Petunia (and Snape)

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 41177

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Laura Ingalls Huntley" <huntleyl at m...> 
wrote:
> 
> Jenny From Ravenclaw:
> > As far as the comparison of Snape and Petunia, I can't go there 
at
> > all.  Snape may not be a nice person, but he is brave, self-
searching
> > (enough to stop being a DE), and a very capable teacher.
> 
> Brave? Well, see this is where I've always thought Snape's 
character is a bit inconsisent.  Sure, he's "brave" enough to betray 
V., but IMO the kind of person who takes pleasure in abusing 
helpless *children* is the worst kind of coward in the world.

I don't think Snape's treatment of his students has anything to do 
with the inability to deal with fear, which is how I define 
cowardice.  I'd be more likely to buy into the cowardice argument if 
he was mean to children but sweet to adults (who can fight back, 
after all), but so far he appears to be an equal opportunity 
offender.

> 
> As for self-searching?  Try self-involved.  Personally, I think he 
just lost his nerve as a DE.  It's not a easy thing to swallow, 
being evil, you know?  Alot of people just can't do it.  As for the 
spying, well, did he really have a choice?  Even if he *wasn't* 
obliged to prove himself loyal to the Good side, his pride pretty 
much dictated he make up for his DE days by putting himself in 
danger (much like this same pride makes him feel he has to pay back 
James for saving his life).  It's not so much that he suddenly 
became a virtuous, heroic person -- the man just can't stand to owe 
a debt to anyone.
> 

I think Snape did have a choice.  Whatever he did to prove his 
loyalty to Dumbledore, I think he must've done it *before* he 
started spying, since from Dumbledore's POV, you don't ask somebody 
to spy for you unless you think you can rely on them.  A disloyal 
spy is just too darn dangerous.

And neither pride nor hatred of being in debt are substitutes for 
courage.  I hate being in debt too, but given a choice between being 
in debt and spying on a super-powerful genocidal psycho who'll 
torture to me to death if I'm caught, I'll take debt, thank you; and 
I'll bet that a lot of other people who hate being in debt would 
agree with me on that one.  C.S. Lewis wrote (and I'm paraphrasing 
here) that courage is not so much a virtue in itself, but the 
ability to stick to your other virtues when tested.  I think Snape 
demonstrates that it's not only true of virtues.  Cowards discard 
their normally professed principles and beliefs when adherence 
becomes dangerous or inconvenient.  Snape sticks to his guns.

> Hmm..you think Snape would have been any warmer towards Harry if 
he had been named his guardian?  I don't think so...at all.
> 

Warmer? No.  I can't really imagine Snape ever being warm to 
anyone.  But if he was Harry's guardian, I think he would've made 
sure the kid was properly fed and dressed, the same way he makes 
sure that his cauldrons are clean and his potions ingredients are 
properly catalogued.  Would this be an improvement in Harry's 
emotional development?  Probably not.

> Personally, I feel that he ought to get his internal code fixed if 
it's telling him it's okay to verbally abuse his students.  I know 
this sounds a little odd, but I don't care if he defeats Voldemort 
single-handedly or cures cancer -- it doesn't mean anything to me as 
long as he's still Evil and cowardly in day-to-day life.  Any code 
he has, IMO, is to salvage his all-encompassing pride.
> 

I don't think it sounds odd, just very different from my own take on 
things.  Snape is living in a time and place where there are way 
bigger issues at stake than how nice he is to children, little old 
ladies, or small furry animals.  Good and evil have drawn very 
definite battle lines in the Potterverse, and as long as Snape is on 
the right side, I'm going to give him credit for Non-Evilness, no 
matter how nasty he is.  That doesn't mean I approve of the 
nastiness, however.  Snape's internal code could use a lot of 
tinkering.  It's not in need of a complete reversal, however.

The problem with Petunia is, she's not on either side of the line, 
because she doesn't even seem to know that there is a line.  As a 
result, she can't be judged on the basis of her allegiance.  Her 
only connection (that we know of) to the central struggle is her 
guardianship of Harry, and she's failing miserably in that.  Unlike 
Snape, she has no independent function away from Harry that we can 
evaluate her on.

> But you never hear anything about "poor Petunia who was 'horse-
faced' while her sister was gorgeous," "poor Petunia who was ignored 
in favor of her magic-doing, perfect, beautiful sister", and "poor 
Petunia who only did/does what she did/does b/c she was jealous and 
always second-best."
> 

Actually, I've come across some fanfics that portrayed Petunia semi-
sympathetically based on exactly these points, so she's not totally 
bereft of defenders.  But Petunia just hasn't been developed with 
the same depth and vividness that Snape has.  We see very little of 
her -- she disappears after the first couple of chapters of every 
book -- and what we do see is pretty much one-dimensional.  If JKR 
gave her the same complexity that she gave Snape, we would view her 
a lot differently.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com