Cataloging Snape's Behavior, Pt. II CoS (very long)

[sophierom]

No: HPFGUIDX 115693


Carol wrote:

I think a catalogue of Snape's behavior in PoA need not be
incriminating as long as we realize that he is not privy to our
after-the-fact knowledge and that he has reasons for being unable to
view either Lupin or Black objectively. Snape is Snape, and of course
he's very far from perfect, but mistaken assumptions and prejudice
against werewolves (viewed by the writers of Harry's textbooks and the
entire WW as Dark Creatures) don't make him evil.

Sophierom:

When I get to cataloguing Snape's behavior in PoA (which will be soon,
I hope), I think, like Carol, that canon won't show Snape to be evil
... but, I do think we'll see Snape in a much less complimentary light
than we saw at the end of PS/SS and CoS (and that's saying a lot as
he's certainly not looking very nice - from Harry's pov - in either of
those books.)  In the first book, he's the villain who turns out to be
on the good side.  In the second book, he's mean, yes, but in
comparison to Lockhart, he looks like a pretty decent teacher (aside
from his cruelty to Neville) and an important member of the staff.  

In contrast, PoA puts him against Lupin, a very sympathetic character.
And even if we take those things into consideration that Carol
mentions (Sirius's practical joke, very real fear of Werewolves, and -
the one I think most important - Snape's belief that Lupin is helping
a murderous Sirius Black) - even if we consider these things, Snape
comes out looking foolish (at least from my earlier readings of the
book).  Not evil, but foolish for holding onto prejudices and
assumptions that don't fit reality by the end of the book.  This is
purely an impression I've gotten from reading PoA in the past, which
is why I want to go back through and look specifically at all the
Snape scenes/references in the book again and try to investigate
whether this impression is really as valid as I think it is.  But hey,
as potioncat's recent TBAY "Rolling Cannon" post points out, we can
often use canon to back up our interpretations, rather than use canon
to create out interpretations. We'll see.

Sophierom