Snape/Lily love or obsession

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 173469

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Dana" <ida3 at ...> wrote:
>
> Snape's Witch:
> > Considering that Harry saw exactly the same scenes we've read and 
> > didn't think Severus was either a stalker or obsessed, I'll just 
> > accept his opinion of Severus Snape. 
> 
> Dana:
> Sorry could not resist but why believe Harry now? Before DH Harry's 
> point of view on Snape has always been a major point of debate but now 
> suddenly he is right? If he is not a good judge of character when he 
> witnessed and experienced Snape's behavior towards him then why is he 
> now? Snape truly hated Harry and his dad that character assesment is 
> also still very much part of canon!Snape. Is the Harry filter suddenly 
> a reliable witness while before these revelations it wasn't? 
> 
> I'm just saying. 
> 
> Dana
>
Carol responds:
I'm glad you asked that question. The "Harry filter" doesn't lift.
We're still seeing it from his point of view. We've still got a
hird-person-limited narrator. How do we, then, that the narrator is
reliable on this point when he wasn't before?

Part of it is plot structure. We've reached the end of the book. Aside
from the new mystery of Dumbledore's past (and the Deathly Hallows
complication), DH is the denouement of the series. JKR is trying to
give us the answers, to tie up the major loose ends. And, of course,
the biggest loose end of all is Snape. (Not will Harry live. Surely
that was a given despite misdirection to make us think otherwise.)

Anyway, we've been set up from the first book (in which Snape is the
red herring villain) to the end of HBP (where he's the "murderer: of
Dumbledore) for a reversal, a recognition scene in which the hero
(Harry) has an epiphany about someone he thought was his enemy. "He
would never forgive Snape. Never!" (OoP Am. ed. )  simply shouts that
yes, he will forgive Snape--not for Snape's sake (though to me that
brief moment of understanding is very important--it's more than Snape
seeing Lily's eyes: it's Harry seeing Snape). Snape didn't have to
provide those other memories, only the one that tells Harry he must
sacrifice himself. But Snape, who seems to have reached his own
belated epiphany, apparently wants them to die understanding each
other. I don't think it could have happened if Harry had lived.

The recognition scene/reversal is preceded by Harry's twice talking
about what will happen if he meets Snape: "If I meet Severus snape
along the way, so mush the worse for him, so much the better for me:
(HBP Am. ed. ) and "I want nothing better than to meet Snape" [meaning
fight him] (DH Am. ed.   ). Snape, of course, appaears to have joined
the DEs (misdirection), but there are clues along the way (the doe
Patronus, the "terrible" detention with Hagrid in the forest), just as
there have always been clues about where Snape's loyalties lie and
even that he has a heart (clutching the back of his chair when he
hears that a student has been taken into the CoS, for example). Harry
doesn't get his showdown. What he gets is the shock of seeing Snape
die in a terrible way for something that is not his fault. He knows
that Snape was desperate to get to him, that he has something very
important to say, and the fact that Snape gave him those memories as
he was dying, that his last act words were a request for Harry to look
at him, makes all the difference. Harry doesn't even think to question
him. What motive could Snape have for fooling him now? He's dead. So
Harry rushes to DD's office to see the memories. As he experiences the
memories, too numb to feel much of anything but no longer suffused
with hatred and a desire for vengeance, he reaches an understanding of
Snape, the good and the bad. Snape shows him everything that's
relevant to his relationship with Lily and with Dumbledore and his
motive for protecting Harry. Harry understands that Snape was an
unloved boy torn between love for his mother and the temptation of
joining his Slytherin friends. He sees Snape making the wrong choice
and begging Dumbledore to protect his mother (with no thought for
himself and his father). He hears him promise to do "anything" and
learns that he has kept his promise. He understands the significance
of the doe Patronus, understands that Snape has helped him, that Snape
has lied and spied and risked his life for Dumbledore theat snape was
horrified that DD would (seemingly) set Harry up as a pig for the
slaughter, hears him say that lately, he has only watched the people
die that he could not save.

And Harry's reaction, both to the revelation about Snape and what DD
expects of him, is "at last the truth." Not quite the truth regarding
Harry because DD concealed important information from both him and
Snape, but, yes, the truth about Snape. Harry's hatred has been
replaced by understanding and compassion. There's not even a moment of
forgiveness because Snape has atoned for his sins, especially the one
he could not forgive in himself, his role in the death of Harry's
mother. And Harry is at last ready to face Voldemort, armed with the
information Snape gave him and free of his corrupting desire to avenge
himself on Severus Snape.

To return to narrative technique: The unreliable narrator is only
unreliable when Harry is seeing what's in front of him without
understanding it. Take Thestrals, for example. At first, we're told
that the carriages move by themselves or are pulled by invisible
horses because Harry can't see the Thestrals at all. When he can see
them, he thinks they're terrible. But in the epilogue, we get the
definitive view of Thestrals: "Thestrals are nothing to worry about.
They're gentle things, there's nothing scary about them" (757). 

The same is true for Snape, who is at first perceived as an unfair
teacher, then a member of the Order of the Phoenix whom Harry is not
sure can be trusted, then a traitor and a murderer, and, finally, the
unloved boy who became a Death Eater and repented because of Lily,
risking his life to protect Harry and serve Dumbledore even though he
knew that DD was using him. In JKR's world, the highest virtue is
courage. Love, too, is immensely important. And Harry, understanding
that Snape's love of Lily, originally selfish, gave him the courage to
do what was right against his nature and the influence of his Death
Eater friends and in the face of terrible peril, names his second son
after him, the son with Lily's eyes. That says everything we need to
know about Snape. He was saved from evil by his love for Lily and he
was immensely brave. And so we get the definitive view of Severus
Snape from Harry himself: "[Snape] was a Slytherin, and he was
probably the bravest man I ever knew" (758).

JKR no longer needs Harry or Hermione to speak for her. Harry has
grown up. He has passed through Innocence and Experience to Wisdom.
His perception is no longer distorted. We can trust him, and the
narrator, now.

Carol, now wondering about the Thestrals as symbols of Harry's
perception of death