Our Man Snape

[Jinx]

No: HPFGUIDX 1260


> > I agree that he is "allied with the powers of light" but do not agree
> > that that necessarily makes him "Our Man Snape."   What Snape does
> > goes way beyond surliness.  I'm not sure when you starting reading
> > posts so I'll try to summarize shortly.
>
> Oh, I agree absolutely.  In fact, just this week, I wrote almost exactly
the
> same thing to another person on another board who said in passing that
Snape
> was an "excellent" teacher.  As a former teacher myself, I brindled at
> that.  He's a horrible teacher--knows his stuff but is brutal to the
> students--and he's a rotten skunk, and I really wish he'd do something
about
> his halitosis.
>
> The point I was making, and I'll try to explain it again (briefly; I gotta
> get to work) is that as a writer I am really intrigued by what Rowling is
> doing here: I can't think of another fictional character who occupies this
> same fictional niche: Snape somehow or other made a decision that allied
him
> with the good--and Dumbledore, our moral compass vouches for him--but just
> about everything else in his nature seems to ally him with evil.  How can
> that one decision--and we don't yet know what it is--outweigh all his
> horribleness?  How horrible can you be and still be a hero, as long as
> you've got your feet set firmly on one true/good decision?  This is the
> reason why Snape has become such an intriguing character to me.
>
> (Can anyone else think of fictional characters in other books who are in a
> similar position?  I really can't, or at least I can't at this time of the
> morning.)

This is why I like Snape so much - he's so ambiguous and intriguing!  Most
of the other characters, while well developed, are fairly predictable - you
know where you are with them.  Not so Snape.  He's an evil bastard who
appears to be on the side of good, and he's very complex as a character.

"And as a postscript to that, isn't it interesting that the reason
Snape gives for hating Our Heroes are at least based in reality, at
some point.  He claims to hate Harry because he is a show-off and
thinks the rules don't apply to him, and to hate Hermione because she
is an annoying know-it-all.  Well, these are exaggerations, and even
if they weren't they wouldn't justify the way Snape treats them.  But
there is at least a grain of truth in what he says (no, I am not
implying that Harry is a show off in the sense that he craves
attention, but that he always feels like he has to take too much on
himself.  This *is* a character flaw of his,)"

Snape does seem to have a point though - Harry does have a sense that rules
don't apply to him - if you look at him in an unbiased way, he breaks far
more rules than Malfoy does, and gets caught more often.  While Hermione is
very eager to show off her knowledge.  Maybe Snape feels that because the
other teachers all think Harry and his friends are wonderful, and because
Harry is famous, it's his job to make sure Harry doesn't get too full of
himself.

Doesn't excuse Snape's extreme cruelty to Neville though...

I personally think that Snape is on the side of good, despite being a right
bastard.  I also think that there'll be some kind of redemption for Snape
before the end of the series.  Maybe he will save Harry's life, Harry will
save his, Snape will die saving someone's life, or fighting Voldemort, Snape
will fall in love and become nicer for it, or Harry and Snape will find
themselves trapped in some dangerous situation and have to work together to
escape.  Whatever, Snape, or at least his reputation will be improved
somehow.

Jinx