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








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