[HPforGrownups] Character Sketch: Severus Snape

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 12145

Settle back, get some popcorn, they profiled my Favorite Character!

Neil Ward wrote:

> THE NAKED SNAPE

Be honest. You've been simply *dying* to use this title. Any other reason for doing a Snape summary (other than placating me) is fluff. You can tell us; we're your friends....

> There is also the theory that Snape was in love with Lily Potter and tried
> to persuade Voldemort to spare her life.  Since Harry has his mothers eyes,
> he would be a constant reminder of Snapes unrequieted love.  However, this
> theory is shaken by the fact that Snape was revealed as a double agent
> before Lily was killed.  We are still left with the lesser possibility that
> he was simply insanely jealous of James and that Harry has inherited that
> resentment.

I still think it's both, which partly explains the complexity of the character. He is reminded of *both* Lily and James when he sees Harry, and immediately several associations are
there--

Love (Lily)
Pain (Lily)
Humiliation (Lily turning him down or never knowing, the horrible possibility that she told James about it)
Anger (James in general)
Isolation [esp. when seeing Harry in company with Ron & Hermione] (James & the Marauders, outgroup/onlooker thing)
The whole approach/avoidance of wanting to protect Lily's son, and anger at him for being the reason she died
Resentment that Harry has edged Snape out somehow in Dumbledore's mind (hadn't thought of this one)

This is the reason I'm so intrigued by the end of book 4, and Snape's "unreadable" expression--I think this is the very, very first time in the whole series that Snape has even
begun to consider Harry as a person in his own right, rather than viewed through this shifting lens of associations.

> Snape is Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favours [the
> Slytherins], says Ron, in PS/SS, we'll be able to see if it's true."  It
> is true alright, and he is hardly subtle about it: he picks on the
> Gryffindors mercilessly, whilst idly allowing the Slytherins get away with
> murder.  His mild treatment of Draco Malfoy may indicate a desire to keep
> Lucius sweet, but it could be simply loyalty to his House that leads him to
> favour the Slytherin students.  Also, he knows that Draco is Harrys
> nemesis, so it may be just one more way of getting at Potter.

Again, probably all of the above, in varying percentages depending on the given day. And I think there's a bit of projection going on, too--Snape's giving Draco the advantages *he*
never got. I believe Snape sees the Marauders in Harry, Ron, & Hermione, so he's trying to make it hard on them, since he probably believes the original Marauders got everything
handed to them on a platter.

> Year 1
>
> I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly
> simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids
> that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the
>  senses... he says, before declaring virtually all his past students
> dunderheads.

Sigh. Poetry. And in my sappy, romantic opinion, he keeps a damn good lid on it most of the time, since the only other time he let anyone see it (Lily) it wasn't good enough.

> I repeat, Hagrid is hardly the yardstick of common sense in such things.

This line gave me a fit of the giggles. I want to translate it into Latin and make it the motto of something.

> Year 2
>
> seems surprised by the discovery, in the duelling scenes, that Harry speaks
> Parseltongue, and appears to reappraise him, perhaps sensing that he has
> some good Slytherin potential after all.

Or perhaps sensing that Voldemort connection that Dumbledore implied; after all, he spent a bit of time with the other speaker of Parseltongue.

> there seems to be mutual respect between them as House Heads and they gang up on Lockhart to great effect.

Wonderful scene. And the first instance of any sort of sense of humor from Snape, too, that I recall. I still love the way the other professors jumped right on the bandwagon.

> In any crisis, Snape and McGonagall are usually first on the scene, like a
> pet devil and angel on each of Dumbledores shoulders.

Which is interesting. McGonagall is Deputy Headmistress, she *should* be there like that, but Snape is just (just!) a head of House (meaning he, so far as we know, has no
Hogwarts-wide duties beyond teaching). Why should it be Snape? Why not Professor Flitwick or Professor Sprout on occasion? This is another teaser, to me, that there's more to Snape
than meets the eye.

> Year 3
>
> James had stopped him from walking to his death, but, as
> he tells Harry, viciously, he sees nothing heroic in getting cold feet.

However, Snape cannot have missed, while eavesdropping in the Shrieking Shack, that James was not "in" on the joke. Thus, James didn't really get cold feet, he honestly didn't know
and acted to stop it when he found out. Snape is not the sort to accept any sort of attitude-altering information gracefully, but internally, he might have adjusted things a bit. I
can't put a finger on it, but it might have been a start towards re-examining old associations, that helped him be able to see Harry for himself later.

I'd also like to know when Dumbledore filled Snape in on the actualities of the whole Pettigrew/Sirius thing. Snape was out cold for all the real revelations, and at the end of book
3 still honestly believed that Sirius was a dangerous murderer, yet when Dumbledore has Sirius transform and they shake hands in book 4, Snape doesn't react to Sirius as a criminal,
just as someone he hates.

> theres that wonderful scene with the Marauders Map: "Moony presents his
> compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep
> his abnormally large nose out of other people's business."

And I *still* would like to know if Snape knew the Marauder's nicknames, i.e., if he knew who was talking to him. If he did, it seems he'd be more specific in his questions to Lupin
and less bamboozle-able in the way Lupin swept everyone out of his office. If he didn't, why would he ask Lupin that question about the manufacturers? Very odd scene.

