Parallels between Snape and Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice"

[Mari]

No: HPFGUIDX 134889

I've been thinking further about how Snape is structured as a 
character through the series so far.

Others have mentioned possible parallels between Snape and 
Gollum.

Another interesting parallel, however, becomes evident if you 
compare Snape to the character of Shylock in "The Merchant of 
Venice".

Consider the following:

1) Shylock, like Snape, is unsettlingly ambiguous. Those who 
wish to play him as a comic villain point to his eagerness to get 
his 'pound of flesh'. Those who incline to the tragic hero 
interpretation point to his  "Hath not a jew eyes?" speech :

". . . I am a Jew. 
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, 
dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with 
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject 
to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means, 
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, 
as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? 
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you 
poison us, shall we not die?" (III, i, 58-66) 

This problem with interpreting Shylock reminds me of 
arguments on list about things that Snape has said and done in 
canon which can be interpreted in two contradictory ways :-)

2) Shylock, like Snape, is absolutely critical to the structure of
the 
story in which he appears. Shylock's actions drive a large part of 
the story of the play (most of it hinges on his claim for a pound of 
flesh from Antonio) yet, like Snape, he is not the hero of the story 
and not meant to be taken as such. Similarly,  many of the events 
involving Snape, and the choices he has to make, are absolutely 
critical to Harry's story, but Snape is not the hero of the story, 
Harry is.

3) What this leaves me wondering is how far this parallel will go. 
The way "The Merchant of Venice" is written, it is impossible to 
finally determine which way Shylock is meant to be played; the 
way I interpret it is that Shylock is, in reality, both comic villain
and 
tragic hero. This is why "Merchant" is one of Shakespeare's 
better written comedies. The question is, does Rowling intend 
for us to look at Snape in the same paradoxical way? Can he 
exist as a character who has both villainous and heroic traits? 


Of course, the parallel may break down in the last book because 
the story arc requires Snape to either make a final choice that 
will resolve his fate, or else reveal that he has already  made it.

Thoughts?

Mari.