The Possibilities of Grey Snape (was Re: What would a successful AK mean?)

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 142972

> Would it be such a focus puller?  I would personally find DDM!
Snape to 
> be much more intrusive and overshadowing and to threaten to make 
the 
> books about Snape, the noble and sacrificing superspy.  

Characters are interesting and draw attention when the MOVE, when 
they take decisions.  Being more heroic does not make a character 
automatically more interesting.

> Now Harry is faced with the problem of what to do with a man who 
he 
> believes to be evil and menacing who turns out to be weak and 
> pathetic.  Where oh where is the villain he set out to destroy?  
How 
> was he replaced with this pathetic, childish creature who allows 
his 
> own emotions to repeatedly be his undoing (and isn't that a 
delicious 
> irony)? 

First of all, Peter fullfills this role.  Second of all, as I laid 
out in the "What would a successful AK mean", this is not the story 
that has been set up (and I have a hard time seeing this as the 
character that has been set up, but that's more amorphous as a 
discussion).  Something about the Snape storyline revolves around 
trust and especially around some factors that Harry does not know, 
as the mystery of Snape's motivations is hit on repeatedly.

 Will Harry 
> be able, like Dumbledore, to let Snape have a chance to prove 
himself 
> once more?  Will he be able to see the "latent good qualities" in 
this 
> pitiful, self-hating man who has destroyed his own world through 
his 
> cruelty and nastiness and greed and cowardice? Once he understands 
who 
> is the adult and who is the child, will he let Snape have a chance 
at 
> redemption?  In that moment, will Harry the adult allow Snape, the 
> pathetic and broken child, to know hope once again?  
> 
> And will he let himself feel a little sharp humor of his own at 
the 
> humiliation and desperation to which his enemy has been reduced, 
having 
> to take crumbs of hope out of Harry's hand?  Will, in the end, 
Harry 
> like Frodo have grown "wise, yes wise and cruel" as he sends Snape 
to 
> almost certain doom knowing that his redemption springs from the 
> forbearance of a man he once despised as beneath his shoes?

LOL!  Wow, you really hate this character!  

I guess mostly what I'm saying is, Harry being mistaken about 
Snape's character and particularily about the essential nature of 
what happened on the tower, has, in my professional opinion, in 
terms of classical story structure, been set up pretty cleary.  And 
the end of the books will feature Harry realizing this and resolving 
into a positive relationship with Snape (maybe Snape will die one 
paragraph later, but the catharsis will happen).  I'm not saying 
it's necessarily what every reader will find the most morally 
satisfying; it's clear that will absolutely turn your stomach!  But 
brace yourself, because it's going to happen.  It's like 
Ron/Hermionie.  Whatever you might think of how they're suited, or 
however much you think Harry would be a better match, in terms of 
the structure Ron and Hermionie were what was being set up.  

-- Sydney