Snape's cover/Hermione, Snape and all that jazz

[oh have faith]

No: HPFGUIDX 69889

Darrin says:

>> 1) Angelic Snape - He knew Harry and Ron weren't speaking to each 
> other and wanted to give them a common enemy to bond against AND 
he 
> wanted to give Hermione an excuse to fix her teeth. But he cried 
> later, when he thought of what he had to do.
> 
> 2) Greater Good Snape - Snape is all about the cause. He knew 
Draco 
> and the gang would be lulled into a false sense of security, which 
> would weaken them for when the big fight happens.
> 
> 3) Taking His Shots Snape - He saw the shot and took it. Laughed 
> himself silly about it later and thanked the god of comedy send up 
> lines. Nothing personal, Granger, but damn, you can't let those go.
> 
> 4) Greater Bad Snape - Wants to weaken Hermione by taking the 
shot, 
> apologizing later so she trusts him. Then. BANGY! 
> 
> 5) Satan Snape - He was hoping the teeth would pierce her chest 
and 
> enter her filthy heart.


LOL!  I like the Snape-scale.  I'd go with a 2.5 interpretation as 
well myself, as I'm convinced Snape is neither angel nor devil but 
somewhere in between.  In this case, possibly misjudged, but not 
actually Satan.  Taking His Shots Snape is appealing too - I'm sure 
our potions master is absolutely riddled with self-loathing, but if 
there's anything about himself he is proud of, it would be his witty 
tongue.  Because Lord knows it can't be his looks or his people 
skills!  Besides, he strikes me as a man who likes to be the best at 
stuff - and he's no good at being nice to people, so why even bother 
to try?  On the other hand, get out a zinger like that, and I can 
picture him chortling all the way back to his office 
thinking; "Damn, I'm on form today!"  Again, no excuse to be cruel, 
but equally nothing personal about Hermione. 

JDR says:

> Now Snape: back in the day, all a teacher had to do to be a 'good' 
> teacher was know his/her stuff, which Snape clearly does. He's not 
> the school shrink; not his problem if feelings get hurt. The tooth 
> comment was a cheap shot, but hey. He had to say something. (Why? 
> Because, okay? Nothing in life is more important than a good line.)
> 
> I've said it before and I'll say it again: we Americans are *way* 
>too fragile psychologically, and we project that onto our children 
>in a manner that does them no favors. Too many of us on this forum 
>are allowing non-existent people to open up old wounds and pour 
>salt in them. Book V is teaching us a lesson which will stand us in 
>good stead in life: dig in, because if you thought it was bad up to 
>now, well, it's about to get *real* ugly...
> 
 
I say:

Yes yes!  There is another, rather glaring aspect of the Snape 
character that explains his actions, besides his general fetish for 
evil.  The man is British, and he's old-fashioned.  (I'm
British 
too, before anyone accuses me of raving prejudice).   Things are 
leaning the other way now, but the British typically attach less 
importance to psychological pain than Americans do.  The sarcastic 
put down is kind of a staple part of our vocabulary – I can think
of 
many people, both real life and fictional, who would have 
considerably less to say without it. 

  I'm only
 *counts backwards* seven years out of school
myself, but 
I can't imagine any of my teachers pausing to weigh up the
emotional 
consequences before they wielded that ultimate weapon; the witty put-
down.  It's an effective way of controlling a class, and when
you've 
got thirty hormone-crazy mixed up adolescents to deal with all at 
once, well, I'm just impressed they could think of anything to
say 
at all.  The damage it does also depends to a certain extent on what 
you're used to – if you don't expect your teachers to
have any 
regard for your personal feelings, then it's hardly a crushing
shock 
when they zing you.  And if you know a particular teacher has an 
acid tongue, you tend not to take it personally because you know 
they do it to everyone.  

Of course, this is all generalization based on my personal 
experience, and I'm not saying that British kids are all
amazingly 
well-adjusted as a result because I know damn well we're not
– I'm 
just saying there is a slightly different cultural standard at play 
here.  And if you read the old British school stories that I'm
sure 
JKR was influenced by, you'll find that as an archetypal British 
Boarding School teacher, Snape's not even that sadistic.  I'd
almost 
call him fluffy.  At least his bark is generally worse than his bite.

^_^  Faith's Girl