Killing Snape (was Re: Snape and Dumbledore on the Tower: A Defense of Snape)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 165374

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at ...> wrote:
>
<SNIP>
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> I'm hopeful that it wasn't a real AK for one reason and one reason 
> only: I want Snape to live.  If Snape really *did* actively kill 
> Dumbledore (rather than merely removing the life-support if you will) 
> than I suspect he's going to die for moral reasons.  As a murderer, 
> JKR will have to kill him off, no matter the reason for the murder.  
> 
> Sort of like how in a gothic story, if the ingenue is actually raped 
> by the villain she dies. 

The situation with Boromir in LOTR, much discussed in other threads, is 
perhaps more to the point.  That is that offering up one's life is the 
final act of penance.

The objection, often voiced by Pippin I believe, is that such a 
storyline would not leave us with an example of someone who reforms, 
does penance for their actions, and is then reintegrated into the world 
to a greater or lesser degree.  That is true, and would indicate a 
certain moral harshness.

Then again, moral harshness seems to be one of the things many people 
criticize JKR for.  Marietta and her plight comes to mind, as does the 
twins treatment of Dudley, DD's attitude at the Dursleys, etc.  
Therefore such a theme would be keeping with some people's view of JKR 
and the Potter saga.

The other criticism is that killing Snapey-poo would be, as Carol 
observes, unoriginal and uninventive writing.  But once again, such 
standard developments, unoriginal and uninventive or not, often occur 
at key points in the saga.  JKR herself says (paraphrase) that DD died 
because "the old wizard with the beard always dies in these kinds of 
stories," and that Sirius died because "the hero has to lose his 
support in these kinds of stories."  Also, as Nora has said, I give you 
the example of about a million Harry/Hermione shippers, who proclaimed 
loudly that JKR would NEVER pair up Harry with Ron's little sister and 
NEVER go with the dreaded OBHWF, because such developments would be so 
unoriginal, formulaic, and uninspired.

So, to this point we have plentiful precedent for moral harshness and 
uninventive and standard plot developments.  What would be the 
narrative purpose?  To close off Snape's story, I suppose.  After all, 
what place would he have in a world where all the developments that 
define him, all the questions that frame his story, are resolved?  He 
would be a being out of his time, a relic from a past now thankfully 
put to rest.

What would be the moral purpose?  I guess to illustrate redemption and 
its price.  Redemption, perhaps, is a moral necessity, but nothing 
about its necessity makes it cheap.  It can be extraordinarily 
expensive, and for some degrees of moral turpitude, maybe, only 
available for the ultimate sacrifice.  Thus the example of Boromir, 
whose redemption could only purchased at the cost of his life.

Not an uncontroversial idea, I know.  There are plenty of other ways to 
look at redemption.  For instance you could argue, as certain 
understandings of Catholic penitential doctrine would have it, that 
redemption is a matter of forgiveness, which requires no price other 
than confession and contrition.  Well, we haven't seen either of those 
from Snapey-poo either, although DD claims to have done so.  And 
certainly Snapey-poo has plenty to pay for since the death of the 
Potters (i.e, the whole problem with his abuse of children), and even 
DD has not claimed to see contrition and penance for that.

But all of this may miss the point.  God may forgive any sin for the 
price of sincere contrition (under one set of theories, not universally 
held), but the world and human society does not.  Boromir could only be 
a worldy hero by purchasing redemption at the cost of his life -- and 
that in the hands of a good Catholic like Tolkien.  If you believe in a 
DDM!Snape, or a Grey!Snape, then Snapey-poo is under the same burden 
and owes the same price.  And if he's evil, then he still owes the 
price, albeit as a matter of punishment and not penance.


Lupinlore, who looks forward to getting the whole dratted mess 
resolved, although it may well end in the sound of a wood chipper