Snape and Lily Was: ACID POPS and Teenager Draco

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 157474


> Magpie:

> Right--where as Snape/Lily goes right back into the flaws we already
know 
> are his downfall.  He lost her to James, he got her killed, he
couldn't save 
> her, he called her a Mudblood.  If Snape loved Lily he chose to let
his hate 
> win.  If Snape loves Narcissa he's actually been surprisingly good
about the 
> way he's handled it, hasn't he?  It seems far more Snape-ish to hate
the son 
> of the woman he loves with another man than to be the far better father 
> figure he's been to Draco.

Sydney:

Yes, exactly!  When people seem taken aback by Snape/Lily, they always
seem to say, 'But Snape *hates* Harry!  What kind of sick person hates
the son of the woman they loved?'  Well, Snape, that's who.  Snape is
exactly the sort of sick person who *would* channel his feelings that
way.  *Especially* as Snape is guilty of starting the chain of events
that led to her death-- which I think is the real root of Snape's
obsession with James.  JKR even sets up an identical parallel with
Snape's foil, Harry:

"Harry [...]felt a savage pleasure in blaming Snape, it seemed to be
easing his own sense of dreadful guilt, and he wanted to hear
Dumbledore agree with him."(OoP)

And doesn't Snape just have a savage pleasure in blaming James, and
isn't he desperate for people to agree with him!  I really think these
events are being built up as a deliberate mirror.  Harry's guilt over
Sirius' death, in which he played a role not dissimilar to Snape's
role in Lily's death, is being deflected obsessively onto the
convenient target, the figure he already hates, the figure who can in
some way, however oblique, be made the real cause of the disaster.  

Of course in Snape's case the deflection-object is split into James
and Sirius;  Snape in Harry's story fills both parts.  First the guy
he transfers the guilt onto in an overtly unjust way: Snape goaded
Sirius!  He didn't let Harry know he understood his message!  James
was arrogant and trusted Sirius against all advice!  And second the
guy who is 'obviously' guilty and the object of a righteous vendetta:
If I run into Severus Snape, so much the better for me and so much the
worse for him!, Harry says at the end of HBP.  How I hoped I'd be the
one to catch you! says Snape in PoA.

So, yeah, the whole Snape/Lily storyline runs right through the center
of Snape's character and books themes, guilt and hate and repression
and projection of negative feelings and bad blood going down the
generations. And love-- mustn't forget the love.


Neri:
 We have just been told that Hamlet is one of JKR's
> favorites readings. Don't you see the parallels?

So, obviously Draco thinks Narcissa is having an affair with
Dumbledore!  Because that's what Hamlet is about, isn't it, he's
supposed to kill the guy who's having an affair with his mom?  I mean,
it's certainly not about Hamlet angsting over going for help to
Claudius, at least how I remember that story.  Yeah, I see the
parallels, but it seems a bit literal-minded to be going, 'how can we
get adultery into this?  The indecision over killing people just isn't
dramatic enough!'

-- Sydney