The Death of Snape?

[porphyria_ash]

No: HPFGUIDX 41900

Jackie asked:

<<
What does everyone think about the possibility of Snape's death in 
book 5?
>>

Amanda argued for why Snape won't die in Book 5, but said that in 
Book 7:

<<
I think Snape will die, I really do.
>>

First, I want to second everything Amanda said about why Voldemort 
might take Snape back and why Snape couldn't possibly die as early as 
OoP. Great analysis. 

However, I don't think Snape will have to die in Book 7 for literary 
reasons. Of course ultimately it's JKR's choice whether to kill him 
off or not, but I think we can discuss this in terms of what sort of 
problems-to-be-resolved that Snape has and how the story would go 
about resolving them. 

Snape needs to redeem his past -- but how and to whose satisfaction? 
At this point we don't know how many horrible crimes Snape committed 
when he truly was a DE nor do we know how many brave, self-
sacrificial acts he performed after he recanted. However, spying on 
LV (originally) counts for something since Snape must have known from 
the start that if LV caught him he'd be killed. Evidently he's 
already done enough good deeds to satisfy Dumbledore to trust him 
with more. I think that since Snape's the one carrying around all the 
baggage that what he needs to do is perform some act that will redeem 
himself in his own eyes. 

What would that be? Since Snape's great mistake in his still somewhat 
young life was to support LV in the first place and all his effort 
since his recantation has been to make up for that, I think 
contributing to the defeat of LV will go a long way towards wiping 
clean Snape's sense of debt. Harry needs to live too, since Snape 
probably felt responsible for the death of the elder Potters, and 
saving Harry is also part of his deal. So, Snape will need to do 
something to preserve Harry so that Harry can quash Voldemort in the 
end. Snape could protect Harry directly or do something to weaken LV, 
or overcome other DEs or even convert other DEs to the Light Side, he 
just won't be the character who will overcome LV in the end, which of 
course is Harry's role.

But I don't think that Snape's ultimate redemption will need to be in 
the form of his doing something self-sacrificial, mainly because he 
does things like this all the time. He's always getting wounded or 
humiliated in what he believes to be the service of Dumbledore or the 
protection of Harry. He's fearless about doing whatever it is 
Dumbledore tells him to do for their team. By way of counter-example 
Peter Pettigrew *needs* to do something completely self-sacrificial 
to redeem himself since he's never done much good in his life up 
until now (as far as we know, he always seemed to be a leech), so an 
act of true bravery and self-sacrifice would be just the dramatic 
thing to give everyone something nice to remember him by once he 
dies. :-) (Plus if Peter lives he'll wind up in Azkaban for life, so 
it's almost better to kill him.) But Snape is not in this position; 
he's already doing brave things all the time, so his 'redemption' 
needs to come in some other form.

To get back to what I said up above, I think what Snape needs is to 
be redeemed in his own eyes first, and then by some outer authority, 
like the MoM, perhaps by finally getting an Order of Merlin. For this 
reason I think it would be unsatisfying if he died without knowing 
whether his death did any ultimate good or if anyone appreciated it. 
So I'd argue that he has to live in order to be able to appreciate 
the honor and peace of mind that this would bring him, even if it 
didn't cure all his other issues. 

Granted, there are other things that Snape needs to resolve. He needs 
to make some sort of peace with his rivals on Dumbledore's 
side, mostly Harry, Sirius and Lupin. But I suspect this will come 
about over the course of the next three books as they are all forced 
to work together and rely on each other. Also, if you believe he 
really wants the DADA position, I suppose he needs to get that too 
and defeat the jinx on it by staying there for more than a year. Or 
if you think he really wants to quit teaching and do something 
completely different, then he should get a shot at that instead. To 
me these are supplemental reasons for why he ought to live beyond 
Book 7 -- to pursue some vocation that makes him happier than his 
current job.

Amanda raised the issue of genre convention, saying she thinks Snape 
will die:

<<
In the truest tradition of
anti-heroes or deathbed conversions or romantic endings (romance in 
the old sense, the kind that involves lots of quiet suffering and 
loss and not necessarily anything physical at all). 
>>

I'm curious as to what literary precedents you think Snape 
corresponds to. I could see him being horribly wounded or punished by 
losing his power, analogous to Mr. Rochester, but I know _Jane Eyre_ 
wasn't what you meant by "romance." I kind of think deathbed 
conversions (what would Snape convert to?) and romantic endings are a 
little too trite for JKR -- she likes surprising her audience and 
she's capable of doing some fairly witty genre-tweaking, so I'm not 
sure if she'll do something too hankie-wetting with Snape. He's not 
meant as a sentimental character, as far as I can tell. He's a 
secondary character in an adventure, by which standard I think he has 
as much of a chance as anyone else. 

Regarding Snape's other baggage, Amanda said:

<<
Snape, it seems to me, has built up too much emotional baggage, lives 
too much in the past, allows his present to be shaped by that past 
too much, to ever be able to shake it off and stride forward. Unless 
this has all been a terribly well-done act, his present existence has 
been a waiting to address the effects of his past existence, and once 
that is done, he will have no purpose.
>>

I agree that he has a lot of deep-seated problems, but I wouldn't 
write off his ability to work some of them out over time -- a lot of 
time. To my mind, what he needs to do in order to resolve them is to 
put the past behind him and then *mature.* As I said, I think LV's 
vanquishing will be enough of a break for Snape to want to move on 
with life, but for the maturing bit, he basically has to live a long 
time in order to do that. So I hope he gets to do so. 

As for him having no purpose after he addresses his past, well none 
of the characters will have the same purpose after LV is conquered! 
That in itself is not a good reason to kill off Snape, but it is a 
good reason to *end the series.* His purpose after that will be to 
live a long time, gain wisdom and perspective, and slowly mellow out.

Of course you can also make the argument that he's too nasty to die. 
He'd make a great old curmudgeon. ;-)

~~Porphyria, hoping against hope