To rue, a plant for the Order, and plant imagery

[Kemper]

No: HPFGUIDX 171320

>  > CV: What is rue, anyway?

>  Carol answered:
>  Regarding rue: As Snape (who knows about dittany and the properties of
>  herbs, animals, and minerals in general) would know, as would Sprout
>  and Madam Pomfrey, rue is an herb with healing properties.
>  Botanical.com (a very interesting and informative website) describes
>  it this way:
>  ...snipped it can be read at the below address...
>  http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/r/rue---20.html
>
>  The site quotes someone named Gerard (a medieval authority on herbs?)
>  as stating: "If a man be anointed with the juice of rue, the poison of
>  wolf's bane, mushrooms, or todestooles, the biting of serpents,
>  stinging of scorpions, spiders, bees, hornets and wasps will not hurt
>  him."
>  ...
>  To return to "rue," the word, of course, also means "sorrow," and, as
>  a verb, "to regret or to feel remorse" (the etymology of the plant
>  name is different from that of "rue" meaning "sorrow" but I think they
>  must have been associated in the medieval English mind considering the
>  repentance symbolism alluded to by Ophelia). The whole idea of the
>  plant--its unpleasantness, its medicinal uses, especially in
>  antidotes, its association with remorse, makes me think of Snape.
>
>  Carol, who thinks that Snape's saving Ron with rue would be a lovely
>  way of proving to Harry which side he's on (foreshadowed by the Bezoar
>  incident in HBP) but thinks it's unlikely to happen

Kemper now:
I'm going to bring up an old thread which I started in Feb 05 entitled
Snape Plant Imagery.  It started here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/124167

from message #124292 posted by Valky:
> kemper wrote:
So I'm re-reading Snape's Worst Memory when I come to passage that
happens immediately after Harry 'falls' into the memory. Harry is
looking for Snape.
> >
> > "And there he is, at a table right behind Harry. Harry stared.
> > Snape-the-teenager had a stringy, pallid look about him, like a
> plant left in the dark." (OoP, soft, 640)
> >
> > 'Plant' not 'weed'.
> >
> > Like a plant left in the dark.
> > The plant, a symbol of life, is Snape.
> > Left in the dark, left out of the light.
> > Left to survive in the dark rather than thrive in the light.
>

Carol replied:
> That image caught my eye, too, and it seemed to suggest neglect on
the part of the adults in young Severus's life--his parents, his
head of house, maybe even Dumbledore. I think the boy Severus had
enormous potential,...edit... but that's what the image of the
pallid, neglected plant suggests to me, and I find it very sad.
>
> But the absence of light may also, as you suggest, indicate that he
> was raised to believe in the values of the Dark side,....

> Valky agreed with C and me:
> I agree with you Carol, and Kemper, I am sure the plant imagery is
used by JKR in the same way done so many other characters throughout
the books, to say samoething huge about it while only literally
saying something apparently insigificant. I like the way that both
of you have understood it and I agree.
> Just one thing I would like to add.
> Sirius' house of a dying person, Bodes sepulchral voice, I wonder if
we might also think over how the plant left in the dark could have a
more /literal/ meaning like these ones. I mean, is there an actual
plant that might hae something to do with Snapes mystery, for
example, the reason Dumbledore trusts him. Or could it be to do with
Devils Snare? That's just and odd thought that came to mind while
thinking about how right you both were.


Back to Kemper:
As there's been plant imagery with regards to Snape, perhaps rue is
appropriate metaphor for him.
The characteristis of the plant:
Powerful
Disagreeable
powerful and disagreeable odor (I'm sure greasy hair
doesn't smell like rosemary and mint)
Bitter
Blossoming from June-Sept (when I imagine he is most active as a plant
for the order)
Healing

The meaning of the verb:
to feel regret (Dumbledore believes he rues his activities as a Death Eater)
to feel remorse (about Lily's death?)

Kemper, just excited about an old idea regarding Snape and not adding
anything new