In Defense of Snape (Against Snape in JKR's words)
Tonks
tonks_op at yahoo.com
Mon Jan 17 15:44:00 UTC 2005
No: HPFGUIDX 122174
--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214"
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:
> Alla:
> snip, snip)
> We also have Snape's "you are neither special, nor important"
>
(Snip)
> There is also from PoA "you should thank me on the bended knee",
> which again smells as jealosy to me.
Snip)
>
> Alla
Tonks here:
When I hear Snape say these things I do not think that he is jealous
of Harry, I think that he is projecting onto Harry. This sounds
like the sort of things the nasty man in the pensive would say to
Snape as a child. (Of course we do not know who that man was or his
relationship to Snape. He sounds like his father or close male
relative because of the description of his crooked nose, but we
really do not know.)
When a person has been emotionally abused, as we think Snape has
been, this is how they sometimes act towards others. This is
especially true if the other person reminds them in some way of
themselves at the same age. They may not know that they are doing
it, or they may know and are unable to stop it.
What I am saying is, yes, Snape is a mean, nasty man. But once he
was a scared little boy. And the scared little boy, in order to
survive the abuse took part of the abuser into himself. This is what
I mean (in an earlier post) when I say that Snape as a child
internalized his father figure. Nasty people don't start life as
nasty people. And true some are so nasty that we can not see past
that and pity them. I have met nasty people too, and some I could
have compassion on and some I just hated with all the rage I had
within me. Snape is certainly a well written character to cause
such strong reactions (for or against)from us all.
Tonks_op
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