Authority and rule-breaking
lea.macleod at gmx.net
lea.macleod at gmx.net
Tue Apr 10 10:15:24 UTC 2001
No: HPFGUIDX 16235
Thanks everyone for reading through (I just realised it´s awfully
long) and replying to my message!
Catherine wrote:
What about fairness and justice? Snape finds
it extremely unfair that James and Harry, who are (or were) so
popular, should get away with so much. This much is clear. What
concerns me about his pre-occupation with rules and justice is that
in a way, it flies out of the window when Harry is concerned. He
uses it as a camouflage for needlessly punishing Harry and his
friends. Does Snape think that he is redressing the balance? There
are numerous occasions when Harry is treated very unfairly by Snape,
and I feel that if Snape was so rigorously concerned with rules,
rather than just trying to get his own back, he would not behave in
such a way.
In answer to that: People with an extraordinary sense of authority and
rule-keeping do not necessarily have a good sense of justice and
fairness, too... they more often tend not to see beyond the rules. On
the contrary, their concept will only make sense to them if they don´t
accept anything beyond the rules. They will not allow the rules to be
modified by higher principles such as equity, or justice, or fairness.
So whenever Snape treats Harry unfairly, it does make sense for him,
because Snape himself keeps within the rules all the time.
As a teacher, he does have the competence to deal out detentions -
with a liberal amount of discretion, juristically speaking.
When it comes to more than just detentions, Snape never decides
anything *ultra vires* (apologies for the lawyer
slang). The worst thing ha can do to Harry is to go and take him to
Dumbledore.
"Unfortunately, the decision to expell you does not rest with me. I
will leave that to those people who have that happy power"
(paraphrase).
I will make an exception for Snape´s threatening Harry with the
Veritaserum, though.
That would really be ultra vires. But Snape wasn´t speaking as Harry´s
teacher there, but as the victim of an intrusion into his most
personal affairs (his office), and therefore acting more or less in
self-defence, not in abuse of authority.
So much for the justice and fairness thought.
Lyda wrote:
Anyone in the Snapefans eGroup has already heard me discuss on this
topic. :)
--------------
Oh I´m sorry, Lyda. I didn´t want to steal your theory.
I hope you´re not going to sue me for copyright violation on this
theory :-), which you probably won´t be very successful at anyway,
unless you had the term "Snape" trademarked sometime back in the
eighties... :-)
I didn´t know about the Snapefans eGroup. I´ll be VERY happy to have
someone point me the way there, though...
Lyda continues:
Severus is a man who will not tolerate defiance of his authority. He
also dislikes seeing weakness in others who have authority, which
would explain his polite critisism of Dumbledore when he feels that
the "Headmaster" is being to lenient. I think that certain weakness
is another characteristic that Snape severly denounces and cannot
tolerate, in himself and in others.
It is my belief that he sees the defiance of authority that so marked
James' (and now Harry's) character as a type of weakness; he views it
as weak and dishonorable of a person to not show proper respect to
authority, and even worse when the person is still rewarded for their
abject disregard for the rules which so govern Severus' life.
--------------------------
That´s very well put. However, I do not agree that Snape disliked
James as a weak person, but I hold that he disliked him for putting
Snape in a weak position, by saving his life although they were
enemies. I mean, is there a thing more morally heroic that saving your
enemy´s life? It´s so great it will hardly ever be possible for Snape
to set the balance right again. I think he tried in HPPS by saving
Harry but realised that didn´t "help" him.
He will forever be in debt of James and therefore in the weaker
position, all the more because he´s in debt of a rule-breaker, one
that he should be superior to by rights. And for a person with Snape´s
pride, that´s hard to bear.
Lyda says:
However, I also have another personal and completely unfounded reason
for Snape's utter loathing of Harry, but that is for another time
and another post. :)
------------
I´m DYING to know!!!
--- , Margaret Dean <margdean at e...> wrote (obviously on a Sunday)
> And it made me realize Snape is a> "Pharisee." He's the kind of
person you're always running into> in the Gospels, saying, "What kind
of Messiah is this, who keeps
> breaking the Sabbath and a bunch of other rules and hanging out
> with tax collectors and sinners?"
>
> The rift between Snape and the Potters (senior and junior) is the
> rift between the "children of legality" and the "children of
> grace," between people who follow rules and people who find
> themselves performing spontaneous acts of love and valor (like
> befriending a werewolf or facing down the Big V. over the Mirror
> of Erised).
>
> But the thing about the Law (I'm speaking from a Christian
> perspective here, of course) is that, while it is good in itself,
> =it can't save you.= Only the acceptance of grace can do that.
> And I wonder if Our Severus will one day find himself facing that
> particular choice.
---------------
Although I tend to be careful seeing Christian (or Jewish) imagery in
Harry Potter ( I think the background is humanist, but secular), that
sounds good. Snape as a Pharisee...
But I must say I don´t agree. Snape is not a Child of Legality. He is
a Child of Chaos, whatever happened in his past, and resorted to rules
and rigidity not because that was the only thing he knew and was
used to (as it is with the Pharisees) but because that was all that
was left to him.
He HAS experienced grace already. By right he should be rotting in
Azkaban. He´s just not ready yet to accept grace as the driving force
behind all. He still sees his dependance on grace as a weakness
imposed on and not as a favour granted to him. That is what I hope he
will learn ere the end.
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