Stopper in Death - Brew/Bottle/Stopper

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 111931

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Matt" <hpfanmatt at g...> wrote:
> Dungrollin asks:
> > I understood 'even stopper death' to mean put death in a 
> > bottle with a stopper, i.e. 'even bottle death'....
> > Did anyone else understand it in this way, or am I just 
> > being weird?

> Matt responds:
> 
>  Snape ... introduce the subject of potions and says "I can
> teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death."  The
> typo in the quotation reflected in the subject line ("stopper in
> death") might be misunderstood, but "stopper death" can't mean
> anything but to put death in a bottle -- particularly when it is
> juxtaposed with "bottle fame."  
> 
> Now, perhaps there could be some disagreement as to what it means to
> put death in a bottle. I assumed that Snape had simply chosen a
> poetic way to refer to poisons.  ... 
> 
> -- Matt

Asian_lovr2:

For starters, Snape has a theme going in his little speech; Brew,
Bottle, and Stopper; brew it up, put it in a bottle, and put a cork in
it. So to some extent when he refers to 'stopper', he is just
continuing that theme. To some extent, carrying the figure of speech
or theme through puts a limit on the absolute accuracy of the
statement. I guess you could call it poetic license.

As to the meaning of 'stopper', it means, put a cork in it, as in put
a cork or a stopper in a bottle. That could be view in different ways.
It could mean to contain death, not contain it as in 'what's in this
bottle will kill you', but to contain it the way an plague or epidemic
is contained. So, the interpretation would be, what's in this bottle
will stave off death, keep it at bay, or to cause death to stop.

Formal definitions - (Am. Heritage 3rd Ed/CD-ROM)
stopper - n. 1. A device, such as a cork or plug, that is inserted to
close an opening. 2. ***One that causes something to stop: a
conversation stopper.

Other's, as noted, are reading stopper death, as being the same as
'bottle death'. This bottle is filled with a substance that will cause
death. The alternate is that this bottle contains a substance that
will prevent death (presumably within reasonable limits).

I've always interpreted it as 'contain death' as in keep death at bay
or keep death away. 

Again, I want to emphasize that Snape's statement is colored or
distorted by his attempt to make everything fit in the
'Brew/Bottle/Stopper' theme. That makes his statement more poetically
colorful than absolutely literal.

Just a thought.

Steve/asian_lovr2 (was bboy_mn)