good and bad Slytherins/Disappointment and Responsibility

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 175469

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" <justcarol67 at ...>
wrote:

 
> Carol responds:
> 
> For the record, this is an early interpretation of mine. The revised
> version can be found at 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/173304

I cited it because, early or not, I thought it was notable that it was
thrown out there.  I can speak only for myself, but I don't post
things that I don't have some measure of belief in.

<snip>

> As a plot device, Black's death served mostly, IMO, to increase
> Harry's hatred of Snape, paving the way for the "murder" at the end 
> of HBP, when Harry's desire for vengeance focuses on Snape as much 
> as on Voldemort. 

I think the plot device aspects are much more focused on the idea of
stripping Harry of his older support network:  Sirius one book, then
Dumbledore the next, and cutting off the material ties that he had to
his parents.  But I also think SSS is right, and the experience and
pain of the loss is key to repelling Voldemort's possession.

> The key point, I think, is not his failings, including becoming a DE 
> in the first place and revealing the Prophecy to LV, much less any 
> petty vindictiveness on the part of a bitter man who was his own 
> worst enemy, but his atonement, his redemption, and Harry's 
> forgiveness and understanding of a man he once had hated.

I think Snape is far more tragic than anything else.  He achieves some
measure of redemption, but it's very late in the game, and he's fully
responsible for his own failure to do better before then.  (As a
friend of mine, author of some delightful satires herself, says:
"Sarcasm is a game for adults.")

This is why I thought some forms of OFH were most likely, pre-DH: then
the story is of someone consumed by his own bitterness, unwilling to
break the cycle.  That's not quite what happened, but Snape's story
does still retain a whole lot of this OFH reading, given his extremely
singular motivations in having turned away from the life of a DH--as
JKR says, but for Lily, he wouldn't have cared at all.  To what degree
he actually picks up morality higher up on the hierarchy of complexity
is left pretty open, since we get so little of him and his actions.

But then maybe I'm focusing too little on the endgame and too much on
the body of the story, which seems to involve Dumbledore's desire that
Snape see Harry for who he is and thus get over his own bitterness
being repeatedly crushed by Snape's own inclinations.  As posted way
before this last book, I like Snape as an active character--the one
who wants both Lily and Mulciber but chooses Mulciber, chooses to come
back, chooses to relentless go after a child who doesn't understand
what's going on, and chooses to risk his life.  It makes the most out
of what little is there to define him.

-Nora enjoys some balmy weather and comparative lack of manuscripts