Harry IS Snape!
lupinlore
bob.oliver at cox.net
Mon Oct 3 12:20:17 UTC 2005
No: HPFGUIDX 141081
--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, juli17 at a... wrote
<SNIP>
> If this is to be a central issue/theme of HP, it does require
that
> Snape be DDM or at least OFH, and because this theme *has*
> been set up so obviously in Chapter 8 with Harry's unreasonable
> hatred of Snape, I think this whole scene is another strong piece
> of support for DDM!Snape. If Snape turned out to be ESE as Harry
> suspected all along--sometimes *irrationally* by his own tacit
> admission--then Harry has little opportunity to willingly release
this
> destructive and misplaced hatred against a man who hasn't earned
> that level of enmity (don't scream, Snape-haters-we're talking
about
> Harry's feelings through HBP Chapter 8!). JKR might pull it off but
> it will have much more impact for Harry and for readers if Snape
> is DDM. In that case it will be necessary for Harry to recognize
> Snape's positive actions--saving Harry, being Dumbledore's man
> up to and including risking his own life and in the end giving up
> that life, either literally or meaningfully (if Snape doesn't die
but
> must live with knowing he killed the one man who actually cared
> about him, even if in the cause of Good), as well as whatever else
> Harry may learn--and then evaluate them against Snape's negative
> actions to render final judgment. Harry must set aside his child's
> bias, his child's hatred, just as James did, if he is to grow up
to be
> truly like his father, rather than becoming eternally hateful and
> embittered like Snape.
>
I agree that this would be hard to pull off with ESE!Snape, however
I don't really see why such a plotline would necessarily require a
DDM!Snape or even make such a thing particularly likely. In fact, I
would say that it makes OFH!Snape much more likely.
Now the reason for that is this: In order for the power of
forgiveness to have its true and most powerful impact, it has to
have a transformative effect on BOTH parties. Yes, of course one
can craft a believable story in which forgiveness has a beneficial
effect on only one party, but that does not show the full
possibilities of forgiving.
The above discussion has focused on the beneficial effect of
forgiveness for Harry. As far as it goes, it's well and good.
Frankly, I'm not to impressed with it as an explanation for HP, as I
think it confuses HP with Star Wars, and the Dark Arts with the Dark
Side, and in general reads all sorts of unwarrented themes from one
saga into the other, as well as bringing up that hackneyed chestnut
the Hero's Journey. But taken in a more restrictive sense, that it
would probably be good for Harry to not give in to hatred of Snape
or anyone else, I have no argument with it.
But what about the benefits of forgiveness for SNAPE? One very
severe problem I have with both DDM and ESE theories of Snape is
that both make him into a more or less static character who cannot
grown and change, or fall and change, through the course of the
series. He is either ESE and that's it or he's DDM and that's it --
he is what he is and everything he does flows from that essential,
unchanging facet of his nature. In effect, he becomes a mere prop.
Now, this is of course Harry's story, and as I've said before
another danger of many of the Snape theories is that they threaten
to transgress that simple fact. Still, one would hope the other
characters could have more dynamic than simply playing a part
dictated by a static role as ESE or DDM. I grant that JKR is not as
good a writer as I once believed and hoped, but still I think she
has better in her than that.
If the fullness of the power of forgiveness is to be realized, then
SNAPE as well as Harry must experience it as an important and
transformative moment. And in order for that to be the case, Snape
must have done something to be forgiven for -- and more to the
point, something that he himself knows, if only deep inside, that he
needs to be forgiven for. At this point in the story, I don't think
it would be a believable dynamic for that forgiveness to be about
something that happened before Harry came to Hogwarts (that reduces
Snape to a static figure again) or about classroom problems (which
avoids other issues). Rather it has to be for something that Snape
has genuinely done wrong within the scope of the story, something
that HAS separated him from the side of the good, and something for
which Harry's forgiveness has deep meaning.
All of THAT, I think, points to OFH!Snape as the most powerful and
likely figure in a saga where the true power of forgiveness is to be
illustrated with a Snape/Harry pivot (there are others that could be
used, such as Harry/Wormtail). A Snape who, for instance, allowed
himself to become entangled in his own webs in Chapter 2 of HBP, and
who fell from goodness because of that and his ultimate murder of
Dumbledore, is someone who could experience the redemptive power of
forgiveness. A DDM!Snape who is utterly convinced that he has been
in the right all along and who is just concerned in making the
stupid Potter boy see facts is NOT a figure of redemption. That
figure would only be a prop for an insipid storyline about cleansing
oneself of hatred despite the wrongs done to you -- did I say that
would be insipid?
I am not at all convinced that the power of love will necessarily
turn out to be the power of forgiveness, or if it does that it will
necessarily be the Harry/Snape dynamic that will come into play.
There are plenty of other candidates for something like that,
including Draco, Wormtail, and yes, even Voldemort himself. And if
the forgiveness is one-sided, well, Harry becomes a kind of saint-
like figure, if not a Christ figure forgiving the world that
crucified him. Such is the foundation of a silly and insipid and
preachy saga that will make for very good kindling.
Lupinlore
More information about the HPforGrownups
archive