Snape--Abusive?

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 115014


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Magda Grantwich 
<mgrantwich at y...> wrote:

<snippity>
 
> So I think abusive is definitely an over-the-top description of
> Snape's behaviour.

Perhaps what we should, communally, try to think through is the 
difference between 'abusive towards a person' and 'abuse of power'.  
The latter is, of course, JKR-interview-canon, and has been cited so 
repeatedly that I don't think I need to go hit the quote again ('this 
particular teacher abuses his power', you know the drill).

But we might see that as a different thing to being abusive towards a 
person.  I find myself leaning towards the position that Snape isn't 
outright so abusive to Harry, but is, to some degree, to Neville.  I 
think he is fully conscious of what his words and attention do to the 
kid, knows that it isn't really getting through or doing anything, 
but does it anyway.  Part of it is frustration, but keep in mind that 
keeping tight control on a class does not require that one be 
continually abrasive, *outside* of one's own class as well.  
(Badmouthing a student to another teacher is something best done in 
private, after all.)

I think Snape has a canonical tendency to rather enjoy causing 
discomfiture to others, primarily of the emotional kind, EVEN THOUGH 
he often does not actually take physical action against them.  [Side 
note: isn't this something of what's going on in the Shrieking Shack 
scene?  He may well have no intention of actually turning Black 
directly over to the Dementors (and he doesn't--he takes Black into 
the castle when he wakes back up), but boy howdy does he enjoy 
turning the screws, even when Black is begging him to listen.]  
That's why I'd call him *something* of a sadist--although certainly 
not Bella or Umbridge class.  All slippery slope arguments against 
this qualified application of the world can take the twisty slide 
down. :)

[Side note two: anyone here know the famous Dostoyevsky personal 
story, about how he was going to be executed and right before it was 
going to happen they said "Oh, we're not actually going to do it--
just a little encouragement to scare you good so you'll straighten up 
and fly right?"  That falls under the heading of sadism, to me.]

I hope this might be a useful distinction to make.

-Nora watches the sun set entirely too early, and treks out into the 
cold