Snape &Glory?Nope- Snape and Acknowledgement? Yes! (long)

[pigwidgeon37]

No: HPFGUIDX 31034

Tabouli wrote:

>Welll yes, but is Snape really the glory-huntin' type?
>I'm sure he wouldn't turn down an Order of Merlin
>first class if it were offered, but I'm not convinced
>that being liked and admired is high on Snape's
>priority list (compare him with Lockhart, for whom
>this is the most important thing in life!).  He's
>surly and nasty and bad-tempered (not a great way of
>winning admirers and friends), he neglects his
>personal appearance (ditto), and being a spy/double
>agent/whichever he is is by definition a job where he
>has to keep a low profile, lest he gets caught or even
>assasinated by either side.  A difficult, dangerous
>job, but hardly one to win him fame and glory. 
>Respect yes, but hardly glory.  How conclusively would
>you need to win a war for the spy to be safe running
>around with front page praises and garlands round his
>neck?

Thanks to everybody who brings up my favourite subject: Snape's 
twisted personality.
I agree with Tabouli that Snape is NOT the type searching for glory, 
Orders of Merlin of whichever class or other superficial signs of 
fame so treasured by our darling Gilderoy. 
But I think that a person as intelligent as Snape (and I suppose we 
all agree about that particular detail, no matter whether we loathe 
or like him) and so little conceited as he, can't have a very high 
opinion of himself. Let me explain: I think it is sufficiently clear 
that, at least for a certain time, Snape *was* a DE. No way past 
that. Being a DE implies that you have to kill, torture, rape and 
whatever other cruelties come to your mind- somehow, the concept of 
the "Schreibtischtaeter" (wonderful, non-translateable German word 
for the criminal mind who commits his crimes by planning them out at 
his desk, but never takes part actively) doesn't quite fit with LV 
and his merry gang. So I'd say we can take it for granted that Snape 
had his fair share of killing etc.
Now something made him change his mind and (re?)turn to the Good 
Guys, whatever that might have been. Such a change of mind implies 
that he had to feel guilty or even merely disgusted by what he had 
done so far as LV's henchman. I admit that I'm walking on thin ice 
now, for philosophy has never been one of my strong points, but I 
daresay that the feeling of guilt, regardless of religion or faith, 
screams for redemption. The question is, when does a person consider 
him/herself redeemed? I don't think that Snape, once he has realized 
the extent of what he had done, could forgive himself easily.
Another, IMO very important, factor in this process of self-
redemption is forgiveness, Snape has to forgive himself and *others* 
have to forgive him. And here, he doesn't have a very high score. In 
fact, it seems that Dumbledore is the only one to have forgiven and 
to trust him.
Maybe this is going a bit far and a little to fanfictionally, but I'd 
say that, for regaining self-esteem and forgiveness, Snape depends 
entirely on Dumbledore.
OK, now I'm finally coming to the point: Whenever Snape enters into 
confrontation with Harry in the presence of Dumbledore, he loses. Of 
course, he is already prejudiced against Harry, maybe merely because 
Harry is a faithful replica of his best-hated schoolday enemy, maybe 
for other reasons. James Potter had the bonus of being the charming 
golden boy (at least that is what Snape tells us). Harry has the 
double bonus of being the Potters' son AND The Boy Who Lived. What's 
Snape's bonus? Close to zero. Dumbledore's trust in him and that's 
it. And to Snape, it must seem that, albeit D. still trusts him, he 
prefers a boy who continually gets himslef into the most outlandish 
situations, endangering his life, to him. Not an easy thing to 
swallow. And certainly not apt to diminish his prejudice against 
Harry, which, on the contrary, gets stronger each time he "loses" to 
him.

Early morning rant finished. Time to go to work.
Susanna/pigwidgeon37