Harry, Snape and Ethics ( was Choice and Essentialism/Understanding Snape)

[rebecca]

No: HPFGUIDX 153981

>a_svirn:
>By the way, I think in his eagerness for "the most unflattering and
>simple explanation" about Snape Harry reveals what amounts to
>the "wrong" attitude to the crucial problem of "choices vs nature"
>in the Potterverce. Remember when Hermione told him about Snape's
>mother she quoted from the notice in the Prophet? She said that
>Elaine Prince "gave birth" and Harry finished the phrase - "to a
>murderer!" And that's the kind of statement that is contrary to the
>series' and especially HBP's most important message. Because no one
>is "born" a murderer.  Draco is not a murderer by "nature", but he
>could have easily become one. Pettigrew did become one, but not
>because his nature is murderous. As you said, under different
>circumstances he might have turned out differently. Sirius quite
>consciously made a choice - to kill Pettigrew and he would have done
>it too, if it weren't for Harry. Even Harry is not exempt - he has
>accepted that he must kill Voldemort and *wants* to kill Snape -
>that's also his choice, isn't it?

Rebecca now:

Adding to this (thanks a_svirn), Harry himself wanted to kill Sirius when he 
had the chance in PoA:

"A boiling hate erupted in Harry's chest, leaving no place for fear. For the 
first time in his life, he wanted his wand back in his hand, not to defend 
himself, but to attack... to kill."

And then this:


"Harry raised the wand. Now was the moment to do it. Now was the moment to 
avenge his mother and father. He was going to kill Black. He had to kill 
Black. This was his chance...."

And:

"Black made a startled movement that almost dislodged Crookshanks; Harry 
gripped his wand convulsively -- Do it now! said a voice in his head -- but 
the footsteps were thundering up the stairs and Harry still hadn't done it."

As we know, Harry's controlling of his emotions to hear Sirius and Lupin out 
and have the complete story resulted in Harry having a meaningful 
relationship with the one whom at one point he thought betrayed his parents. 
"Boiling hatred"  - rather what Harry feels for Snape now, isn't it? The 
quote from HBP would apply here:

"Pushing himself to his feet again, he staggered blindly toward Snape, the 
man he now hated as much as he hated Voldemort himself"

JKR's said it's as "personal, if not moreso, between Harry and Snape" as it 
is Harry and Lord Voldemort. The choice particularly regarding Snape is a 
crucial one, I think. It comes down to ethics - particularly since Snape 
says this to Draco (HBP):

"It is an act that is crucial to success, Draco!" said Snape. "Where do you 
think I would have been all these years, if I had not known how to act? Now 
listen to me! You are being incautious, wandering around at night, getting 
yourself caught, and if you are placing your reliance in assistants like 
Crabbe and Goyle -"

The philosophy of ethics postulates to answer how one should behave (act) in 
a specific situation and how to justify one's actions morally in those 
situations - the more complete the details, the less emotion, the better the 
choices a ethical person can make.  Snape's line "Where do you think I would 
have been all these years, if I had not known how to act?" is almost fairly 
screaming "Snape understands ethics" to me.  JKR has stated that Snape has 
been loved once, so that makes him more culpable than Voldemort in her 
words. IMO, this makes Snape's choices, whether right or wrong, even more 
compelling in the end - he knows what he is doing, albeit with incomplete 
information sometimes, when he chooses.  In comparison, Harry also has been 
ill informed in a few situations, but he does admit when he is wrong and has 
the proper conscience to recognize his ill-chosen actions.

IMO, Snape also wrongly states in the same passage above that Draco is upset 
about his father's capture and imprisonment - when Draco is really upset 
about the potential of his whole family and himself being killed - which is 
clue in my mind that Snape did *not* know the "plan" as he leads Narcissa 
and Bellatrix to believe in Spinner's End. If we presume this, he chose to 
take the Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa using the information he had *at the 
time that was not complete*, unlike Harry in his PoA Shack meeting with 
Siruis. And it's not the first time Snape's done so, as revealed in PoA 
where he chooses to refuse listening to Sirius, Lupin, and the Trio in the 
Shack, too. Snape's described as being "beyond reason" here -  he allows his 
emotions to get the better of him in situations where a cooler head would 
probably result in better ethical choices. However Snape's choice AK'ing 
Dumbledore (who is not afraid of death, as he describes it in PS/SS as "to 
the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure", OoP to 
Voldemort as "there are things worse than death", and HBP to Harry "it is 
the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more") is 
still ethically ambiguous - Snape saves Draco and himself. Initially one can 
say, "But he killed somebody!  He killed Dumbledore!"  While that's true, 
we're responding emotionally to the canon we know.  We may find the complete 
details in Book 7 and change our judgement of this ethical and moral choice. 
We have clues that there's more to it, with Hagrid HBP's vague reference to 
Snape telling Dumbledore "he wasn't sure he wanted to do it anymore" and 
Snape's reaction to Harry's "Kill me like you killed him, you coward."

Where does this lead Snape?  Snape, who was the esteemed potions master at 
Hogwarts with respect for so many years, could now be an even worse outcast 
than he is portrayed as being in his Pensieve scene memory in OoP. His 
killing of Dumbledore might now make him infamous, perhaps even as much as 
or moreso than Lord Voldemort. Did he *really* want that notoriety after all 
he's worked to achieve over the last upteen years? Bellatrix is right - he's 
had it pretty cushy since coming to Hogwarts. The easy choice, rather than 
the right and more difficult one, will be if Snape decides he'll never be 
trusted by the Order, swear undying allegiance to the Dark Lord and act 
accordingly as a Death Eater (for example, revealing Lupin in his role with 
the werewolves.)  But what if he doesn't? And what if the truth is far more 
complex than the events thus far? Who would believe him? Flitwick perhaps - 
Snape could have easily killed him rather than stunning him in HBP. Who else 
and why?

Rebecca