitched Tom Riddle, Sr. to fall in love with her. Unfortunately Tom abandoned Merope and she died after giving birth to Voldemort, so he was raised in an orphanage. We also find out that the ring that Dumbledore now has in his possession once belonged to the Gaunt family... and so did Salazar Slytherin's locket. The latter would make sense, seeing as how Voldemort is the heir of Slytherin (Chamber of Secrets). Likely Tom Riddle's abandonment of Merope fueled the hatred Voldemort had towards Muggles and Muggle-borns even more.
* Voldemort, Severus Snape and Harry are all half-bloods. Snape and Voldemort both end up in Slytherin and the Sorting Hat wanted to put Harry there.
* Interesting to note that both Snape and Voldemort tried to hide their Muggle heritage. Some of this may have to do with being in Slytherin (a survival tactic!), but it would also be reasonable to assume that both wanted acceptance amongst their peers and the only way either of them saw to go about that was to adopt the "pure-blood superiority".
* Voldemort's mother (Merope), Snape and Harry all grew up in homes that had some degree of unfair mistreatment present. From chapter 10, the violence in the Gaunt household is obvious. Mr. Snape appears to have been abusive to his wife and Severus unable to stop it. Harry was underfed and pushed out of the way by the Dursley family.
* This chapter begins the "guesswork" that Dumbledore and Harry go through, setting the tone for the rest of the book, including the memory with Slughorn and the Horcrux that RAB (Regulus Black?) destroyed with the help of Kreacher.
Though this chapter does not appear to be directly connected to the rest of the book, it is an integral part to the entire series and tells much of the background that is necessary to understand the relationships involving Voldemort. In order to understand someone, it is important to know as much about that person's past as possible because people - even Voldemort - are motivated by what has happened to them before. And Voldemort is extremely important for Harry Potter to understand because of the prophecy of neither one can live while the other survives. So, in order to live, Harry basically has to kill Voldemort...
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