Snape's redemption/Quest for glory? (was Re: JKR, Harry Potter, and the...)

[Lyda Clunas]

No: HPFGUIDX 19603

Rebecca wrote:

>> Some people might think Snape's greatest desire is for personal 
glory, like Ron's -- but I think this is a red herring, like the 
rumour that Snape wants the DADA job.  I think Snape's greatest 
desire is to redeem himself, frankly:  to somehow atone for the 
things he did as a Death Eater.  He seems to be obsessed with finding 
and stopping evildoers, or those he perceives to be evildoers 
(Quirrell in PS/SS, Sirius in PoA), and the most passionate we've 
ever seen him was when he thought Sirius, that evil murderer, and 
Remus, that vicious killer werewolf, were in league with each other 
and had confunded Harry, Ron and Hermione into helping them.  We've 
already seen how Snape's zeal to hunt down evildoers can actually 
lead him to judge people too harshly and hastily and not give them a 
chance.<<

I do agree that Snape's prime motivator is his own personal guilt for 
what he did as a DE. I think that he definitely wants to make peace-- 
with himself more than others, IMO-- for the kinds of acts he must 
have done as a servant of Voldemort. Thus, he zealously seeks out to 
destroy the evil/evildoers that is/are around him. I think this was 
probably what led him to take up spying for Dumbledore in the first 
place; the amazing amount of fresh guilt and self-loathing that he 
must have felt has obviously had a great toll on his life, past and 
present. In the Shrieking Shack, he admits to his adamant desire 
to "catch" Black; imagine his disappointment (with himself as much as 
with Harry) that he was unable to succeed in bringing Sirius 
to "justice", and therefore also failed in any personal redemptive 
attempt. Explains his crazed outburst, I'd say. Actually, Harry has 
thwarted him in almost any redemptive/evil-busting opportunities 
since Harry came to Hogwarts: Harry is the hero in stopping Quirrell, 
Harry valiantly faces Riddle in the CoS when the teachers are 
seemingly powerless, and Harry (as Snape guesses) is the one who 
helps Sirius escape. Plus, if Harry was somehow involved in a 
redemptive attempt of Snape's past (i.e., if Snape was the spy who 
warned about Voldemort's plans for the Potters', and Harry is a 
constant reminder of how Snape somehow failed his parents (and 
himself) when Voldemort killed them anyway) then that kind of sheds a 
different light on the "I hate Harry Potter with a passion" aspect of 
Snape's character.

However... on to personal glory...

Rebecca believes it to be a red herring. But how much of it *is* red 
herring? As a Slytherin, Snape should technically be characterized by 
shrewdness, (check) cunning, (check) and ambition (check). Now, about 
that ambition: where does the quest for personal glory come into 
play? Does Snape's ambitious quality include a desire for a bit of 
limelight and not just personal relief through evil-busting? 
How "hard" did the loss of the Order of Merlin really hit Snape?

I don't think that Snape's rumoured/assumed search for glory is 
completely a red herring of JKR's invention. I think there is some 
truth to it. I think that Snape once probably had a greater sense of 
desire for his own personal gains and recognition; it's probably what 
led him to join the DEs. However, I also believe that whatever led 
him to disban from Voldemort also probably humbled him in a terrible 
way. I imagine he lost much of the desire for glory and replaced it 
with a desire to redeem his life. But is this to say that he 
completely abandoned any of his earlier quest? Is it possible to 
entirely remove such a quality from one's personality? I don't think 
so, not entirely, although it's definitely not near the top of 
his "motivators" list. While the loss of his possible redemption 
through Sirius's capture hit him the hardest of all, I think that the 
loss of Order of Merlin added a good bit of insult to injury.

Lyda