CHAPDISC: HBP 2, Spinner's End

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 142085

I skipped some questions in my previous post, so once more unto the
breach, good friends:

> 2. The neighborhood sounds deserted, except for some streetlights 
that are still lit and the presence of food wrappers at the river's 
edge. What can our RW sociologists tell us about this neighborhood in
the late 90's?

Carol:
I read the article Potioncat linked to elsewhere and agree (based on
my limited knowledge as an American) that Spinner's End is probably in
Yorkshire. However, JKR has an excellent ear for accents (e.g., Hagrid
and Seamus) and I hear nothing of Yorkshire dialect in Snape. Maybe
his mother spoke the gentrified English of the Prince family, with
something like a BBC accent? Snape's speech is that of a cultivated
and educated man, not one who grew up in a derelict Muggle
neighborhood. I'm betting he was homeschooled and didn't associate
with any Muggle children, much less go to school with them. And if he
grew up in a Muggle neighborhood, how in the world did he teach
himself so many hexes before he even went to Hogwarts? He must have
had some contact with other wizards, including his Prince grandfather.
His mother, best known as the president of the Gobstones Club, doesn't
seem like the type to teach him, or to line her Muggle husband's house
with leather-bound books. No, the books must be Snape's own. If he
owns the house outright, he'd have few other expenses other than dress
robes (which we occasionally see him wear) and food. Anyway, the
neighborhood seems ominous. It presents "an admonitory finger" to both
Narcissa and Bellatrix, as if *they* faced danger in entering it. But
I seem to be alone in thinking it an odd place for Snape to hide in
unless it's completely deserted. He doesn't look, dress, or act like a
Muggle, and he'd be violating the Statute of Secrecy every time he
appeared on the street--as were Narcissa and Bellatrix, Apparating
into a Muggle neighborhood in their hooded cloaks, even at night--if
there were Muggles around to spot them. I can't imagine a Wizard boy
and his Witch mother living in this neighborhood. I'm guessing that
Tobias kicked them out very early on and they moved in with the
equally abusive Grandpa Prince. If Spinner's End was indeed Tobias's
house, young Snape would have inherited it when his father died. (I
know I'm speculating, but I can't reconcile the Snape we've seen with
a child!Severus who lived in this neighborhood.


> 5. Narcissa is described as having a note of hysteria in her voice 
> and the look of a drowned person. <snip>

Carol:
A quick note on "wraithlike" in relation to this question. I used
"waiflike," which may have been construed by some posters as an error
for "wraithlike," but I do know the difference between a waif and a
wraith. Narcissa, to me, had the air of a homeless child--helpless,
wide-eyed and defenseless, more drowning than drowned and badly in
need of rescuing by someone more powerful than herself. But I agree
that "drowned" suggests that she's already dead. That image, along
with the "admonitory finger" and LV's displeasure with the Malfoys in
general, doesn't bode well for Cissy. And I'm well aware that Narcissa
isn't always in "helpless victim" mode, as she showed in her angry
hexing of her own sister.

> 9. (Thanks to Carol for this question): Like "The Other Minister,"
"Spinner's End" is written from a point of view other than Harry's.
But while "Minister" uses the usual third-person limited-omniscient
narrator, who sees through the eyes of the Muggle Prime Minister
rather than Harry's, "Spinner's End" dispenses with a point-of-view
character altogether. Narcissa, Bellatrix, Snape, and Wormtail (if
we're counting vermin) are presented from the third-person dramatic or
third-person objective point of view, meaning that they are seen from
the outside with a minimum of commentary and no direct insight into
their thoughts. It's as if both the narrator and the reader are
invisible, silent witnesses to the scene, much like Harry on the
tower. How does this change in the point of view affect our reading of
this chapter? Why do you think JKR chose this point of view rather
than letting us into, say, Narcissa's or Bellatrix's mind? How does
having a chapter written from a point of view other than Harry's
affect your reading of HBP or the series itself? Should JKR have
omitted the first two chapters in order to maintain a Harrycentric
view throughout the book? Why or why not? <snip link>

Carol:
I held off responding to my own question because I wanted to hear what
other people had to say. I also confess to a teacherly impulse: It
bugs me when people refer to Harry as the narrator, when in fact JKR
normally uses a limited omniscient narrator who usually but not always
sees events from Harry's point of view. I found it interesting that
she used the same narrative strategy in "The Other Minister," enabling
us to see from the POV of the bewildered Muggle PM, so that to some
degree we empathized with him, and, more important, she could use his
previous encounters with Fudge as flashbacks to summarize the relevant
portions of earlier books without resorting to clumsy exposition. I
think that Fudge, seen from the PM's perspective rather than Harry's
(and contrasted with Scrimgeour), also becomes a more sympathetic
character. (Weak and in over his head, but not an ally of the DEs and
at least trying to keep the poor ignorant Muggles informed of their
danger.)

