Why ole Snapey is a vamp was Re: No fire in the office

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 88127


> Carol wrote:
> > Nope. Snape is sufficiently complicated without adding being a 
> vampire to the mix. <
> 
Pippin responded:
> This part I don't follow. One might as well say that Hermione is 
> sufficiently complicated without being  Muggleborn . Rowling has 
> given a great many of her characters conditions  which they  did 
> not choose,  can't change, and against which there is very strong 
> cultural bias. 

Carol again:
I just meant that Snape is sufficiently complicated with purely human
motives and problems (including the great danger he's facing from
Voldemort, the difficulty of maintaining his cover as a spy or double
agent or whatever he is, and the memories of his abused/neglected
childhood and adolescence). I really see no need to add being a
vampire to the mix. What I do want to know is more about his family.
His father, in the tiny glimpse we have of him, looks like Voldemort's
ideal DE. What happened to him? And what about Snape's mother? Did she
love him? Why was she apparently unable to protect him? With the
exception of Mrs. Black, we have yet to see a mother who doesn't love
her son, even though some (Petunia and Narcissa) show that love
through misdirected indulgence. Two mothers (Lily and Mrs. Crouch)
have died to save their sons. So where does Snape's mother fit in?
That's much more interesting to me than some half-human or nonhuman
condition. Maybe there's a connection between her death and his
joining--or leaving--the Death Eaters. Snape is interesting in his own
right and in his relationships with other characters, particularly
Harry (and maybe Draco in Book 6--How will Lucius Malfoy's arrest
affect Snape's relationship with his Slytherin students?) We just
don't need "cultural bias" in connection with Snape. It fits better
with characters we know less and care less about. ("Care" is possibly
the wrong word; even Snape-haters have an emotional investment in him
and in their interpretation of him. Too bad we never see that kind of
animosity directed at Voldemort, who I'm afraid is a disappointment as
a character, though he has his moments in GoF.)

>  Carol wrote:
> >> I just want to know why he joined the Death Eaters and why 
> he quit and what he's up to now. That's plenty, don't you think?<<
> 
Pippin: 
> And you don't think being a vampire could have a teensy weensy 
> bit of something to do with that? <g>  I am not saying that being a 
> vampire is the sole explanation for his bad attitude or that it  
> gives him an excuse for joining the Death Eaters. That's too 
> simple. But suppose, as a young man, Snape believed  that   
> wizarding society  would never,ever accept or value him for what 
> he truly is,  and that Voldemort and his followers would. 
> Tempting, I think.  And there is plenty of relevance to the real 
> world. 
> 
Carol again:
I certainly agree with you that as a (very) young man, Snape would
have found it tempting to seek acceptance with a group that
appreciated his knowledge of potions and the dark arts, and he may
well have nursed a grudge Dumbledore for the treatment he had received
at Hogwarts. I can see his older friend Lucius tempting him in that
direction. And Voldemort would have been interested, too, in an
unquestionably intelligent young man who (as Malfoy perhaps told him)
had shown a gift for hexes at a very tender age--and a known contempt
for Muggle-borns. I think he was essentially in the same position as
Regulus Black, only more of a potential asset to the DEs than the weak
and expendable Regulus. There is simply no need for vampirism, innate
or acquired, in the psychological portrait of Severus Snape.

Carol