[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape's treatment of Draco/ Snape's Motivations

[shane dunphy]

No: HPFGUIDX 47376

Eloise wrote:
>Well, what do you make of the Potions class where Draco makes his dramatic 
>re-entry after the Hippogriff incident and Snape plays long with his 
>obvious deceit so fully, getting Ron and Harry to prepare his potions 
>ingredients for him. Plus, as has been noted, JKR *tells* us that he is the 
>only student Snape seems to like.
>
>If there isn't a lot else, I think it's because Draco isn't particularly 
>well fleshed out yet. Take JKR's assertion that compared to Draco, Dudley 
>was a kind and considerate boy (or words to that effect - I can't find the 
>quote). I don't think the books really bear that out as yet in examples of 
>their behaviour, but JKR says it is so. I think she also *implies* even if 
>she doesn't give many concrete examples that Snape favours Draco.

Yeah, this is a good point.  My own feelings about it are that Snape at 
times sees similarities between himself and Draco.  There has been some 
speculation on the list that Draco is emotionally neglected, and I tend to 
agree with this.  His two closest friends, Crabbe and Goyle are probably not 
the most popular among the Slytherin class.  He seems to be very needy, and 
covers this up with a formulated superiority complex.  He also has a 
penchant for cruelty.  Don't we see these behaviours in Snape himself?

Sure, we see Snape favouring Draco from time to time, but haven't we also 
seen Snape going out of his way to save Harry's life?  If there is a higher 
degree of favouring, I can't think of it.

Eloise also wrote:
>Now - Snape's motivations - my very own de-lurk subject!

>I agree very much with what you say, except for the 'inability to make deep 
>lasting friendships.' Of that, IMHO, we do not have evidence. People often 
>characterise Snape as a loner, but we know that he hung out with a gang of 
>Slytherins, the rest of whom are either in Azkaban, or dead, as far as we 
>know. And we have no evidence that he doesn't get on well with the rest of 
>the staff. We don't see them treat him, for instance, with the contempt 
>with which they treat Lockhart. I would say that with Dumbledore, he does 
>have a deep, lasting friendship which is one of the thing that makes the 
>'Dumbledore's Head' scenario so poignant.

Mmm.  I think that the other teachers respect him for his skills as a 
potions master.  They admire the fact that he is gifted at this very 
difficult branch of magic.  Lockhart was obviously a bumbling idiot and a 
show-off.  You can't really compare the two (although the obvious 
differences were played on beautifully in the Duelling Club scene in PA, 
weren't they?)  I don't think that Snape is close friends with any of the 
teachers.  His room is in the Dungeons, something that I feel is deeply 
symbolic: Snape is trapped in the dungeon of his conflicted personality.  
While he is locked in, he also wishes to keep people out.  He seems 
uncomfortable with intimacy.  Even when he is being nice (as in the scenes 
you mention with Draco), he is hardly overflowing with emotion.  We never 
see him wiping a tear from his eye, like McGonagall in PS and CoS.  He is 
emotionally challenged.

Yeas, he does seem to have a close relationship with Dumbledore, but I again 
stress that I see this as being a surrogate father type relationship, rather 
than a best buddy kind of thing.  Can you see Snape and Dumbledore sitting 
around of an evening, having a few beers and talking about the last 
Quidditch match?

Eloise again:
>But for the record, my own Snape backstory does have him coming from an 
>emotionally deprived background with a cold father (and an ineffective or 
>absent mother) for whom nothing was ever good enough and his turning to 
>Voldemort at least in part in the search for an adequate father-figure, 
>Dumbledore having apparently failed him.

And then a return to Dumbledore, when he sees that his loyalty to LV was 
misplaced.  My thoughts exactly!

Shane.

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