Wondering.... about Snape & McGonagall

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 116675


SSSusan wrote re Snape and McGonagall:
> > You're right, we don't hear her call him fair.  OTOH, we don't 
> > hear her saying he's *not* fair, either, rolling her eyes 
> > about "yet another Snape story" from the students, or etc.  She 
> > *does* let her true feelings show--even in front of a classroom of 
> > students--concerning Divination & Trelawney, so I'd rather expect 
> > her to let *something* show, too, regarding Snape if, indeed, 
> > she thought he wasn't fair.  
> > 
> > Perhaps she does know he's unfair at times but is bothered less by 
> > that than she is by an entirely fraudulent subject, which is what 
> > she sees Divination to be.  
> <snip> 
> 
Dungrollin responded:
> I think that McGonagall and DD have a pretty good idea of how unfair 
> Snape is.  <snip>
> However, what I suspect that DD and MM aren't aware of, is the 
> venomous malice with which Snape treats Harry when there aren't
> any adult witnesses.  They're both aware that Snape can be unfair,
> but since they don't see the full extent of his unpleasantness,
> they assume that it can't be doing that much harm. Kids often take a 
> teacher's attitude personally, so they may assume that Harry
> hates Snape disproportionately to how much Snape hates Harry, thus 
> laugh it off.  Potter'll grow out of it.  It won't do any
> lasting damage.
> 
> If they were fully aware of how nasty he can be, I think they'd 
> disapprove somewhat.
> 
> Dungrollin

Carol responds:
As an earlier thread (or probably about a dozen such threads) points
out, we see Snape from Harry's POV. When the narrator says something
like "Snape didn't just dislike Harry. He hated him," we are seeing
Harry's interpretation of Snape's words and expressions. We do know
from Snape himself that he regards Harry as arrogant and a rule
breaker and he has more than once suspected him (not always falsely)
of lying. But we don't know Snape's *thoughts.* Neither Harry himself
nor the narrator who reports from his limited and sometimes distorted
point of view really *knows* anything about any other character. It's
all observation and perception and sometimes guesswork and assumption.
In fact, what we're seeing is how much Harry hates Snape, and on
occasion, how angry Snape is at Harry, but never that Snape actually
hates Harry. He repeatedly attempts to keep Harry out of trouble and
on more than one occasion, has tried to save his life. That's hard to
reconcile with genuine hatred.

Where we apparently agree is that if Dumbledore or McGonagall thought
Snape was doing lasting harm to the students, they would voice their
disapproval. Clearly, in the harsh world of the WW for which Hogwarts
is preparing these students, Snape's unfairness and occasional
ridicule are teaching a lesson even more valuable than the potions and
antidotes they are learning to make: how to cope with unpleasant
reality when they are adults. Those who make life too easy for their
children (like the Dursleys) or their students (Snape with the
Slytherins?) are, IMHO, doing them no favor in the WW or the real world.

Carol