[HPforGrownups] Re: Crouch Summary

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 6120


----- Original Message -----
From: "Denise Rogers" <gypsycaine at yahoo.com>
To: <HPforGrownups at egroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2000 8:37 PM
Subject: Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: Crouch Summary


> >
> > Good point.  I guess I dont think of Snape as a tragic character
> > because he is so easy to hate.  To me, a classic tragic character is
> > the one who is beaten down by the tragedies of his life, is
> > overwhelmed by life and by his own fears, and usually reacts in a way
> > which is cowardly.  That is probably all just my own perception,
> > though.

That sounds merely pathetic.  The classic tragic hero - the hero who
bestrides the Greek and the Elizabethan stage like a Colussus - is never
merely pathetic. And certainly is not cowardly. Rather, he (or she) is  a
person of exceptional abilities who Fate or Destiny decrees must undergo
some excruciating test of character.  A tragedy (in the literary sense) does
not necessarily end unhappily (e.g., Aeschylus' Eumenides, Euripedes'
Alcestis), but more often than not end with the destruction of the hero.  In
many cases, the hero's death purges the social environment of its
accumulated evil (eg, Lear, Hamlet); but in others, the tragic hero is
himself the one who introduces the evil and chaotic elements into the system
(eg, Macbeth, Richard III), and must be destroyed to restore the moral
order.

Snape is easy to hate, but so is Richard III - at least, at first blush.
Laurence Olivier once noted that Shakespeare loved R-3, and an actor can
only succeed in the role by recapturing that love.  Same thing with Snape
and JKR  - she is pouring 100% of her literary ability into Severus to
create a complex and imperishable character. ( not to be confused with
creating a perfect character who always does the right thing).

    - CMC