Snape - A goodie and nasty with it!

[demeter918]

No: HPFGUIDX 37644

   Told you I didn't talk much. I just read and hoard the 
information in order to sort it all into neat folders where 
I can use it to gleefully type up papers to prove to my 
friends that HP isn't the evil that has suckered my life 
away. *laughs* And in all shades of the word, it hasn't 
*really*. 

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "meglet2" <mercia at i...> wrote:
> I have greatly enjoyed many of the comments on Snape on 
this list 
> and the (occasionally) wild speculations about his 
> nature/background/motivation - sorry though, not buying 
any 
> LOLLIPOPS today -  but there is one apsect of Snape above 
all others 
> that still intrigues me.
> 

   And as long as it's Snape, I gobble up eagerly. 


> I find it fascinating that JKR presents us with someone 
who, as we 
> discover in book 4, is really one of the good guys (at 
least as far 
> as his actions go and assuming that Dumbledore is not ever 
so evil) 
> but who remains basically a nasty piece of work. His 
instincts, as 
> many on this list have pointed out, are more in tune with 
his former 
> DE colleagues than with the kindness and consideration 
practised by 
> Dumbledore, Lupin, Molly et al. Even by the end of GoF 
there is for 
> me no sense that his behaviour will be any different to 
Harry and 
> co. He can be cruel, vindictive, petty, irrational, unfair 
and 
> downright unpleasant yet he is also constantly in fact 
acting to 
> protect and advance the good and he clearly has great 
courage and 
> determination.
> 

    Which makes him Snape. JKR (I'm reasonably sure) has 
been quoted to say that he emodies the traits of her worst 
teachers. And it's true. He doesn't teach certain students 
particularly well. (poor Neville comes to mind) He belittles 
students that obviously have skill. (Hermione comes to mind) 
And he constantly favors a certain set of students over 
others. (Slytherin - my babies - come to mind). 

    There's a point where what defines courage is blurred. 
The conventional children's image of courage is the 'hero' 
(almost always a man) rushing off to defend the princess 
from 'evil'. It's the idea of being willing to die for 
what's right, for who or what you love. Courage is 
conventionally defined in the 'Gryffindor' way. 

    However, courage, among the more rationally-minded, can 
be seen in different ways. A woman who dies trying to save a 
friend in a burning building, and a teenager who decides to 
tell an adult about her friends 'eating problem' constitutes 
different kinds of 'courage'. But it's still courage 
nonetheless. 
 
    In the HP world, (which I find extremely fascinating. 
Sort of like medieval world that veered off from our own 
history in the ancient past) 'good' is defined in the 
Gryffindors. 'Evil' is defined in the Slytherins. All the 
Slytherins hitherto described are either an 'unpleasant lot' 
(PS/SS 119) or a nasty bugger (Draco and Harry's second 
meeting on the Hogwarts Train). There's no variation until 
the end, when, ah! Snape was the person trying to *save* 
Harry! 

    There have been arguments that it's purely to pay back 
James Potter, but why would Snape continually protect Harry, 
even as he belittles, taunts, even openly hates the boy? 
Because fundamentally, he and the Death Eaters (DE) are 
different in that way. In many ways, he *is* a Death Eater. 
But in some ways, he is not. And that defines why he's on 
Dumbledore's side rather then Voldemorts. And of course, 
there's much of his past that we're pretty much clueless 
over. Perhaps Rowling will reveal that to us later?


> This seems to me to be moral sophistication of a high 
order 
> especially in a 'children's' book. I love it when black 
and white 
> assumptions are undermined like this. People can be on the 
right 
> side and be thoroughly unpleasant with it. We don't and 
can't always 
> like those who are doing the right thing and are on our 
side. 
> 

    Precisely. Severus Snape is one of the few gray 
characters in an otherwise, black and white book. That's not 
surprising since this is fundamentally meant for children. 
It just happened that many adults got suckered in too. ^__^ 

   These are my own ideas, and none of them have been 
confirmed by Rowling herself. Some tend to forget that the 
color spectrum isn't *just* black and white. There are all 
sorts of other colors in between, and it's rather silly to 
force everyone to adhere to the same sort of morals the 
collective whole believes in. Snape has many faults, more 
then most, but those are *faults*. Everyone has faults, and 
it's sort of lost that perhaps those faults are what makes a 
person different from everyone else. 


> It reminds a bit of Peter Schaeffer's play 'Amadeus'. When 
I first 
> saw it years ago in London some people behind me were 
deeply 
> scandalised by the portrait of Mozart. I heard them 
discussing it at 
> the interval after which they left and didn't come back. 
They 
> couldn't handle a picture of a musical genius as a 
revolting little 
> creep with a purile and smutty sense of humour. Yet that 
is the 
> whole point of the play. That into this very unworthy 
vessel God had 
> poured total inspiration, while poor old Salieri who 
wanted to offer 
> his talents to the glory of God plodded through life with 
a very 
> mediocre talent and with never a spark of inspiration. 
Very unfair 
> but very true to life. Snape for me carries something of 
the same 
> complexity. 
> 
> Mercia

    Makes sense. I remember that movie being shown in our 
music class, and I remember wondering why they would show 
Mozart, this musician my mother loved, in such a light. And 
it's the idea that a person can't expect everyone to be the 
same, regardless of talent or not. 

   It's like putting Harry on this pedestal. He's very near 
and dear to my heart, since I feel a great amount of 
sympathy for him. Many put him into this great role without 
asking him whether he wanted to or not. He never really has 
a choice. He was marked since he was a baby, and therefore, 
many tend to forget that he's just a kid. A regular kid who 
just happens to be part of something irregular. 

   And that's enough for ranting today. Glad to see a fellow 
Snape-fan. ^__^

   Demeter