Unreliable narrator (Was: Snape's stalling)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 116981


Alla wrote:
> 
> Oh, I disagree with that logic, Pippin. It reminds me of "Harry is 
> an unreilable narrator" argument, when it comes to Snape.
> 
> I think personally that the importance of such argument is GREATLY 
> exaggerated. Sure, Harry is quite an unreliable narrator in PS/SS, 
> because he is eleven and because Snape had been cleverly set up as 
> villain by the author. 
> 
> But with every book Harry's POV is widening and he is noticing more 
> and more things, so after OOP to me Harry is quite reliable. By the 
> same token, I don't think that "just because JKR does not want us to 
> trust Snape , does not mean that he is untrustworthy" is very strong 
> argument anymore. I want something stronger :o) and that brings us 
> to the second part of your post.

Carol responds:
Just a technicality here. Harry is not and never has been the
narrator. He is not telling his own story in the first person like
David Coperfield, Jane Eyre, or Huckleberry Finn. The (limited
omniscient) narrator of the HP books narrator is just a voice who
presents the action from a limited point of view, usually Harry's.
This restricted point of view prevents us from seeing all the action
or entering any other character's mind, except on those rare occasions
when JKR allows her narrator to see from, say, Voldemort's or Vernon
Dursley's or even Frank Bryce's POV. But Harry's POV is also that of a
child or teenager with limited experience, especially in the early
books, and definite preconceptions. So the narrator, who is *not*
Harry, *is* frequently unreliable. If he weren't, we would have known
from the outset that Crouch!Moody was a villain in GoF and that Sirius
was not really a captive in the MoM in OoP. JKR *needs* an unreliable
narrator.

Our view of the other characters, and Snape in particular, *is*
limited, and to some degree shaped and conditioned, by Harry's POV. We
need to tread carefully, to watch actions as well as listen to words,
 to distrust what Harry *knows* if it involves another character's
feelings or motivations. Even Dumbledore's reports of other people's
actions and motivations, though more reliable than Harry's perceptions
and preconceptions, are secondhand and incomplete. He provides a
plausible explanation for Snape's actions in several cases, but it's
only one of several reasons for the action (e.g., stopping the
Occlumency lessons or using a counterspell against Quirrell!mort to
keep him from killing Harry in SS/PS). DD doesn't lie about Snape,
IMO, but he tells Harry only as much as he thinks he needs to know, or
what he thinks he will believe, and not the whole truth.

My only real points here are 1) Harry is not the narrator, 2) the
narrator *is* and *must be* unreliable to sustain the element of
mystery not only in each book but throughout the series, and 3) it
*is* valid and in fact necessary to extend our observation of
characters beyond what Harry sees, if necessary ignoring his
interpretations and looking only at the words and actions as
objectively presented. Snape turned pale, fine. That's objective
reporting. Let the reader infer the reason for his pallor. Snape hated
Harry? Not fine. That's Harry's assumption, reflected in the
narrator's words, because the narrator is limited to his point of
view. We can't assume the truth of that or any other assertion based
on Harry's view of a conversation, action, event, or facial
expression, just as we have to guard against taking what any character
says as absolute fact. (How knowledgeable is the character? How likely
to be telling the truth? And if the truth, is it the whole truth?

Given all this, as well as the complexity of the time sequence (and if
I dare says so, JKR's lack of attention to details that her careful
readers notice), we really don't have sufficient information to judge
Snape's actions in OoP. I believe, based on the details that DD has
chosen to give Harry and, more important, DD's continuing trust in
Snape, that Snape did go into the forest and that he did communicate
instantly with DD using whatever means the Order members use to
communicate with each other. But I don't *know* that. I simply trust
DD's judgment of Snape over Harry's, as reflected not only in Harry's
thoughts and words but in the narrative as presented through his point
of view.

Carol, noting that a single (or limited) point of view, even that of
an intelligent and observant adult, is seldom wholly reliable