Off-page Snape (Was: Character construction)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 174852

lizzyben wrote:
> > As we now know, the ending was always supposed to involve  Harry
beating Voldemort while the world cheers, so Snape's  prominence
became a definite problem. This nasty unlikeable man has more  fans
than her heros! What's wrong with people? Right, Snape is  staying
off-page in DH.
>
Carol responds:
It's a bit difficult to have a big reveal about an on-page character.
Snape must be presented in the first chapter as seemingly evil, a
follow-up to the tower scene as perceived by Harry and "supported" by
the detail of George's ear. Harry has vowed never to forgive Snape; he
has stated twice that he wants to meet him and get vengeance for
Snape's murder. The narrator, of course, reinforces Harry's view with
the snake/Snape comment I quoted in an earlier post.

We get glimpses of Snape--the first line of his acceptance speech, the
Patronus that many readers guessed was his, the supposedly horrible
detention, Snape-fan Phineas Nigellus's information, which surely
comes straight from Snape, the fake sword he sends to Gringotts (snape
fooled? How likely is that?), the decrees he's posting knowing full
well what happened when Umbridge posted them, kids allowed to go home
for the holidays, Ginny banned from Hogsmeade (could there be
something there to protect her from?), and so on. Snape is off-page,
but he's very much on Harry's mind. And then we get the scene with
McGonagall, a glimpse of Snape's personality as headmaster--calm and
suave and in control until McG throws daggers at him, and even then
using only defensive spells, jumping out the window and flying away!

The death scene is tragic and ironic, Snape fearing not death but
dying without delivering his message. And then the memories he needs
to give to Harry--not random memories of DE days or fights with his
parents but those that relate specifically to Lily and Harry and DD
(and, BTW, confirm that James was a "toerag") enable Harry
simultaneously to lose all hatred of Snape or desire for revenge on
him *and* present himself as a sacrifice, which he would not have
known to do without Snape.

JKR *can't* show Snape on-page talking to DD's portrait or trying to
save Lupin until the Pensieve memory. And he only *starts out* loving
Lily but caring nothing about Harry. (How could he realistically have
cared about James, whose death BTW is neither heroic nor a sacrifice
but simple murder like Cedric's?) Snape moves from a DE whom DD holds
in contempt to someone he can trust to watch Quirrell to a man whose
bravery he praises and for whose life-long love of Lily he can shed a
tear, from a man who didn't care about Harry's possible death to a man
who spends his life protecting him even when he thinks Harry has to
die in the end, never wanting his protection, the "best" in him, to be
known--a man who has watched many people die, but "lately only those
whom I could not save." Snape as headmaster helps Harry and protects
the students--off-page, true, but we get just enough hints to have a
good idea how he does it.

BTW, we have a chance to see just how Voldemort's Legilimency works
when he looks into Gregorovitch's mind and sees the young thief,
Grindelwald. And we also see him looking into *Snape's* mind in
chapter 1 and coming away satisfied, foiled, "hoodwinked," by Snape's
"superb Occlumency." To have lied to the Dark Lord without detection
for all those years is quite a feat.

Snape is my favorite character, still and always, and I would have
loved to see more of him on-page. But to think that he died
accomplishing nothing or unredeemed is, I think, to badly misread
what's on the page.

And as for not seeing Harry forgive him, we don't need to. It happens
without his conscious awareness as he moves through the memories. The
contrast between his hatred of Snape before his death and his very
public vindication of Snape afterwards speaks for itself, and the
tribute in the epilogue shows that he still holds that view nineteen
years later.

Snape's courage and perseverance and devotion to duty and loyalty to a
man who used him are just as evident as his love for Lily, which
starts out selfish but does not remain so, as are Snape's many
talents, which are there for anyone who reads the text to see.

Carol, wondering if Snape could have saved himself from death with a
healing spell if he had really wished to do so