Snape and the Hope of Redemption

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 149099

Oh poor, poor Snape.  Part of his eternal punishment will be to have 
us, members of the jury, argue over his guilt or innocents for all 
of eternity.  The trial that never ends!  And by the look of things 
I think that we will still be debating this long after book 7 until 
we are each as old as DD!  lol.  Day after day, at least it is not 
boring!
 
So for my two knuts. 

Snape is a bitter, tainted by sin, tragic, damned, doomed and 
depressed man.  He is not Saint Snape.  He may be sometimes 
misunderstood, but not to the point that he is the "sweet guy we 
just don't understand".  Snape is the sinner.  Snape is the betrayer 
to all who see him.  Snape is Judas.  And only Snape knows what is 
really in his heart.  He still has a heart somewhere.  It has been 
stomped on, broken and wrenched from his soul, he thinks beyond 
repair, but it is still in him somewhere. 

Snape is the soul that has been so damaged by the world that he has 
given up on Love.  Unlike LV who has never loved and therefore does 
not understand Love, Snape has loved and does understand.  And the 
one who has loved and knows the depth of love also knows a desperate 
despair that LV can never know.  LV had never been broken by Love.  
Snape has. 

I think that where JKR is going with Snape is to show us that the 
most vile, bitter, beaten and damaged among us can be redeemed by 
the very Love that we have give up on.  If someone like Snape can be 
redeemed by Love, so can we, so can I.  

These books were written for children, but they also speak to 
adults.  They are books that act as a guide to us (at whatever age) 
on the path to spiritual growth.  Maybe the children can not 
identify with Snape, but the adults among us can.  Who among us, I 
ask you, can really cast the first stone at Snape?  Who among us has 
not been bitter or hateful at sometime in our life?  Who among us 
have not been so beaten by the world that we have, even for a 
moment, thought that Love was for fools? 

We can never have hope for the redemption of our own miserable souls 
if Snape is really the goody-two-shoes, totally misunderstood, good 
guy.  Snape is the sinner's sinner. He is the epitome of all the 
desperate brokenness of humanity.  Our only hope and his are in the 
words of DD on the tower - "it is my mercy that matters now".  

Tonks_op
Proud member of the Sinner Snape is DD's Man camp.