Snape the Iconoclast

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 78562

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "abigailnus" <abigailnus at y...> 
wrote:
<big snip>  One of my favorite theories 
> about the events that drove Snape to join the Death Eaters has to 
do 
> with the Prank, or rather, with the aftermath to it.  This theory 
> suggests that Snape was so disgusted with the punishment - or lack 
> thereof - that the Marauders received after nearly getting him 
killed, 
> that he lost all respect for Dumbledore.  None of the Marauders are 
> expelled.  A dangerous werwolf is allowed to continue studying with 
> unsuspecting students.  Snape himself is cautioned against saying 
> anything, as though he were at fault.  To add insult to injury, the 
> very next year, James is made Head Boy!  According to this theory, 
> Snape became disgusted with Dumbledore, seeing his claims of 
> fairness and impartiality as hypocrisy, and rejected Dumbledore's 
> ethics.
> 
> I'd like to fold this theory into a new theory, which I'd like to 
call 
> Iconoclast!Snape.  I think Snape came from a poor wizarding family, 
> and that his experience in the wizarding world taught him to 
> despise the social order as her perceived it.  Dumbledore, to this 
> Snape, would have been a saviour - his philosophy seems to be one 
> of judging people by their merits.  Then the Prank happens, and 
> Snape sees what he perceives to be Dumbledore aligning himself 
> with the wealthy, entitled James and Sirius.  Is it any wonder that 
> Snape then turns to the next anarchist on his list?
<snip> In support of the claim that Snape come from a poor family, 
I'd like 
> to reexamine the parallel that I drew between him and Harry a few 
> days ago.  It occurred to me, thanks to Laura's comments on that 
> post, that Snape and Harry can be described as opposites as well as 
> equals, and then I realized that this is because there are in fact 
two 
> Harrys.  
> 
> Muggle Harry is the one without any friends.  He is bullied by his 
> cousin and is too weak to fight back.  His family hates him, and 
his 
> home life is miserable.  He is a virtual nobody.
> 
> Wizard Harry has powerful and devoted friends.  He is more then 
> capable of taking care of himself, and is in fact a sports hero.  
He 
> has a large adoptive family who love him very much, to the point of 
> fighting over him.  He is so famous that every child knows his name.
> 
> The problem is that Harry, consciously or not, sees himself as 
Muggle 
> Harry even in the wizarding world.  Laura took me to task for 
> comparing Harry to Snape because Harry isn't really bullied in the 
> wizarding world, and I pointed out that it is Harry himself who 
makes 
> the comparison.  Whereas Wizard Harry and Snape couldn't be more 
> different (and it is this Harry that Snape sees), Muggle Harry 
seems to 
> be an exact fit to the teenage Snape that we see in the Pensieve.
> 
> And Muggle Harry is poor.
> 
> Harry makes the point of noticing, even, that he can't bring any of 
> his wizard money home, because the Dursleys would take it away 
> from him.  When he's in the Muggle world, Harry has nothing - 
> everything he owns came from Dudley first, and was frequently 
> broken.  He often has nothing to eat.  Before PS, he sleeps in 
> a cupboard under the stairs.  It is only in the wizarding world 
that 
> Harry has possessions and the ability to purchase more of them.
> 
> I think Snape's life was the same (in fact, I'm waiting to find out 
> that the shouting man we see in Snape's memory is not his father 
> but his uncle).  The only difference is that when Snape came to 
> Hogwarts, his life didn't magically change - he was still poor, 
> weak and friendless.
> 
> No wonder he wanted to tear the world down.
> 
> Abigail


Laura:

I hope I wasn't overly harsh in my remarks-if I was, please accept my 
apologies!  I think this theory you're proposing is right on. 

 Historically, as a rule, people who are already winners in the 
societal game don't want to change the rules.  So revolutionaries are 
rarely aristocrats.  The Malfoys have absolutely no reason to foment 
an anti-Muggle revolution.  They're already getting their way via 
Fudge, and all it takes is some sycophancy and a bit of gold.  
Revolutions are so much work, after all.  But middle-class 
malcontents, constantly aware of their social limitations, are quite 
the opposite.  (I'm thinking here of the French revolutionaries, 
Lenin and Marx for starters.)  And the line between revolution and 
anarchy can be pretty shaky at times.  Even revolutionaries with a 
geuinely constructive sociopolitical ideology can find circumstances 
veering out of their control (again, look at the French Revolution 
and the Reign of Terror).  Then there are people who may call 
themselves revolutionaries, but they're nothing but very large scale 
haters.  I'd put Hitler here-and LV.  The real point of 
their "revolutions" is to get rid of people they hate.  Of course, 
the problem with this is that it eventually eats itself alive-and 
there's where anarchy comes in.  So  you get rid of all the Muggle-
borns.  You're still full of hatred, so next you look at people who 
are half-Muggle, or married to a Muggle, or...

Anyhow, it makes sense for Snape to be a middle-to-lower class 
malcontent who is teetering on the edge when he comes to Hogwarts.  I 
agree with your distinction between Muggle Harry and Wisarding Harry, 
and I think you can extend that to Snape.  (Maybe you could call them 
Dark Arts!Snape and Iconoclast!Snape.) We know that what motivates a 
person isn't how they appear to others but the way they feel about 
themselves.  Harry may not in fact be bullied at Hogwarts by anyone 
except Draco and friends, but he *feels* that he is.  And Snape may 
not in fact have been powerless against James but he *felt* that he 
was (according to Pensieve II-I belong to the Pensieve-scenes- are-
subjective school).  So yeah, Severus was ripe for the picking by the 
time the Prank was over.  It wasn't what really happened that tipped 
the balance but the way SS felt about what happened that sent him 
over.  

If that's the case, his coming back is exceptionally admirable-and 
I'm not a big Snape fan.  But overcoming the sorts of feelings he 
carried around for so many years in order to work for the good guys 
is pretty impressive.  Lucky for him he has Harry to help him release 
the emotional pressure, isn't it?