Whither Snape?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 127136


Whither Snape?

A few Snape thoughts, inspired by a number of recent threads but not responding to 
any one in particular.

SNAPE'S CHOICES

I see Snape as  a bundle of conflicting needs which he's too immature to resolve.   
There are a lot of immature aduts around Harry, which conveniently makes their 
motives something Harry, or any child his age, could comprehend. But it's not 
unusual, in the aftermath of a catastrophe, to have a "lost generation" who violate 
the norms of adult behavior. I think many in the Marauder years had to raise 
themselves because their parents were either overtaken by the  disaster or had to 
neglect their offspring in order to deal with it. 

Harry knew when he was Sorted that he could either be a decent wizard or a badass 
Slytherin, and he chose to be a decent wizard. Riddle chose the opposite, AFAWK.  
But Snape wants to be both, IMO. To be more specific, he'd like to treat other 
people as if he were a Malfoy or a Black, but he wants others  to treat him as if he 
were McGonagall.

That's not the only conflict.  Snape wants to be a big bad scary  Slytherin and he 
wants to win the order of Merlin. He wants to teach DADA, and he wants to see 
Potions get the respect it deserves. He wants to uphold Dumbledore and put Harry 
down. He wants to go back to hating James's memory in peace -- but when did 
hatred ever bring anything but conflict in the long run? 

Snape has a lot of choices to make, and I don't think we'll know what he is until he's 
made them. Yes, he's a sadist, and he probably always will be. But I think Rowling 
wants us to see that he could learn to control it, just as  Ron learned to control his 
jealousy,  Hermione has to control her interfering ways, and Harry has to control his 
anger.

SNAPE'S HATRED

I don't think Snape  hates Harry as a person, though I've gone back and forth on 
this.  I think Snape hates a lot of the things that Harry stands for, and a lot of the 
things that Harry's done or failed to do, (or that Snape thinks he has.) 

I don't think Snape picks on Harry because he's a kid any more than Harry was 
picking on Dudley in OOP because Dudders is a Muggle, or  Sirius was picking on 
Kreacher because Kreacher is a House Elf. The power differential made it possible, 
but it wasn't the reason. I don't think that Snape has something against kids in 
general, only kids who remind him of James.

That Harry isn't James is irrelevant to how Snape feels. As in  Kreacher's case it 
wasn't Kreacher but Kreacher's family who was the real target of Sirius's hate.  I 
know not everyone agrees with Dumbledore about this, but think about it. Sirius 
might have been deeply amused by Kreacher's recalcitrance, if only he'd been 
Molly's Elf instead. 

In the same way, I don't think Snape would have any special beef with Harry if Harry 
didn't look so much like James, and didn't project what Snape thinks is the same 
superior attitude.

TEACHING

Snape's teaching style is probably the only one that worked with him. Teaching 
Snape was probably like teaching the proverbial mule: he'll respond to kindness, but 
you might have to hit him over the head with a two by four first to get his attention. 
Snape, having failed to get Harry or Neville's attention, as shown by their consistent 
disregard of his instructions, thinks he has to keep whacking away at them. It could 
be he was as surprised as anyone to see that Harry did a better job at potions 
without Snape carping at him.  

SNAPE AND JAMES

We are told that James was everything Snape wanted to be, but we aren't told how 
James felt about that. I wouldn't be surprised if James wanted to feel that  he was  
graceful, good-looking, popular, wealthy and well-born because he deserved to be,  
not because he was  just lucky.

Much more comforting to find fault with  Snape, who after all knew so much 
forbidden magic and had such a churlish attitude toward Lily, than to think that  all 
James's  blessings were mere luck and might be gone in a turn of fate. Snape's into 
Dark Arts so he deserves to be a loser, right?  Of course James knew quite a lot of 
forbidden magic too, and for most of his time at Hogwarts seems to have been far 
more of a trial to Lily than Snape -- but it seems that  James never quite learned 
that Gryffindor is as Gryffindor does.

ROWLING ON SNAPE

I probably have a tendency to soften Snape's character a little too much, looking 
forward to what he might become if some of his rough edges are ever polished. And 
Rowling's comments don't encourage one to think they will be. But it  strikes me that 
some of Rowling's comments on Snape might be a trifle disingenuous -- when she 
seems to be mystified at why people like him or nonplussed by some of the theories. 
If she followed the fandom closely enough to know that people were spinning wild 
theories about Mark Evans, surely the much larger body of speculation about Snape 
could not have escaped her notice?

SNAPE'S FATE
I think Snape is going to have to make some of the choices I listed above, 
positively, I hope.  His anger and his distrust of Harry may hinder him, but if there's 
a disaster it will probably be brought on more by Harry's unjust anger and inability to 
let go of a grudge than Snape's. At the end of OOP, Harry was blaming Snape for 
Sirius's death in much the same way that Snape seems to blame Sirius for luring him 
into the werewolf's lair. And Harry has told himself that he's never, ever going to 
forgive.

Pippin