Snape's hero complex

[curlyhornedsnorkack]

No: HPFGUIDX 119148


Would a hero complex explain Snape's actions thoughout the series? I
think he wants to be recognized as a great hero. I've looked around
and I don't think this issue has been covered. 

If Snape is suffering from a hero complex, it could explain a lot of
things about him: his pride, his thirst for recognition and respect,
his actions towards Harry and the Marauders,  why he joined and left
the death eaters, his willingness to risk his life to fight Voldemort,
 possibly why Dumbledore trusts him, and why he wasn't allowed to be
DADA teacher. (I write "hero complex", a boring old cliche for Harry's
"problem", on purpose.)

There are so many issues involved that I'm going to tackle only a few:
whether he has a hero complex, whether it could explain why Snape
behaves  so badly towards Harry, and why Dumbledore might trust him.

The following are some proofs of his works as a hero. When Snape was a
student, he worked to expose a werewolf, and to expell some school
bullies at his own risk. In SS/PS, Snape is the only teacher who works
in the background to save Harry and the stone.  In POA, Dumbledore
relies on Snape to be in charge of searching for Sirius in the
building.  In the shrieking shack, Snape thinks he is saving Harry's
life from Sirius. And of course, Snape has risked his life to spy on
the Death Eaters.  (The recent message 119077 mentions examples of how
Snape has been a force for good.)

I've always had a problem imagining Snape  as a realistic character
because I can't envisage how a grown man could have so much hatred for
a child, because of something that happened in the past, especially a
child orphaned before he even knew his father. I think the problem is
that something current is bothering Snape, and that is that Harry is a
rival Hero who is more successful. They have a similar background. 
Both Harry and Snape at a young age are out to prove themselves (so
says the hat about Harry, although Snape probably made more effort in
his exams than Harry probably makes.) If the scenes Harry saw from
Snape's memories are about Snape, both of them are or were poor with 
bad clothes and stress-filled family lives. Both try to fix things
that are wrong. Both are good at dueling.  But Harry has all the
glory, almost from birth, for something for which he isn't really
responsible. It't just not fair, and Snape hates it when people don't
play by the rules.  The degree to which  Snape seems to fixate on
Harry's celebrity indicates to me that Harry's fame is what bothers
him most.  The first thing Snape says to him  is "Ah yes, Harry
Potter. Our new - celebrity". PS/SS.) Two of Snape's first three lines
are about Harry's celebrity. No other teacher finds celebrity a fault,
and only the two oddballs, Lockhart, and Trelawney give his celebrity
any importance. In POA Snape berates Harry for escaping to Hogwarts
while everone is trying to "keep famous Harry Potter safe". In OOTP
Snape actually wants to know whether Harry feels special or important.
 Then Snape  emphasises it again by telling  Harry that he is neither
special nor important.  In OOTP, Snape emphasises his rivalry, (in my
opinion, at least) when he puts Harry down by telling him that he's a
"lamentable potion-maker". There are more examples than I have time to
list. 

Being special is really important to Snape. There are numerous
examples of Snape demanding to be treated with respect. Also, the two
people who seem to handle him best, MG and DD, never call him just
"Snape", and insist to Harry that he always talk of him as "Professor
Snape".

In POA, when Snape is apoplectic with rage at Harry when he find out
that Sirius has escapes. A reason given by Lupin is that Snape is not
going to be given an award for bravery.

Perhaps DD recognized the hero complex early on in Snape, and mentored
him (see the excellent message 118948), to mold Snape into someone
useful at some point in time against Voldemort. He would be 
particularly useful because he was a Slytherin.  

(I wonder if we'll learn something in the future about a prophesy for
Snape, one deeply unsatisfying to him, in which he learns he'll be the
man who helped the man who gets rid of Voldemort. In other words, he's
always playing second fiddle. I also wonder if Snape and everyone else
in the OOTP had heard of Harry's prophesy a long while before.(I've
seen this discussed about Harry's parents.) Snape could hate Neville
Longbottom as well for being a possible Hero. 

I wish I could flesh this out but I just don't have time. Go ahead if
you please.