Snape's anger and redemption (was: agent in SS)

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52293

Melody said:

>>  And as much as people want to sugar coat Snape and keep 
him away from all the  "bad" things the DE's do, frankly you are 
cheapening his redemption. For what is redemption anyway, if 
you have never done anything wrong?<<

This has come up a couple of times lately, this idea that only evil 
characters need redemption, or that redemption only "bangs" if 
the characters are evil.

 The thing is, people don't get redeemed from evil. They get 
rescued from evil (hopefully). What they get redeemed from is 
*sin.*  There are a lot of definitions  but  in my tradition anyway, 
sin is often thought of as a narrow place, some place so small 
there's only room in it for you and your troubles.

 In terms of the Potterverse, it could be a snake's body, or a 
dungeon lined with jars full of unspeakable things, or a train 
corridor, or a purple turban.  But it could also be a toilet stall,
or a tiny room lined with posters of a losing team, or even a 
cupboard under the stairs. A  character doesn't have to be evil to 
need redemption, to need  a path out of the narrow place.  What 
Quirrell lost sight of  when he came to believe there is no good 
and evil, is that the path exists. 

Harry has never murdered anybody, but when he intervenes to 
save Pettigrew, he redeems himself from the blind anger that 
blew up Aunt Marge. He moves out of the narrow place. He does 
it, traditionally enough, by recognizing a higher power. He does 
what he thinks his father would have wanted. 

Since we're talking about characters, not people, it's irrelevant 
whether Snape  ever murdered.  He was a servant of Voldemort. 
We and Dumbledore know those who serve Voldemort are 
willing to kill, torture and enslave for no reason except that their 
master commands it.  Snape, though he longs for a reason to 
kill Sirius, and IMO does his damnedest to provoke Sirius into 
giving him one, appears no longer willing to kill except in 
self-defense. 

Snape's anger is now limited to verbal assaults, and this is less 
evil because it's usually less damaging, but his anger is not 
necessarily less. Evil, you could say, is about how sin looks 
from the outside. It's a judgement about the threat, not the 
sinfulness.  

Pippin