Slytherin's redemption (Was: DH as Christian Allegory)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 173988

lizzyben wrote:
> 
> But even if we accept the (IMO horrifying) contention that JKR
intended her world to be a Calvinist split between the "divine elect"
& the unclean, evil masses, it still doesn't make sense to me. Because
how do we explain HBP? In that novel, Harry spends a lot of time
learning about, and integrating, Slytherin qualities. He inherits the
home of Slytherin wizards, rides the train in the Slytherin
compartment, interacts positively w/Slughorn, shadows Draco all year,
& learns from Snape's potion book. He actually considers young!Snape
as a kind of friend, and feel a sense of pity & compassion for Draco
(for the first time). The Slytherins were arguably the most
interesting characters in that novel. It seems like all of this was
about integration - internally, w/Harry integrating the Slytherin
shadow side into his personality, and externally, w/Hogwarts
integrating the Slytherin house into the school as well. 
> 
> Then, all of a sudden, in DH she suddenly reverses course and
literally isolates & eliminates Slytherins from the narrative. All the
subtlely of HBP is lost as Slytherin = evil once again, and Draco &
Snape are marginalized & reduced to the stereotypes. That's what's
weird to me. It's like she started writing about Jungian integration,
and then suddenly switched to Calvinist pre-destination mid-stream. 
> 
Irene replied:
> 
> One of my theories is that Rowling has planned the ending quite in
advance. And she could not have planned the middle arch of the story
in full details. So during the years of writing the story took her
somewhere, and the characters has developed in unforseen ways. And
then she had to take some artificial measures to bring them back to
the planned route.
> 
> My husband has a different theory, which I find more amusing.
Rowling has confessed to reading some discussion boards, right? So can
you imagine her reaction after HBP: "I gave you super-spy-suave-Snape
in the beginning of the book, I gave you wicked-wizard-Snape in the
end, and still you won't believe he is ESE, which I need for my book 7
surprise?!!! Right, I'm keeping him off page for the most of book 7!
No more confrontations with Harry!" :-) <snip>


Carol responds:
I agree with Lizzyben's reading of HBP, which is, in effect, the Book
of Slytherin. But that focus can't be maintained in DH, which takes us
away from Hogwarts for the first time and focuses during the camping
trip segment on their isolation. Harry's pov is especially unreliable
here. He (and the rest of the WW) think that Snape is a murderer and a
loyal DE, so that everything he hears about Snape fits his
preconceptions. The Harry filter is extended to at least half of the
WW, (including Voldemort and the Death Eaters on the one hand and
McGonagall and Flitwick on the other). Snape is in deep, deep cover,
and the Snape we know from previous books has no reason or opportunity
to appear. Even Harry's view of Dumbledore (who turns out to be more
manipulative than most of us thought but is nevertheless not as bad as
Rita Skeeter paints him) is skewed by Skeeter's book, Dumbledore's
inability to set out a clear path, and the malign influence of the
Horcrux. 

Our view of Snape (not, however, of Draco and the Malfoys, whom we see
in all their weakness and disillusionment and fear) is a simple matter
of misdirection and point of view serving plot structure. Harry has to
see the worst of Slytherin, and especially of Snape, as does the
unwary reader, for the reversal/recognition scene in "The Prince's
Tale" and an acceptance of Snape's redemption to work. But, meanwhile,
JKR is dropping hints that Snape is not evil but deeply undercover and
working secretly for the side of good on DD's orders (his Occlumency
in chapter one, Mundungus(!) coming up with the Poly-juiced Potters
plan (strangely missing from Snape's revelations to LV), the doe
Patronus, the "terrible" detention with Hagrid, Snape reinstituting
Umbridge's decrees when he must know perfectly well what the result
will be, the fake Sword of Gryffindor that Snape sends to Bellatrix
(Does he know? I wondered as I read that), Snape as headmaster being
able to use Dumbledore's office, Snape retaining McGonagall and Hagrid
and as many staff members as possible rather than replacing them all
with Death Eaters, no deaths at Hogwarts.

