In Defense of Snape (long)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 122694


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at y...> wrote:

<snip>

> Betsy:
>
> I do agree that he's been kept in the dark too much, and I 
> *hope* he'll develop some empathy and respect for other people.
> The reason I haven't totally given up on Harry is that Snape is a 
> special case, and Harry's dislike and lack of respect for Snape has 
> been brought about by Snape's own behavior.  But Snape is totally 
> in his right to be furious at Harry for snooping.

On the other hand, isn't there an interesting theme going on 
here...as I've argued before (at length) (but sans post numbers--it's 
5:30 AM for goodness' sake), fear and trust are mutually exclusive 
(in a more theoretical capacity--see Shklar for details).  Harry does 
not fear Snape himself per se, but he has had ample occasion to learn 
that Snape is capricious towards him (in the classroom, and a few 
occasions elsewhere), and ironically...much as Snape says that 
Dumbledore can refer to Voldemort as he likes, being as he is 
powerful, so Dumbledore has made the mistake (IMO) of forgetting what 
it is like to deal with a Snape-like person from a position of 
inferiority.  Snape can do things to Harry, while Harry cannot to 
him, and that is what, combined with the unfairness of Snape's 
actions, destroys the possibility of trust.  You cannot trust someone 
when you are worried about what they can and may do to you.

Everyday actions, the lesson goes as I see it, have effects on the 
larger realm of getting things done.  Being as there was no trust 
there *because* of the mode of daily interaction, it really 
isn't/wasn't possible to say "Oh, well this is a completely different 
occasion and we can thus play with completely different rules"--
because it *isn't*.  How you treat people all the time matters in how 
things are going to work out in more special circumstances.

Harry has good reason to not be trusting of Snape; he cannot trust 
Snape because Snape often operates on what seems to Harry as a 
certain element of whim--and that idea has never been disproven to 
him.  [Not to mention that I think on the everyday basis, that's 
really what Snape is *doing*; some things we misperceive and there is 
official direction behind, some things are Snape being nasty and 
variable on his own initiative, without being reined in.]  And that 
manifests itself in Harry's behavior.  It's not *good* behavior by 
any means, but it's really rather understandable.

-Nora and her alter-ego, Alto Elf