[HPforGrownups] Snape -- Why so many fans?

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 25584

justanopinion2001 at hotmail.com wrote:
 
> Yes, he saved Harry in PS/SS, and yes, it looks like he's on
> Dumbledore's team.  But what are the Snape Fans seeing that I am
> missing?  Would someone care to explain this?

I'm not sure I'd qualify as a Snape "fan" in the sense that I
might easily qualify as a Lupin "fan" (I don't have the same, er,
fantasies about the former as I do about the latter, for
instance), but as a character I find him extraordinarily
interesting precisely because of that antithesis of "YES he's
mean and nasty and unpleasant BUT he's on Our Side."  It's the
contrast of dark and light and the interplay between admirable
and despicable traits in a single person that gives him so much
depth -- depths we're only beginning to see into.  Sirius and
Remus both have secrets, but once the reader knows these, their
motivations are pretty clear.  Snape's history and motivations
remain a mystery, and many of us love a mystery.

Of course, what with the movie coming out and the actor with one
of the sexiest voices in creation being cast as Snape, other
factors may begin to enter in as well . . .


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>