Snape's view (was Re: Harsh Morality)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 121079


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at m...> 
wrote:

<snips Pippin's description of how Snape sees Harry> 

> Potioncat:
> I think you are right.  I know many on this list think that it 
> should be obvious to Snape that Harry isn't like that. But if you 
> look at the times Snape sees Harry and if you look at the 
> situations Harry gets into, most of them confirm Snape's view.
> 
> As for James. I think Snape always saw him like we did in the 
> Pensieve, never noticing that he had changed.

Problem is, I don't think they really do--if Snape were to sit down 
and think them through fully.  Snape's ongoing conception of Harry 
(among other things) also puts the lie to the SuperPerceptive!Snape 
idea that floats around here every once in a while: you know the 
one, the Snape who notes absolutely everything around him, 
constantly weighing ideas and always astute to the smallest 
changes...am I permitted a few giggles of laughter?

No, I think Snape's myopia is thematic for his character; while 
undeniably intelligent, he is also convinced of his rightness to the 
point of arrogance.  He absolutely cannot stand to be challenged by 
someone who is not his institutional superior.

Information which challenges or contradicts is not welcomed: note 
his angry reaction to Hermione in the Shrieking Shack, where she 
suggests that it wouldn't hurt to at least hear them out.  And, 
although we've argued it to death on this list, nailing a kid on the 
first day of class with pre-emptive strikes is being fairly 
convinced that your judgement of a person is immediately accurate; 
from that point on, the befuddled and annoyed reaction of Harry is 
simply filed under "I knew he was really like that".  Likewise, 
James may well have changed and done so obviously.  But to someone 
with Snape's mindset and particular victim complex, he's always 
going to be the same.

But I also don't think JKR is hiding nearly as many things from us 
as Pippin thinks. :)  She's taken pretty careful care to set up 
situations where Snape's judgement is right, and situations where 
his judgement is wrong.  The thing is that the wrong ones hang 
together in an interesting thematic pattern of arrogance and self-
conviction.

We always ask the question of "What if Harry's distrust ends up 
hurting Snape?"  Well, Snape's distrust has already partially caused 
one major event to go worse than it might have; what's to say his 
conviction of his own rightness won't cause another?

-Nora dons Momus' top hat and plays devil's advocate with style (and 
grace, we hope)