Snape and the "Chosen One" Was: Nice vs. Good - Compassion

[leslie41]

No: HPFGUIDX 153372

> Lupinlore:
> But how do you expect things to end?  What do you think would be 
> appropriate?  Surely you don't think that the Dursleys, Umbridge, 
> and Snape can go unpunished for their reprehensible crimes against 
> Harry and the series will still have a moral leg to stand on?
> 
> Lupinlore

Leslie41:

Even if I supposed Snape a murderer, child-abuser, thief and goose-
raper I wouldn't necessarily "expect" him to be punished.  

Of Umbridge and the Dursleys (and to a lesser extent people like 
Filch)--do I expect them to be punished?  Not necessarily.  I think 
it would be perfectly appropriate for Dolores to remain at the 
Ministry in a highly coveted position. Umbridge is as malevolent and 
loathesome a creature as exists in any modern book, but my guess is 
she won't suffer much at the end herself. 

Why?  Because that's just how things happen, sometimes.  Kids know 
themselves that sometimes bad things happen and people don't pay for 
their deeds.  As veterans of the school playground, they know that 
more than anyone.  And they can smell a faked happy ending from a 
mile away.  Rowling's comment that the reason that Snape exists is 
that "there are teachers out there like Snape" is a good one.  There 
are all sorts of people out there who are difficult to deal with, 
yet one must learn to deal with them.  Rowling doesn't candy-coat 
these things.  And some of what many perceive as Dumbledore's  
"incompetence" is his way of not making too things easy, especially 
for Harry.

What one does learn from Rowling's books is that the people like the 
Dursleys are pretty miserable in the end, and Umbridge as well. I 
think Rowling's "moral leg" is the fact that no one can envy any one 
of these people.  I often admire Snape, and at some times (when he's 
being funny) I even like him.  And I believe that in some small way 
I 
understand him.

But he also is a "miserable" person in most ways. And this is 
because to a very great extent I think he hates the world, and he 
has a chip on his shoulder the size of Nebraska.  I would assert 
that chip cuts into him far more than it does into others.    

The "punishment" for Snape is in being Snape.  No reader envies him 
or wants to be like him, not really.  Not deep down.  He's too 
unhappy to really be envied.  And Umbridge evokes a loathing disgust 
that is unparalleled. 

I would say this even of someone like Gilderoy Lockhart.  The 
punishment is not in a failed spell that bounced back on him and 
sent him to St. Mungo's.  The real punishment is that from the get-
go we think he's a complete git.