[HPforGrownups] Snape as infidel was Re: Kant and Snape and Ethics and Everything

[IreneMikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 150368

pippin_999 wrote:

> 
> I don't think what JKR has in mind is as simple as Gryffindors=
> Christians and Slytherins=Jews. I'm seeing more of 
> Tolkien's applicability than Lewisian allegory.
> 

I hope not, because some analogies are quite scary. Since someone 
mentioned Shylock, I can't get it out of my mind.
The Gryffindors are written as brave, merry, cheerful. They would do 
anything for a friend, just like Antonio and Bassanio. Red and gold all 
around.
And here we have Snape, the oddball, all in black. Miserable, never 
laughs, keeps grudges, vindictive. Would not it together with the Order 
members.

So far it's all in the books. But the readers' reaction is suggestive as 
well. First, it can't be coincidence that so many people refuse to 
accept that James and Sirius teenage bullying episode shows anything 
meaningful about their characters. After all, it was just Snape. They 
must have had a good reason. All the decent people seem to love James, 
all the witnesses *that matter* never had a bad word against him. Look, 
Antonio is universally beloved with the citizens of Venice. So what if 
he calls an unpleasant person "a dog" and spits at him?
The other popular reaction, even scarier for me than the first one, is 
the insistence that the only way for Snape character to achieve 
satisfactory closure is to have some public humiliation scene. And as a 
result, he must acknowledge that Gryffindor ways are the correct ones.

I really hope Rowling is not taking it there.

Irene