The Unloved Son (was Re: Could I be wrong about Snape being evil?)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 156702

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "wynnleaf" <fairwynn at ...>
wrote:
>
<SNIP>
>
> I've seen some fan fic writers do an excellent job at writing
Snape
> from the perspective of sybling rivalry hatred for Harry.  It
> primarily seems to work if Snape is portrayed as especially
> emotionally immature.  This works well, until Snape has to be
> portrayed in his ongoing work as a spy, having to make difficult
> decisions, having to stay very focused and keep emotions in check,
> etc.  At that point, that degree of immaturity no longer seems to
> fit the character.

Except, as another poster has pointed out, one measure of immaturity
is a very well-adapted ability to compartmentalize emotions to get
things done.  It isn't necessarily something confined to immature
people, by any means, but immature people often display this ability
to an astonishing degree.  I think the analogy of fighter pilots is
very well taken.  Or that of Robert Hansen, an incredibly immature
person (with intense father issues, by the way) who nevertheless
managed to function as a KGB mole within the CIA for many years.

>
> So I tend to think that there's a part of Snape's hatred of Harry
> that's bound up in his feelings toward Dumbledore.  But I think
it's
> only one aspect of his feelings toward Harry.  I think Snape would
> almost have to see Dumbledore in at least a partially parental
way.
> But until HBP, Dumbledore was not really spending much time at all
> with Harry.  While Snape may have felt a jealousy toward the way
> Dumbledore (in Snape's opinion) might let Harry get by with all
> sorts of rule breaking, there really wasn't any *relationship* to
be
> particularly jealous over.  It wasn't until HBP that DD and Harry
> visited with each other more than a few times per year.

Yet we have the statement by the portrait on DD's wall when Harry
comes into the office at the end of OOTP, to wit that "DD speaks
very highly of you, as I'm sure you know.  Oh yes, holds you in
great esteem."

Now, who is he speaking TO?  Obviously McGonagall, who is the head
of Harry's house.  But one wonders if he is not speaking to Snape as
well.  After all, DD has watched Harry "more closely than [he] can
have imagined."  If Snape is constantly being presented with the
fact that DD is very interested in Harry -- is in fact watching him
closely -- and if most such encounters end in DD expressing "great
esteem" for Harry, I doubt that Snape would react with anything
other than jealousy and irritation.  After all, why didn't DD take
such an interest in HIM when the marauders were tormenting him?  And
I doubt that the fact of how often Harry and DD actually met face to
face would enter his mind very much.  After all, that would require
him to see things from Harry's perspective, not an ability that
Snapey-poo possesses.


Lupinlore, who thinks this psychological angle might just be the
hook needed to rescue DD from utter incompetentcy -- or from having
contemptible ideas about letting Harry be mistreated in order to
train him