Sadistic!Snape? (was:Snape's canon opposite/ Proving loyalty...)

[lealess]

No: HPFGUIDX 140247

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "amiabledorsai"
<amiabledorsai at y...> wrote:
 
> Amiable Dorsai:
> Other than, you know, picking out a student for "special attention"
> during his very first Potions class, insulting an orphan's father,
> insulting a student's looks, playing favorites, casting aspersions
on
> a student's intelligence to another teacher in front of the student
> and his classmates, making an unjustified criticism of another
teacher
> to that teacher's class, threatening to poison a student's pet and
> then being abusive after he's thwarted, discouraging class
> participation from the best student in his class... 
> 
> And then there's the time he tried to have the very souls of two
> innocent men destroyed.
> 
> Other than that, yes, he seems very jolly.
> 
> Amiable Dorsai

Honestly, Snape is not cut out to be a teacher.  Not everyone is.
So, why is he teaching at Hogwarts?

ESE! Voldemort wills it.
OFH! It's a comfy, secure position, for now.
DDM! Dumbledore wills it.
ESG! Let's teach these pampered students something useful in spite of
themselves.

Grace under pressure may be Snape's forte as a spy, where adults are
involved, but may not be his forte as a teacher, where young students
are involved.  And yet he *is* a teacher, probably contrary to what he
would choose to do were he free to choose.

He started teaching at a very young age.  To the extent he is to blame
for his behavior as a teacher... who is his mentor in teaching kids? 
I believe he has none.  He probably has no training as we understand
it.

Slughorn is the one teacher we know he had as a professor.  Slughorn
is more concerned with making connections than teaching; he basically
lets the students teach themselves.

McGonagall: she is no-nonsense and strict, and not always kind.

Dumbledore "knows all, sees all" -- yet seems to be hands-off as far
as teaching goes.

Who else?  Snape is left to these role models, his own devices, and
his probable dislike of the role, in fashioning his teacher persona. 
That he may feel uncomfortable interacting with children only adds to
the mess.

When you paint one teacher with a "bad" brush, it may be instructive
to look at others teaching for similar reasons.  Trelawney and Hagrid,
voluntarily teachers but perhaps even as ill-suited as Snape,
according to Harry and his friends, teach at Hogwarts for Dumbledore's
reasons.  Trelawney continuously forecasts Harry's doom.  If he took
her more seriously, this might be considered abuse.  Hagrid subjects
his students to very real potential harm, all with the best
intentions.  Are we told how many continuing students he has in
Harry's sixth year?

The way Snape treats Harry Potter, Potter's friends, and Neville
Longbottom, has yet to be explained to my satisfaction.  Sadism
doesn't really explain it, as it does not seem to apply to every
student, just these select few.  As for Lupin, who hid something very
significant from Dumbledore, and Black, who was presumed by the whole
wizarding world to be guilty, how was Snape to know anything other
than (1) Lupin was hiding something and (2) Black was guilty?  Snape
may have thought he was doing the right thing.  In the end, he didn't
call the dementors; he did the right thing.

So, for now, I reserve judgment.

lealess