JKR can show suave-spy!Snape hoodwinking both Voldemort and McGonagall
and DADA-expert!Snape duelling McGonagall (if we're paying attention
instead of letting ourselves get carried away by emotions as I did, we
can see that he's using defensive spells, unlike Cruciatus!Harry), but
she can't show Snape talking to Portrait!Dumbledore or let us know
exactly how he's protecting the students from the Carrows. Obviously,
he can't openly oppose them, but he's encouraging the growth of the
resistance movement and not going after the rebels, allowing Hagrid to
protect them. We have to read between the lines, but Good!Snape is
there. And, of course, without Snape, Ron could not have rescued Harry
or retrieved the Sword of Gryffindor, which in turn makes possible the
destruction of the horrible locket Horcrux and the hostility and
jealousy and despair it has been disseminating among the Trio. (On a
side note, we don't see suave-spy snape in his death scene because he
isn't lying to Voldemort about his loyalties and Occlumency can't save
him; his sole concern is that he knows it's time to give his message
to Harry--Nagini is in her bubble being magically protected--and he
fears that he has failed.) But he doesn't fail. With his last gesture,
his last amazing piece of magic, he gives Harry the memories he needs
to know that he has to sacrifice himself to destroy the scar Horcrux
and and to understand Snape, as the reader does, too, at last. (DD
has, of course, concealed one last bit of important information from
Snape, but only because Harry can't yet know that he has a chance to
survive.)

At any rate, DH does not undo the glimpse into the heart of Slytherin
provided by HBP. IMO, it expands on that glimpse and adds to Harry's
understanding of the "Shadow House." We have "good Slytherins" other
than Snape, as I've pointed out elsewhere: Phineas Nigellus, Snape's
go-between and spy, taking the role of the snide, snarky Slytherin;
Slughorn and Kreacher joining the battle, surely an example for the
students who will Be sorted into his House the next year; and Regulus,
the champion of house-elves, finally getting the recognition he's due
in Kreacher's rallying cry. Slytherin has its heroes, living and dead.
And we see Draco, at first so gung ho about killing Dumbledore in HBP
and left teetering between killing and being killed on the tower (and
saved from either fate by Snape and DD together) now facing the
consequences of his choice to join the DEs in DH. We see all three
Malfoys humbled and powerless (Lucius hasn't fully learned his lesson
as of "Malfoy Manor," IIRC, but Narcissa's love for her son turns her
away from the Dark Lord and gives her the strength to lie to him. (She
is not looking him in the face as she does it, but she lacks the
immense courage or the superb Occlumency of Severus Snape.)

IOW, HBP shows us the humanity of Slytherin (as Lizzyben nicely
illustrates), even the execrable Bellatrix showing love for her
sister, and provides new insights into Draco and Narcissa and Snape as
the HBP with whom Harry can empathize. We have parallel scenes with
Snape and Harry (revulsion and self-hatred) and the hint that Snape,
too, has been bound by a promise to Dumbledore, which many of us
suspected was a promise to kill him when the time came rather than let
Draco do it. 

We get another set of parallel Snape/Harry scenes in DH.

Harry, hating and distrusting Dumbledore through the sinister
combination of Rita Skeeter's "biography" and the locket Horcrux
(which is busily spreading doubt and division among the friends to the
point of driving Ron [temporarily] away), sees himself as Dumbledore's
unloved puppet:

"Look what he asked from me, Hermione! Risk your life, Harry! And
again! And again! And don't expect me to explain everything, just
trust me blindly, trust that I know what I'm doing, trust me even
though I don't trust you! Never the whole truth! Never!" (362).

Snape, of course, gives him the truth that he wants, or most of it,
through the Pensieve memory, and Redeemed but Dead!Dumbledore gives
him more (along with comfort) in "King's Cross. (The rest Harry has to
discover for himself.) It's important that he forgives both Snape and
Dumbledore, one of whom is not nearly as bad as he thinks him and the
other not quite as bad. Snape, though still bitter, dies giving him
crucial information and the memories that make understanding possible
and Harry publicly proclaims his bravery and loyalty to DD; DD's place
on his pedestal is still rather shaky for many readers, but he's not
the inhuman manipulator he appears to be throughout most of the book
or even the advocate of the "greater good" who would have ruled the
Muggles as benevolent dictator. (Where's Gandalf when you need him?) 

