Snape, again...(was Re: Come on folks)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 173705

Betsy wrote:
<snip> It's not accidental that Snape in DH suddenly seemed
considerably slower on the uptake than in any previous book, or that
his voice was so silenced.  It wasn't even anything that Snape
actually DID that broke the character;  it was the author's need to
'explain' him. 
> 
> Julie:
> Regarding Snape's voice being silenced, I felt stunned at first
> myself that Snape was so...subdued. Especially in the scene with
> Voldemort where he put up no fight whatsoever. Later, after 
> thinking about it for awhile, I came away feeling it was in 
> fact in character. For the first time Snape sees Nagini being
> kept close to Voldemort (what Dumbledore warned him about) and
> he realizes that the end has come. (Harry watching from under
> the Invisibility Cloak had an immediate sense that Snape was
> in mortal danger, and I think Snape may have felt it too.) 
> 
> Could Snape have run, or pulled out his wand and duelled? I
> suppose he could have tried something. He's not going to win,
> because no one except Harry Potter has a chance to beat 
> Voldemort one-on-one, but he could have gone down fighting.
> Except it wasn't about what he wanted to do, but the job he
> still had to finish, and the possibility that he would be
> able to get it done was in serious jeopardy. He had to get
> those memories to Harry, it was what he'd sacrifice his 
> life for (figuratively as well as soon to be literally). 
<snip>

Carol responds:
I admit that my initial response to the final confrontation between
Snape and Voldemort resembled Betsy's: What's happened to Severus
Snape, who has always put two and two together so quickly, clever,
cunning survivor Severus Snape, who "hoodwinked" the Dark Lord before
our eyes in chapter 1? (Of course, I didn't understand the wand thing,
either, and my emotions were tangled in knots when I first read the
chapter where Snape dies.)

But it seems clear to me on a reread that Snape (who, of course, knew
nothing about the Elder Wand) had only two things on his mind: The
hands of his clock were at mortal peril and neither cleverness nor
Occlumency could save him, and he had to deliver his message to Harry
Potter.

Instead of brilliant Snape banter resembling his exchange with
Bellatrix in "Spinner's End," we get a Snape who keeps repeating his
request with greater and greater desperation and who fears, as
Voldemort and Nagini slither out together, that all is lost. It isn't
fear of death, it's fear that everything he and Dumbledore have
struggled for will be over. Yes, his voice is silenced (except for
that surprising and IMO supremely meaning ful last request), but he's
dying. And the loss of his voice is almost compensated for by his last
amazing feat of magic, sending memories out from his own head. (That
on top of being able to assume a batlike form and fly, and using
impressive defensive magic against McGonagall, who thinks that he's a
murderer, in contrast to Harry, who has just stooped to using a
Crucio. I'll blame the soul bit in his scar. It's the only explanation
I find palateable.)

I've already explained why I don't think a last Harry-Snape
confrontation would have worked. I'll add that Harry is no longer the
"arrogant," rule-breaking Potter boy whom he's promised to protect.
Snape knows at last that he's the WW's only chance. It's his epiphany
as well as Harry's, and his one chance for Potter to understand what
he has done. Even if we don't like Lily/Snape, a final confrontation
between sarcastic Snape and hostile Harry would never have served the
purpose with regard to plot or theme (recognition scene), would never
have had the emotional impact (catharsis) appropriate to Snape as
tragic hero (not in JKR's sense but in Aristotle's). I can't think of
any other way in which he could have been redeemed in Harry's eyes, in
JKR's, in most readers'.

The time for snarky Snape is over (though he makes a cameo with the
line about waiting for DD to compose his will). Harry doesn't need to
see that Snape. Nor does he need to see Snape as seemingly loyal DE
"hoodwinking" the Dark Lord with Occlumency and providing him with all
but the key piece of information on DD's orders. Snape asks Draco in
HBP where Draco thinks he would be if he couldn't act, and we see
Snape as consummate actor in that first chapter, where he can calmly
allow Voldemort to look into his eyes and Voldemort, thoroughly fooled
by his own hubris and Snape's superb Occlumency, views him as
literally his right-hand man. And hardest of all, he has to feign
indifference to the plight of a woman he cannot save. This is DE
Snape, cool, unaffected by Yaxley's jealousy, concealing or
suppressing whatever sympathetic impulse he must feel for the Malfoys,
who must fend for themselves this time without his help.

