Snape and the meaning of courage

[aggiepaddy]

No: HPFGUIDX 105790

 Katie wrote:
> >>Snape subscribes to a certain world view shared by many people
> (though not by most of the HP characters), namely, the idea
> of "strong" and "weak" (inferior) people, and all that goes along
> with that. It is well summed up in Snape's explanation of what he
> considers to be "weak":
> "Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot
> control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow
> themselves to be provoked this easily..."
> (I'd say it sounds like Snape is describing Sirius. I don't think
> Snape fans and Sirius fans are opposing groups, but I DO think that
> Snape and Sirius represent opposites in many ways.)<<

HunterGreen: 
> I've always thought that Snape was describing himself in his 
younger 
> days (actually, it never occured to me that he was talking about 
> Sirius, although it does describe Sirius pretty well). I think he 
was 
> going off on a little tangent, some of which didn't really concern 
> Harry. 


Me,Aggie,

Of course!! I knew I should have re-read the part where Snape says 
that.  That was my original take on his words, the first time I read 
them!  He considered himself weak when he was younger.  D'Oh!  I 
still thnk that he was referring to Sirius as well though.



HunterGreen: 
 As to his statement, it doesn't necessitate people being emotionless,
> just not dictated by their emotions. He was trying to impress the 
> need to *control* emotion. 


Aggie:
I agree, I was going to add an extra thought to my original reply 
post to this but I'll add it here instead!

I stated earlier (if it ever gets on the list ;o))  that I believed 
he thought that being weak would more than likely end up with you 
being dead.  If Harry hadn;t been so ruled by his emotions then he 
would have waited for confirmation that Sirius HAD been taken to the 
DoM and things would have worked out much differently.  Hermione kept 
on trying to get this point across.  Her logical mind (as someone 
pointed out earlier) realised that this was foolhardy and likely to 
end in disaster.  She was constantly trying to get Harry to calm down 
and think before acting.  This is what I would imagine Snape to do in 
the same situation.  It's not that he's being 'cold' or emotionally 
retarded it's just their way.  It's the philosphy of 'take a deep 
breath, count to 10 and think before you act'.


Katie:
> >> I'm sure that Snape's idea of courage has more to do with 
> preservation of one's image of self-control and superiority above 
all 
> else. That's not my idea of courage (though I'm sure there are some 
> out there who would disagree with me.)<<

HunterGreen:
 Maybe that's not his idea of courage, but rather one of his personal 
> values? I think that Snape believes in courage in the face of 
> *anything*.  
 

Aggie:  I agree with this Rebecca