Celibate Snape (Was:Harry's story , NOT Snape's )

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 139132

Merry Kinsella wrote:
<snip>
> > Anyhow, the "love story" that mosts interests me where Snape is
concerned is what I perceive to be his platonic love with Dumbledore.
 Possibly the only healthy experience of love in his life, and a mere
first step toward any other kind.  Sort of a parental need fulfilled,
late in life.
> > 
> <big snip>
 
> 
colebiancardi responded:
> very good post, merylanna.  This is how I view Snape - I certainly 
> don't find him sexy or attractive in the least.  His character is 
> what engages me, not his looks.  He doesn't strike me as a *sexual* 
> being, but more of a cerebral one - the only thing that I can think 
> of being *sexy* about him is his manner of speaking - it is always 
> smoothly, silkily....but then JKR throws in the coldly and 
> unemotionally bits as well - which is NOT sexy or passionate at all.
> 
> colebiancardi

Carol adds:
Although I would add Snape's sweeping movements and billowing black
robes to his voice and wit as elements that make him sexy for some
readers (or compelling, mysterious, and Byronic, if you prefer), I
agree with merylanna that the love that matters is his personal
relationship with his father figure/mentor Dumbledore. I see his
rivalry with MWPP, especially James, in his teens as something like
sibling rivalry. He wants DD's affection and approval, yet James (that
spell stealer and bully in Severus's view) is the favorite son. I
could go into more detail here and provide canon support for this
idea, but I don't want to go off topic. (I do have a question, though.
Anyone have any idea as to why Severus apparently wasn't chosen as
Slytherin Prefect in his fifth year, *before* the Pensieve incident
and the so-called Prank?) Certainly the man in Snape's childhood
memory, whom I take to be Grandpa Prince rather than Tobias because he
does not seem to be a Muggle, would not have provided young Severus
with the approval he seems to crave--and Dumbledore's trust of the
adult Snape could provide a substitute for the love and approval he
never received from the father figure of his childhood.

I agree with colebiancardi that many of Snape's passions are not
sexual but intellectual (an early interest in the Dark Arts, a love of
potions, a determination to know *everything* about DADA, as indicated
by his DADA OWL, crammed with details in his tiny handwriting,
inventing his own spells and improvements on potions in his teens or
earlier, his walls full of books at Spinner's End, the ongoing
challenge of fooling the Dark Lord through Occlumency and undetected
lies). But I think his personal passions, the ones he doesn't want to
wear on his sleeve for fear of being thought weak--or, alternatively,
uses to cultivate an image for himself), are equally important (a
personal desire for revenge against Voldemort for whatever reason, a
personal loyalty to Dumbledore, a personal hatred of James for leaving
him with an unfulfilled life debt, etc.). I don't see him as loving or
desiring either Lily or Narcissa (though a desire for Narcissa's
approval may have been at work in the UV scene). His black robes
remind me of a Catholic priest's cassock. (I'm not thinking of modern
instances of pedophilia but the deliberate choice of a medieval priest
to pursue a celibate life.) 

Some British writers in earlier centuries thought that male celibacy
produced detrimental effects because it denied a man a needed
emotional release which a stiff-upper-lip Englishman could not openly
express any other way (except going to war and killing enemy
soldiers). I know that JKR would not suggest openly that Snape was
sexually repressed, but certainly he seems to be *emotionally*
repressed most of the time (cold, calculating, and sarcastic rather
than physically abusive or brutal). When he lets his anger out, as in
PoA when Sirius escapes, it explodes. His other feelings (fear,
desire, affection, whatever) are almost never expressed. He's not
immune to Narcissa's charms, much less her tears, but his response to
her is very controlled (even when he agrees to take the UV, he seems
to be in charge--until the hand twitch gives him away). But something
in himself or his situation has prevented him from marrying, from
feeling or expressing love and from expressing (but probably not from
feeling) sexual desire. (Please don't hit me with a feminist tirade;
I'm not viewing women as sexual objects here. I happen to be one
myself. I'm just trying to fathom how Severus Snape's mind works.)

I'm not sure where I'm trying to go with this idea, but I wonder what
the psychologists on the list (who seem to be focusing on Tom Riddle's
childhood) think about the effects of sexual repression or emotional
repression on the male personality and whether it might provide a key
to our understanding of Snape.

Carol, tossing out an idea in hopes that it will be discussed
rationally rather than attacked