Question for Snape Bashers

[davewitley]

No: HPFGUIDX 102088

Alla wrote :

> > > I am also in agreement with Batchevra - if Snape is uncapable 
of 
> > > overcoming those effects of the abuse, let him hate those 
childrein 
> > > in private, but not take it out on them.
> > 
> > Del replies :
> > Why should we expect him to do that ?? Nobody is forbidding him 
from
> > doing it, and I suspect he gets some kind of twisted pleasure 
out of
> > it. So why ever should he restrain from doing it ??

Darrin:

> Why should we expect him to do that?
> 
> For the same reason I expect my neighbor not to let his dog crap 
on my lawn.
> 
> For the same reason I expect the person behind me at the grocery 
store not to 
> bump into my heels with a shopping cart.
> 
> For the same reason I expect my co-workers to do their job and not 
stick it on 
> me.

Yes, but your expectations are founded on your experience of your 
local version of the world.  Can we assume those expectations apply 
to the culture we see at Hogwarts?

The question is, I think, whether JKR has given us reasons to 
believe that Snape behaves as he does because, in effect, he can't 
help it, or because he chooses to.

If we think it's because he can't help it, then we may feel that he 
ought not to be a teacher, but in that case, we have a new question: 
why does Dumbledore allow him to continue to teach?  In Alla's words 
if Snape is 'incapable of overcoming the effects of abuse', how is 
he to apply the advice that list members have for him?  Incapable is 
incapable.

David, who would be interested in Darrin's response to Pippin's 
original question