Suicidal!Snape and the Curse of DADA-- LONG!!

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 141931

Sydney:

[...]
>  And THAT, my dears, is what JKR meant by saying that 
> Dumbledore didn't give Snape the DADA job because he 
> feared it would bring out the worst in Snape.  As for 
> why Snape was suicidal-- because he caused the endangerment 
> and death of the woman he loved of course.  But that's 
> another theory...

houyhnhnm:

My first reaction was that Snape's reapplying for the DADA every year
was just Hogwarts urban folklore along the lines of Flitwick the
duelling champion.  Then I remembered that Snape had confirmed it to
Umbridge.  

It does take some explaining.  Snape would not need to be told that
the DADA position was cursed.  Suicidal!Snape just doesn't ring true
to me, though.  Through six books the thought has never occurred to me
that "this man wants to die".  Unless HP really is a Christian
allegory with Snape as Judas (didn't Trelawney turn up a hanged man at
some point?) and DD as Jesus.  But hasn't Rowling said that he isn't?

It could be that Snape was lying to Umbridge. In other words, "Snape
is after the DADA" could be a fiction that both Snape and DD have
encouraged, because it serves some purpose.  His cover with LV
perhaps, which leads to the conundrum of why Voldemort would send his
spy to apply for a position he knew was cursed because he cursed it
himself.

Or it could be that Snape did indeed want the DADA position and did
apply for it every year, not because he wanted to die, but because he
thought he could beat it.  I am a firm subscriber to Carol's theory
about the working of the DADA curse through the character flaw of its
victim.  I think the curse definitely worked itself out through
Snape's arrogance.  Could it also draw its prospective victims by
acting on the same flaw?

He's watched other people take on the job and fail year after year. 
He's analyzed their mistakes.  He could do better.  In fact, it could
be a kind of ultimate challenge for someone whose interest in dark
magic is primarily intellectual--to break the curse on the DADA, to be
teaching Defense Against Dark Arts and practicing it at the same time.