Hero types was Re: Another Snape thread/ Snape as hero

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152060

Kemper wrote:
> I thought your [BetsyHP's] romantic hero pertained to Ron which I
thought was perfect. I'll have to re-read it...

Carol responds:
It was Pippin who classified Ron as a romantic hero and Snape as
antihero. Betsy was responding to her post. (So was I in proposing the
alternate classification of Byronic hero for Snape.)
> 
Kemper:
> I can see where some anti-hero's fight the fight in spite of them
selves: Han Solo.  But there are various types of anti-heros.  V and
Wolverine seem in choice and fully rage in the fight against evil
which isn't to say they fight for the Light which is what Harry and DD
fight for.  That being said, some anti-heros are for the Dark, sort of
(?): Faust and Lucifer.

Carol responds:
Or for their own ends, like Frankenstein's monster (book version
only!) or Ahab against the White Whale? Snape, whatever his category,
doesn't seem to fit with them. Or with Faust or Lucifer. But see my
earlier remarks on Milton's Satan as a precursor for the
Byronic/Satanic hero.
> 
Kemper:
> ... I tried to get Snape to fall under a Randian Hero but can't get
past the emotional restraint nor the handsomeness pre-req.  Though I
suppose it could be said that Snape's handsomeness doesn't need to be
physical, but that's weak.
>
Carol:
Most of the time (with notable foaming-at-the-mouth exceptions), Snape
*is* emotionally restrained. See his conversation with Draco in "The
Unbreakable Vow," for example, or his handling of Harry in the
Occlumency lessons (until Harry invades his privacy by entering the
Pensieve, that is).

As for Snape's looks, I think that the Harry filter plays a part in
the descriptions we're presented. When we see Snape in the objectively
narrated "Spinner's End," we have Snape's "curtains of black hair" and
his sallow complexion, but no mention of an "overlarge" nose or yellow
teeth. (Roman noses used to be associated with aristocracy, and many
people find them attractive.) Clearly Snape isn't monstrously ugly or
Narcissa would not have held his hand, put her face close to his, or
shed tears on his chest. (No, I'm not advocating ACID POPS here.) And
he does have other attractions, which I think he has deliberately
cultivated to overcome the skinny little nerd image from his teenage
years, notably his studied movements and modulated voice, as well as a
style of speaking (which we first encounter in "The Potions Master" in
SS/PS) that marks him as an educated, cultivated man. Even though I'm
emphatically not a Snape/Narcissa shipper, I can see someone like her
finding the adult Snape attractive. (As for Lily, it's impossible to say.)

Carol