As almost everyone has realized, such a device would be less effective
in "Spinner's End." We don't need Bellatrix's POV, which is fully
evident from her words and actions (This woman is teaching her nephew
Occlumency? No wonder Snape detected it so easily!). Nor do we need
Narcissa's, which can be determined by comparing her words and actions
before and after she sees Snape. Her desperation and her trust in
Snape are real, and I would argue that her sobs and tears are real as
well. There's the question of when the UV idea occurred to her, but I
don't think she came there intending to trap Snape into it or she
would have wanted Bellatrix with her all along. As for Snape, even if
JKR could enter into his mind and convincingly render his thoughts,
she wouldn't want to because his motivations are central to the
mystery. We can't know what the task is or whether he is bluffing or
to what extent he is lying to Bellatrix or why he agrees to the UV. In
fact, there would be almost no need to interpret this chapter if Snape
were the POV character. Better to dispense with one altogether.

And of course, Harry's POV (the so-called Harry filter) is missing.
Not only do we see all three characters depicted objectively for the
first time (notice that Snape's hair, which still frames his face in
black curtains but is not described as "greasy," and there is no
mention of a hooked nose or the ugliness that Harry and Ron see in
him), but we see them interacting without the presence of students,
Order members, Muggleborns, or anyone else. We see the antagonism
between Bellatrix and Snape and his control of the situation as she
acts her questions, we see his contempt for Wormtail, and we see a
surprisingly complex interaction between him and Narcissa which is
open to interpretation. We also see a humanness in the sisters--
Bellatrix's concern for Narcissa (weaker than her allegiance to the
Dark Lord but still present) and Narcissa's fierce loyalty to her
husband and son, the Slytherin counterpart to Molly, Lily, and even
Muggle Petunia, all variations (along with Mrs. Crouch) on the devoted
(wife and) mother theme. Who would have thought that she would resent
criticism of her husband so strongly? DE wife and Dark Lord supporter
or not, she clearly loves him. And we would never have seen this side
of Narcissa had Harry been present. His view of Narcissa is shaped by
encounters like the one at the QWC in GoF and Madam Malkin's in HBP.

And Snape. We see him as he appears to the DEs and their associates;
we see how he has managed to survive despite Voldemort's earlier
belief that Snape had left him forever; we see him dealing in very
different ways with the two women; we see, at times, the familiar
inscrutable expression; we see his intellectualism reinforced by the
walls of books and his wizardization of a Muggle house; we see traces
of his contempt for both Wormtail and Bellatrix and hints of real
friendship between him and the Malfoys. And we see him trapped by
bonds of fire in what is clearly an ominous and powerful magical
agreement. But our questions about him remain unanswered thanks to the
combined revelations and concealments provided by the third-person
dramatic narrator in this chapter. 
> 
> 10. Here's a question to think about when we move into chapter 3:
"The Other Minister" begins with a Muggle receiving two visitors. It's
an informative, yet humorous chapter. The dreary "Spinners End" begins
with two visitors coming to a very different Muggle location. "Will
and Won't" begins with someone waiting for a visitor and returns us to
a more humorous mood. How do these three chapters work together?

Carol responds:
Aside from the escape from Harry's POV provided by the first two, we
are allowed insights into what's happening in the WW with regard to
Voldemort. Chapter 1 answers the question of what's happened to Fudge
and introduces us to Scrimgeour; "Spinner's End" sets up the Draco
plot, providing essential information to which Harry is not privy, and
preparing for the crucial role to be played by the UV in the tower
scene. It also enables us to recognize at least some of Harry's
interpretation of the later encounter between Draco and Snape as
misinterpretation. ("Helping" Draco doesn't mean what Harry thinks it
means.) And of course chapter 3 ties in with Snape by revealing that
someone else will teach Potions this year, meaning that Snape at last
has been given the "jinxed" DADA position, which we later learn is
actually cursed by Voldemort himself. Quite possibly all three
chapters occur at the same time, or at least on the same night,
meaning that Snape, who surely anticipates that he'll be given the
DADA position at this point but chooses not to reveal this information
to the sisters, officially receives the post without knowing it before
the UV takes place. Thematically, the chapters move from the WW at
large to an important character whose relationship with Harry (as
hiself and as the HBP) shapes much of the book, to Harry himself and
the familiar Harrycentric point of view. Some of the exposition has
been gracefully accomplished by these clever deviations from the
normal POV, but JKR must still resort to Daily Prophet articles and
notes to lead us back into Harry at the Dursleys'.

Carol, stepping out of McGonagall mode