> Towards the end of PoA, Snape is obsessed with the desire to catch Sirius
> Black.  He becomes unhinged and blind to reason when he finally confronts
> Black, Lupin and our heroes; that is, until Harry, Ron and Hermione knock
> him out with the power of three.  Later, he becomes hysterical when Harry
> and Hermione rescue Buckbeak under everyones noses and get away with it.
> (Foiled again! said Dick Dastardly).   By the close, his hatred of Harry
> has reached new heights.

Here I think Snape was totally taken over by the associations from the past, to the point of being unable to process any new information, not wanting to process any new information.
Augmented, I think, by a quite justifiable (if you look strictly from his point of view and the information he had) resentment that the kids he was saving were not only not
grateful, but fought against him [this could have past associations, too, if he *was* the spy that tipped Dumbledore off and warned James].

> QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
>
> (1) How does Snape really feel about Igor Karkaroff?  He seems to pity him,
> but he is also angry at him (he did betray him in the courtroom  did Snape
> know this?) .

I think he's another mental association for Snape--he's a reminder of a time Snape would rather forget, on several levels--when he was a Death Eater, when he was a spy (and
presumably under some stress), maybe when Lily died, the whole trial thing, etc.

> (2) Does Lucius Malfoy have Snapes ear or another part of his body?

Get OVER it. <g>

> (3) What is Snapes task and why does Dumbledore have such a hold on him?

I think Snape's going to go back and manage to convince Voldemort that he [Snape] has been making nice and fooling everyone in order to be in an advantageous position to help
Voldemort when the need arose. Voldemort being the cushy, forgiving person we know and love, this might be a painful conversation for Snape in more ways than one.

I don't think Snape's worried about the physical pain, though; he has to have the strength of mind to hold up under whatever truth spell Voldemort might cast. AND if he loved Lily,
he has to betray her by telling Voldemort that he's decided that her death wasn't such a big deal, after all. AND he has to put himself in the terrible position of having the power
to really cut loose and turn bad again--sort of like a recovered alcoholic taking a job in a liquor store, you know? Any one of these factors is pretty serious by itself, much less
a combination.

> (4) How far can we stretch the Harry point of view thing?  Lets face it
> Snape really is nasty and he really does have it in for Harry, but why was
> Hagrid so convinced Snape would not harm a student?

No question, Snape really is nasty. I think we can absolutely trust Harry's point of view on this. I think that it's interesting the way the interactions with Snape have gotten
multi-layered as Harry matures and learns more, even if Harry-the-character is not aware of it. JKR's writing skill again.

I think Hagrid is so certain simply because Dumbledore is certain, and for Hagrid, that's enough and more. We, as readers, may be doubting Dumbledore's infallibility, but Hagrid
never does; it's a cornerstone of his world. I don't think Hagrid knows any of the specifics of why Snape turned spy and why Dumbledore trusts him. He doesn't have to know why. It's
enough that Dumbledore says so.

> (5) The old chestnut: Was Snape in love with Lily?  Are his feelings against
> Harry rooted in jealousy of or rivalry with his father?  Was Snape Malfoy
> to James Potters Harry?

Yes, yes, yes. Yadda, yadda. I think there's wildly conflicting past associations going on, as elaborated ad nauseam above.

> (6) As Harry puts it: "I just want to know what Snape did with his first
> chance, if hes on his second one."

Ooooh, yes.

> (7) Is Snape a vampire or does JKR just use bat-like references to give
> Severus a dank, dark aura?

The latter. She's deliberately chosen adjectives for Snape all through that have "icky" connotations, when less icky words would adequately convey the descriptive content.

> (8) Does Sevvy want the DADA job?

I don't think so. He loves potions. And I mistrust anything that has been so carefully, over several books, woven in to our "common knowledge" so thoroughly. Here's JKR, saying,
here, stand on this little rug. Why am I holding the edge of the rug? Oh, never mind....

> (9) What else is in store for Snape in Book 5  anyone care to predict?

Well, I think we'll get more information on Snape's past, and thus his current motives. I think he's likely to die, eventually. But I think there will be a clarification, for lack
of a better word, in his perceptions. I think he will come to see Harry as his own person and respect him for who he is, and possibly vice versa. I *don't* see him and Harry walking
away into the sunset with fishing poles over their shoulders (cue Andy Griffith music). They will never like each other, but I think they will arrive at mutual respect, based
finally on actual personality and not past associations (because Snape's got some past-associations for Harry, too).

One last note: I will say that the recent post (don't remember who, sorry) saying that Snape is the way he is just because JKR needed him that way, had a point. I think Snape
started out being modeled on a horrible teacher she had (didn't she say?). But I also know that once written, characters take on a life of their own, and whether JKR has thought all
the detail out the way we have, Snape has definitely evolved past a stereotype. He might be at a point where the character is prominent enough in the plot for JKR to *have* to
address his "issues." There's a point where you, as an author, can't say "just because" without it being dea ex machina. So I expect we'll get lots more information on Snape.

--Amanda