Snape's hero complex

[eloise_herisson]

No: HPFGUIDX 119343


Snorky:
> 
> 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. 

Eloise:
I think you're right and strangely enough this was pretty much the 
subject of my own delurk (31259) although I didn't call it a hero 
complex as such. Well, I'm not sure that I'd actually call it that 
now, but I certainly think that a desire for recognition is a huge 
part of what motivates him.

Snorky: 
> 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.)

Eloise:
It would indeed.


Snorky:
> 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. 

Eloise:
OK. I wouldn't exactly classify this as being heroic. I think he had 
a big problem with James et al and jealousy figures highly in my 
understanding of that. I wrote back then,


> 1) His hatred of Harry derives initially from his antipathy to 
James.  Like 
> Harry's and Draco's, this was  was  instinctive. It was exacerbated 
by his 
> jealousy of James's Quidditch skills, possibly academic envy (he is 
clearly 
> clever, yet James and Sirius were top of the year) the Sirius/Lupin 
incident 
> and the final insult of James saving his life. He sneaked around 
trying to 
> get them expelled for rule- breaking in the same way as he tries to 
get Harry 
> expelled.

Snorky:
>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.)

Eloise:
Yes. He has the wit to know what is happening re Quirrell and the 
courage to do something about it. Dumbledore clearly treats him as 
his right hand man and however mistaken he is regarding Sirius and 
Lupin, he *does* think he's saving Harry. However, as I wrote ,

> 7) In PS, we have no suggestion that Severus shares his mistrust of 
Quirrell 
> with D as he does later of Lupin. Why? I think that he is desperate 
to be the 
> one who protects the stone, who can take it safely to D, thus 
declaring both 
> his loyalty and his claim to favoured child status. This is why he 
is so keen 
> to keep Harry out of the way. And then the dratted child does it 
again! 
> Similarly, he wants it to be he who catches Sirius.
> 

Snorky:
> 
> 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. 
<snip>
>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.

Eloise:
Definitely. In 31259, I wrote 

> 6) In his dealings with Harry, Severus is obsessed with putting him 
in his 
> place, assuming that  he will have ideas of grandeur, that fame 
will go to 
> his head. I think he is aware, as the Sorting hat was, that Harry 
could have 
> done well in Slytherin and fears that Harry himself might be open 
to 
> corruption. Even worse, he is a rival in his relationship with D. D 
trusts 
> Severus, but he favours Harry. 

and again in 33668,

> I think it is acutely painful for him that 'famous Harry Potter' 
gets all the 
> credit for Voldemort's downfall when however much 'good' he has 
done is 
> secret. 
> 'Fame isn't everything' isn't just another nasty remark, it's a cri 
de coeur.

Snorky:
 <snip other examples of Snape's obsession with Harry's celebrity>

> 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.

Eloise:
And I think he genuinely believes he was right until the penny drops 
that just as he excluded Dumbledore from what *he* was up to, 
similarly Dumbledore hatched a plot with Harry and Hermione to rescue 
Sirius without letting him in on the secret. Not only has Dumbledore 
not confided in him, but Harry has played hero again and worse *with 
Dubledore's complicity*

Snorky: 
> Perhaps DD recognized the hero complex early on in Snape, and 
mentored
> him (see the excellent message 118948), 
(Ooh! That was me! Thank you so much!)
>to mold Snape into someone
> useful at some point in time against Voldemort. 

Eloise:
I confess that I had never developed the line of thought that far. I 
think it's entirely possible, though.

Snorky:
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. 

Eloise:
Mmm. He could. I think there's more than meets the eye in that 
particular loathing and have often wondered if perhaps he blames 
himself in part for what happened to the Longbottoms as I am sure he 
blames himself in part for what happened to James and Lily.

I quoted Rebecca as saying,

>I think 
> after he decided to turn against the DE's he wound up feeing 
>terrible about whatever it was he did do while he was really with 
>them and he became obsessed with the idea of doing something 
>important to redeem himself. If he was the spy who uncovered the 
>plot to kill James and Harry then you could  see how he might 
>consider this his big chance to make up for his past, not  just 
>because he owed James a favor but since everyone else loved James so 
> much then saving his life would be construed as really heroic. But 
>then  something went horribly wrong (thanks to Sirius, he believed) 
>and James  wound up dead anyway and whatever credit there was to 
>take was taken by  Harry. I think Snape gets so irrational around 
>Harry because Harry reminds  him of his guilt, regrets and failure 
>to really help James when he had the  chance. And I think he hates 
>James because James up and died. This would  also explain why Snape 
>is always running into the middle of dangerous situations to try to 
>fix them;  he's still trying to make up for his past and he still 
>winds up being  mistrusted and misunderstood for all his efforts.

I (Eloise) replied,
> I do think he's really angry at James for getting killed and that 
>now he 
> knows the truth,  he will still be angry with Sirius for being the 
> unintentional agent of his downfall. 
> 
> Incidentally, he is right, it was James' fault they got killed. 
>Sirius may 
> not have been the secret-keeper, but he trusted Sirius, rather than 
> Dumbledore who had wanted to take on the role.

The reason that I wouldn't describe it as a hero complex (although 
there is no doubt in my mind that he wants to be one) is that I think 
Snape has very specific needs when it comes to recognition. I think 
he genuinely wants to be pivotal in bringing down Voldemort, I think 
he has an intense rivalry with Harry, both to do with the fight 
against Voldemort and as a rival in his relationship with Dumbledore, 
I think he needs to prove himself to make up for his past. 

The whole thing is complicated by the fact that he both needs to make 
amends for failing to save a man he detested and also has to protect 
the son who is a constant reminder of him, his biggest rival and 
constantly in his way. I think he has plenty of reason to hate Harry.

~Eloise