A Dark Mark thought - Glasses

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 16064

lea.macleod wrote:

>I think JKR will want her readers to appreciate, through the eyes of 
>Harry, this heroism. But that will not be possible if Snape´s mistake 
>(e.g. joining the DE in the first place) can´t be forgiven. And his 
>mistake getting him in the end anyway WILL mean that there can be no 
>forgiving and no atonement.

His mistake might be irremediable (word?) and still forgivable.  He 
can't escape the consequences of his decision, but he can at least do 
what he can to save the rest of the world from Voldemort.  Helping to 
bring about V's downfall when he knows it would cause his own would be 
the ultimate atonement.  Like Ellidyr in The Black Cauldron.  (We 
don't know =what= Snape has to atone for.  Did he ever kill anyone, 
torture anyone, . . . ?)  

Amanda, I think it's a great as well as a chilling theory.  The only 
flaw I can see in it is the fact that Dumbledore, for one, has said 
flat-out that Voldemort can't be killed (PS/SS 17).  But I still see 
wiggle room there; there might be some way he could be 
all-but-destroyed, as he was before.

Dave wrote:

>Well, I've already commented on my theory that Salazaar Slytherin 
cursed
>all decendants of Goderic Gryiffindor so that they need glasses, and 
that
>the curse will break when Harry vanquishes V (after which he will no 
longer
>need glasses!).  But this is all wild speculation on my part... I do 
think 
>Harry's glasses are significant, however.  (Note too that most of the 
spectacle-wearing
>people whose house we know -- Harry, James, Percy, McGonnegal -- are 
all
>Gryffindors.)

Dumbledore and Arthur, also (my nitpicker's warning system says:  we 
don't know whether McGonagall was in Gryffindor as a student--but I 
say Head of House is close enough to qualify).  Now I'm trying 
to think whether we know =any= characters who wear glasses who aren't 
known to be in Gryffindor.

I interpret JKR's comment differently.  Giving her hero glasses is a 
metaphorical way of saying that he is human, flawed, and vulnerable.  
For an illustrator to leave them out is like drawing Harry with big 
biceps.  His vulnerability is essential to who he is and what the 
books are about.

But she =could= be hinting that there's more to his glasses than that. 
 We know (because JKR told us, curse her! -it would have surprised me 
utterly) that there's a magical significance to the similarity between 
Lily's and Harry's eyes.

Amy Z

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 "Very haunted up here, isn't it?" said Ron, 
 with the air of one commenting on the weather.
                 -HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban
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