Cataloging Snape's Behavior, Pt. I - PS/SS (very long)

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 114964


"sophierom" wrote:
> 
> After reading all of these posts on Snape lately, I find myself
> blinking in amazement at some of the extreme responses he's 
garnered.
> I suppose I shouldn't be surprised; he is a fascinating character. 
> But, being an admitted Snape-phile, I was rather shocked to read 
that
> there were those out there who considered Snape more evil than
> Voldemort and hoped that he died some sort of horrible death by the
> end of the series.  
> 
> As I said, I'll admit openly to liking the character of Snape.  
Note,
> this doesn't mean I like all of his actions, nor do I want to make
> excuses for him.  But, I did want to clarify, for myself, the things
> we see him do in canon.  And so, in a grand effort to avoid my own
> work, I've gone the first book and picked out every scene with 
Snape.
>  I've tried to give a short, objective summary, but then I've also
> included my own take on the behavior. I hope to do this with the 
next
> four books as well, time permitting. We'll see.
<snip the extensive log>

Neri:

I liked your log, sophirom. It is takes considerably more effort to 
actually read JKR, especially in a methodical way, than sprout fandom 
opinions and theories. I hope you'll also get to CoS and the other 
books, because as you mention yourself Snape's characterization in 
SS/PS is problematic. JKR uses him there as the red herring villain, 
so she must make him look very suspicious. This is why I don't give 
much weight to sentences like "cold and empty eyes that made you 
think of dark tunnels" in SS/PS. However, it will be interesting if 
such characterization appears again in CoS and PoA because in these 
books Snape is not a suspect.

I suspect that our view of Snape (as well as our view of Ron, Neville 
and DD) was determined in the first book. We somehow expect SS/PS to 
be a small model of the entire saga. So we expect Ron to sacrifice 
himself for the cause at the moment of truth (while Hermione will 
stay in one piece), we expect Neville to do something small that will 
tip the scales for the side of good, we expect DD to have the right 
answers for all the questions and we expect Snape to be a good guy 
disguised as the bad guy. Perhaps we're right. But then, perhaps 
we're completely wrong. 

Neri