Snape (still!)

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 33668

I'd really like to say a big thank you to all of you who took up my question 
under the 'why readers love Snape ' banner. I've had such a good time reading 
your thoughts and now realise that whatever I may or may not feel for the 
good(!?) Professor are perfectly normal, rational and balanced!, Well, fairly!

There have been so many posts that I have lost track of some of them. I 
really think the 'character who got away' theory is spot on. I also really 
like the idea (sorry, I've searched for your post and just can't find it) of 
Snape taking the right path, but not liking it, a la Spike ( there's another 
mystery solved, then!). It makes him so much more sympathetic if he's 
constantly fighting his own nature.

The question of his 'redemption' - whether it's needed/ will happen/ has 
happened - seems to have raised the question of whether his past *was* *bad*.

Mahoney says it's not stated in canon that he was a *bad guy*, but I guess 
most of us would think that a DE was one ipso facto.

However, I'd like to expand a theory  I mentioned once before. What if Snape 
never was really a 'bad guy'? What if he's always been battling the two sides 
of his nature? I  agree with jchutney that Snape may see Dumbledore as a 
surrogate father. I think he probably wanted to do so whilst at school. If 
so, he must have been constantly disappointed by Dumbledore's apparent 
favouritism for those troublemakers, Potter and Black. I seriously wonder if 
it was a craving for recognition from an older, more powerful wizard that led 
him to Voldemort, rather than any  evil intent. Voldemort would easily have 
exploited that weakness, just as he did with poor Ginny, through the diary. 
Perhaps he tried to push himself into DE mould (and undoubtedly had to do 
some really bad stuff along the way), but realised he didn't really fit and 
that where he belonged was at Dumbledore's side, if he would have him.
The reason I came up with this is that I have problems with the idea of his 
undergoing some kind of Damascus road conversion, I'd rather see his actions  
and motivations having some kind of internal consistency. 

So my current Snape hypothesis is:

1)good guy who's battling to be good against his (shorthand, not 
stereotyping!) Slytherin tendencies
who 
2)gives up being good and tries to be bad out of pique and to get the 
recognition he never feels he's had
and who then ends up
3) with a guilt thing (which is often displayed as anger) after playing at 
being bad doesn't work and who doesn't like being 'good' to boot.
 It's just  a hypothesis, so I expect to be disproved instantly!

I do think lack of recognition dogs him. I know Pippin has just mentioned JKR 
'outing' him at the trial, but I have big problems with equating this with a 
general knowledge of his spying past. The more I read, the more I am 
convinced that virtually no-one knows.IIRC, there is no indication that 
Sirius and Lupin, who were part of Dumbledore's inner circle, have any idea . 
I think it is acutely painful for him that 'famous Harry Potter' gets all the 
credit for Voldemort's downfall when however much 'good' he has done is 
secret. 
'Fame isn't everything' isn't just another nasty remark, it's a cri de coeur.

Rebecca writes of Snape's own need to redeem himself:

>This brings me to my Snape theory (yeah, you knew this was coming). I think 
after >he decided to turn against the DE's he wound up feeing terrible about 
whatever it >was he did do while he was really with them and he became 
obsessed with the >idea of doing something important to redeem himself. If he 
was the spy who >uncovered the plot to kill James and Harry then you could 
see how he might >consider this his big chance to make up for his past, not 
just because he owed >James a favor but since everyone else loved James so 
much then saving his life >would be construed as really heroic. But then 
something went horribly wrong >(thanks to Sirius, he believed) and James 
wound up dead anyway and whatever >credit there was to take was taken by 
Harry. I think Snape gets so irrational around >Harry because Harry reminds 
him of his guilt, regrets and failure to really help >James when he had the 
chance. And I think he hates James because James up >and died. This would 
also explain why Snape is al!
>ways running into the middle of dangerous situations to try to fix them; 
he's still >trying to make up for his past and he still winds up being 
mistrusted and >misunderstood for all his efforts. I think he's a terribly 
sympathetic character even >with all his flaws.


Again, I think this is spot on


I do think he's really angry at James for getting killed and that now he 
knows the truth,  he will still be angry with Sirius for being the 
unintentional agent of his downfall. 

Incidentally, he is right, it was James' fault they got killed. Sirius may 
not have been the secret-keeper, but he trusted Sirius, rather than 
Dumbledore who had wanted to take on the role.
I have another question about that, but I'll put it in a separate post.

Eloise (who finds Snape's uncanny resemblance to Alan Rickman a terrible 
distraction to the inner eye and wonders whose decision it was to omit the 
grease from the film)





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]