Severus Snape and the Forty-Seven Ronin

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 153090

I was thinking about the "Snape-as-Dumbledore's-Man" theories, and something 
I had read about in college (going for my BA in East Asian Studies) began 
niggling at me.

If Snape is DD's Man, then his actions on the tower are rather similar to 
those of the Japanese heroes known as the Forty-Seven Ronin.

For those not familiar with the story of the Forty-Seven Ronin, a potted 
version:  In 1701, a minor lord was forced to commit _seppuku_ after being 
goaded into attacking another lord in a place where violence was forbidden. 
The lord's samurai became _ronin_ (literally, "wave men," a term for a 
samurai with no master---this was Not A Good Thing To Be for various 
reasons) and his estate was broken up.

Forty-seven of the _ronin_ planned revenge, waiting for the right time. 
Some of them went on a course of open, blatant debauchery, figuring that 
this would lull suspicion about their actual intentions---the logic went 
that if they were making drunken, noisy fools of themselves, they wouldn't 
be plotting revenge.  This sort of behavior was considered shameful in a 
samurai.

Finally, on the right night, they struck, overwhelming the enemy lord's 
followers and taking his head.  After they had placed the head on their dead 
lord's tombstone as proof that their vengeance had been accomplished, they 
were required to commit _seppuku_ themselves, for murder.  Even though they 
officially died as criminals, they were hailed as heroes and exemplars of 
_bushido_ (the Japanese warrior code) for being willing to do anything, even 
things that samurai would not normally do, to avenge their lord's death.

The resemblance to Snape-as-DD's-Man is pretty obvious.  By killing 
Dumbledore, he's cemented his position as a Death Eater beyond anybody's 
ability to question it, even crazy Bellatrix.  This puts him in the perfect 
position to throw spanners into Lord V's plans, if not AK him in the back at 
the crucial moment.  For this, he's willing to suffer loss of his position 
at Hogwarts, execration as a traitor, and being hunted by the Aurors.  Like 
the forty-seven ronin, he awaits the time to strike and knows that his prior 
behavor ensures that when he strikes, he can do so with complete surprise 
and a high chance of success.