We get glimpses of Snape as headmaster (giving out detentions with
Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest in contrast to the Carrows' torture,
keeping on old staff members like McGonagall who can openly oppose the
Carrows, putting up Umbridge-style decrees knowing full well what the
consequences would be). We see that his relationship with DD wasn't
all that we hoped it was, but we do see Snape furiously berating
Dumbledore for putting on a cursed ring and DD telling him, "I am
fortunate, extremely fortunate, that I have you, Severus" (681). I
wouldn't exchange all the Snape banter in the world for that last
sentence.

Another thing: People have asked about the nonverbal spells that Snape
worked so hard to teach Harry (and Harry resisted learning so
obstinately because he hated Snape). I think they show what Snape (and
many readers) expected from Harry, a gifted wizard with powers to
match Snape's own. He has been trying since the first book to get
Harry to focus, to pay attention, to follow directions. He knows
perfectly well whose potions Harry is getting credit for in Slughorn's
class. He has tried to teach Harry Occlumency and nonverbal spells. he
sees Harry as hopelessly mediocre and cannot understand why Dumbledore
has faith in him. To the last, as he trounces Harry by parrying every
spell Harry casts, he wants him to close his mind and shut his mouth
(use Occlumency and nonverbal spells, which he himself excels at). 

But we see in DH that, with the exception of flying and casting a
powerful Patronus and speaking Parseltongue as a result of the scar
Horcrux, Harry (unlike Snape) isn't an exceptionally gifted and
powerful wizard. He doesn't even have his own wand for half the book,
a way of emphasizing that magical power will not defeat Voldemort). I
don't think that Snape's lessons are wasted (Expelliarmus, which Snape
taught the duelling club in CoS, may be second only to Expecto
Patronum in importance tp Harry, and the Trio quietly "forget" that
Muffliato is the HBP's spell because it's so useful). Hermione has
aborbed Snape's Potions lessons (and did Harry tell her about Snape
advising Draco to take dittany for scarring?) and can cast nonverbal
spells. It seems likely that other students learned from him, too.
Eight students in Harry's class managed O's in Potions through his
teaching. His lessons in DADA seemed to be geared to what students
about to face Voldemort ought to know. I doubt very much whether those
who learned nonverbal spells regret that they did so.

At any rate, it's clear that Snape doesn't understand Harry and judges
him on his "mediocrity" (and Harry's performance in most of his
classes merits that description). He fears that Harry will be
inadequately prepared. And if Harry had not had Hermione to protect
him with spells that she may well have learned from Snape and had not
shared that drop of blood with Voldemort, anchored by Voldemort's
Horcruxes while Voldemort lived (survived), Snape would have been
right. Duel Yaxley without nonverbal spells and Occlumency and an
arsenal of defensive spells, and you're probably dead. But But even
Snape, for all his brilliance and power and proficiency, is no match
for Voldemort in the end, killed by his most horrible Horcrux, Nagini.
Because it isn't power that can defeat Voldemort. It's love, and
forgiveness, and compassion, and, above all, the willingness to
sacrifice yourself for the WW. It helps, of course, to be a Horcrux
and share blood with Voldemort and be the master of the Elder Wand.

Harry and Snape reach an understanding in the end that snarky Snape
could never have reached, however much we miss him. And, BTW, suave
Snape from "Spinner's End" resurfaces briefly with McGonagall, as
does, erm, kick-ass Snape from "Flight of the Prince" (Carol grins
wickedly at the stunned fellow listies who can't believe she said that). 

Carol, who has no idea where this post came from as it was supposed to
be about Snape not being "slow on the uptake" or "broken," just
revealing new sides of his character outside the classroom