Whose Death Was The Saddest - book 7

[wfgriffeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 174220

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Michelle Wilkinson"
<mishbob88 at ...> wrote:

> I agree, Bill. I love listening to Jim Dale read the Potter books.
> He does a wonderful job of getting across the emotion of JKR's
> writing.

> The saddest death for me was Dobby until we saw Snape's dying
> memories.  I listened to that part while driving home tonight
> and had to pull over to find a tissue to wipe my eyes so I could
> see the road.



The saddest part of Snape's tale for me was not his death but his
giving up Lily's friendship.

Snape is certainly a tragic figure, the more so because his feelings
for Lily Evans were not strong enough to cause him to abandon the
Dark Arts. Snape's was the worst kind of careerism, since he
sacrificed love, or at least friendship, for it. The rift between
Snape and Lily developed before Lily and James became a couple. As
Dumbledore told Harry, it's our choices that are determinative. Who
knows what may have happened if Snape had chosen Lily over the Dark
Arts?

After Snape had lived with bitter disappointment and remorse for
years because of his choice, Harry arrived at Hogwarts. Snape only
saw James in Harry. Dumbledore told him that Harry was more like
Lily than James. Snape, however, was not able to see Lily in Harry
until the end of his life, when he told Harry to look at him. By
the time of his death, Snape was a bitter, if courageous, man who
was doing his best to make up for the consequences of his earlier
choice. By contrast, when Dobby died, he was totally innocent and
had just courageously rescued Harry and the others by returning to
the house in which he had been enslaved. Dobby did not deserve to
die. Snape, to some extent, did, since his choices had led him to
reject Lily and assist Voldemort.

BillG