Moral, Immoral, and Amoral: Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Snape

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 139107

Vivian wrote:
"Moral, Immoral, and Amoral: Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Snape
 
Amoral: "Lacking moral sensibility, not caring about right and wrong."
American Heritage® Dictionary

Ever since I started reading the Harry Potter books I have never been
 able to shake the feeling that Snape reminded me of the character 
Iago, from "Othello."  Iago is a very complex, "amoral" villain, very
 different from the "immoral" Voldemort. Immoral villains are easy to
spot. You can understand what motivates them—everything is black and 
white. Amoral villains, however, are complex and often difficult to 
understand. They are often more devious and manipulative."

Del replies:
I disagree with your classification. The way I see it, it's LV who is
amoral, while Snape is immoral.

First off, if anyone is amoral in the Potterverse, it's LV *by
definition*. LV is a sociopath (by JKR's own admission, and judging by
his behaviour), and one of the main characteristics of a sociopath is
that they lack morality, that they are amoral. Quirrell said it
(paraphrase): LV taught him that "there is no right and wrong, only
power and those too weak to use it". That's LV's motto, that was
*always* LV's motto. No right and wrong, only power and those too weak
to use it. No good and evil, no good magic and Dark Magic, only
powerful magic and those too weak to use it.

LV is not immoral, he's amoral. He's not doing bad stuff just because
it's bad stuff, he's only doing what serves him best. Sometimes what
serves him best is evil, but sometimes it is good, and he's not
bothered by acting good at all. When playing the part of the good
little orphan was what served him best, that's what he did (contrarily
to Snape, who never understood the power of playing a part). When
playing the obedient and diligent employee was what served him best,
that's what he did. When seducing an old lady was what served him
best, that's what he did. When playing the humble would-be teacher who
puts himself at the command of DD (DD, of all people!) was what he
thought would serve him best, that's the part he played. And if he had
found a proof that Love Magic is indeed the strongest magic in the
world, I'm sure he would have studied it. IOW, LV is not against good,
he's not deliberately choosing evil, he's only choosing what will
serve him best to attain his goals. Remember that he was even willing
to let Lily live! He only killed her because she was preventing him
from getting to his goal, Harry.

Snape, on the other hand, does evil because he *enjoys* it. He had no
*logical* reason to attack Harry the way he did right from their first
lesson. You can bet that LV would never have acted like that. LV would
at least have taken the time to observe Harry, and then he would have
reflected on what was the best way to attain his goal concerning
Harry, whatever it would have been (destroying him, seducing him,
corrupting him, using him as a spy, whatever). But Snape immediately
went to work belittling Harry, because that's what gave him
*pleasure*. Hurting Harry gave him too much pleasure to refrain from
it for the sake of a greater purpose.

Same with the Occlumency lessons. LV would have been way too happy to
have a rightful reason to invade Harry's thoughts to throw it away
like Snape did. But Snape chose to nurse his hurt feelings and to
punish Harry, because that gave him *more satisfaction*.

LV would never have bothered bullying Neville, first because that
risked putting him at odds with the Headmaster and second because it
furthered no hidden plan (no, I don't believe in the "toughening
Neville up" theories - Neville grew up with his Gran and his
great-uncle Algie, he doesn't need any further toughening.) But Snape
just can't help himself, he gives him too much pleasure to humiliate
Neville, so he keeps at it.

LV doesn't get a kick out of hurting people just for the sake of it.
When he hurts people, it's always to further his agenda, to somehow
get more power. But Snape enjoys hurting people for the sake of
hurting them. He doesn't need a further motive, just seeing them hurt
is enough.

So IMO Snape is IMmoral, while LV is Amoral.

To answer some of your questions:

"Unlike the two-dimensional Voldemort, Snape's motivations are an
enigma.  What motivates Snape? Do we really know? What made him become
a DE? And what made him switch sides? Finding out this information is
key to figuring out Snape. "

Snape's motivation, to me, is simply Snape and what is best for Snape.
In that way, he seems amoral. However, the huge difference I see
between Snape and LV is that Snape is aware that selfishness and
selfcenteredness are bad, and that there are many other different
kinds of attitude to choose from, while LV isn't. I believe that Snape
*chose* to be selfish and self-centered, just like Peter did, while LV
never chose to be so because he never saw any alternative. Snape knew
that there are other courses to pursue but to further one's own
interests, other more noble, better courses. And yet he chose to
further his own interests at the expense of everything else. LV, OTOH,
was never aware that he could devote his life to anything else but his
own interests.

"Whether you believe that Snape is a liar, or an evil or good person,
his behavior is often a riddle. Why is he so "sadistic" and "deeply
horrible" to Harry and the other children?"

Easy: because he enjoys it. He's sadistic, he enjoys hurting people.
Many many people have a sadictic side, including me, but most of us
try to refrain that side of us, because we want to do what IS good
instead of what FEELS good. But Snape is immoral, he doesn't strive to
do good, he will favour what feels good over what is good anytime,
unless he has a serious reason to stop himself.

"Why does Dumbledore trust him if he is responsible for making
Voldemort focus his attention on the Potter family?"

Because there's something BIG for Snape in DD's trust (I have an idea
about what that something big is, I'll post on it one of these days).
Something so big that DD can safely trust that nothing else will be
more alluring to Snape.

JMO, of course.

Del