It seems to me that part of Harry's understanding of and compassion
for Snape, the ultimate Slytherin, the second of the "abandoned boys,"
surely comes from Snape's doubts of Dumbledore, which parallel his
own: "After you have killed me, Severus," begins DD, but Snape cuts
him off. "'You refuse to tell me everything, yet you expect that small
service of me!' snarled Snape, and real anger flared in the thin face
now. 'You take a great deal for granted, Dumbledore. Perhaps I have
changed my mind!'" (685). And later that night, after he learns that
he must tell Harry that he has a soul bit in his scar and must face
Voldemort ready to die, Snape says, "I have spied for you and lied for
you, put myself in mortal danger for you. Everything was supposed to
be to keep Lily Potter's son safe. And now you tell me you have been
raising him like a pig for slaughter--" (687).

This is not quite an accurate view of Dumbledore, nor is Harry's in
the parallel scene, but it places brave Slytherin Snape in exactly the
same position as the doubt-wracked Harry of the middle chapters of DH.
No wonder he identified so easily with Snape in the Pensieve scene. No
wonder he forgave him. Not only was Snape protecting Harry and risking
his life on Dumbledore's orders, he was being used by Dumbledore,
exactly as Harry is. And, though we're not told so explicitly, I think
Harry recognizes the HBP in those scenes, the clever boy who was
already his friend and is revealed to be a lonely outsider tempted to
the wrong side, blind to the evil nature of his friends, exactly like
Dumbledore with Grindelwald.

So Gryffindor is not the House of perfection, as the revelations about
Dumbledore, the arch-Gryffindor, reveal. Dumbledore, like Grindelwald
and Voldemort, had been tempted by power. He had placed his less than
laudable ambition to rule the world for "the greater good" above the
welfare of his sister and brother, and his sister had died because of
his friendship with Grindelwald. He had believed Muggles to be
inferior beings (perhaps because of what the Muggle boys had done to
his sister) who needed his benevolent dictatorship to control and
"help" them. He was not, of course, nearly as bad as Grindelwald, and
perhaps Grindelwald's later atrocities opened his eyes. But the
much-later Dumbledore, the twinkling-eyed, eccentric, high-principled
Dumbledore, champion of Muggle-borns and much-loved mentor, had
manipulated both Snape and Harry. It's a step down for Gryffindor,
just as brave Regulus, champion of house-elves, and bitter hero Snape
who loved Lily and gave his all to atone for her death are a step
up--a giant step up--for Slytherin.

IOW, DH does not undo the revealed humanity of the Slytherins from
HBP. It extends that theme, even though the plot structure setting up
Harry's epiphany requires us to see Snape from the outside, in the
role of ESE!Snape (with clues to the contrary), until Harry's epiphany.

Only one Slytherin student, Crabbe, has become trly evil, and he's
dead. Those who remain, or are newly Sorted into Slytherin House, will
have neither the temptation nor the opportunity to become Death
Eaters. (The DEs themselves, along with the execrable Umbridge, are
either dead or imprisoned.) The Head of Slytherin House is the flawed
but jovial and essentially good-hearted Slughorn, who fought against
the DEs in the battle of Hogwarts. Snape (whose portrait will, JKR
says, eventually appear in the headmaster's office) has been publicly
revealed as a hero. Regulus, I hope, will be added to the Slytherin
pantheon as well. 

Of course, Slytherin remains imperfect, but so does Gryffindor. The
idea that Slytherins will save their own skins (like the Gryffindor
coward Wormtail) rather than risking mortal peril for a cause or for
love has been disproved, and Gryffindor's flaws (already hinted at by
Sirius Black's recklessness and James Potter's arrogant bullying) have
been revealed through the brilliant but all-too human Dumbledore. Nor
did all the Gryffindors fight in the battle. IIRC, it was only those
who had already been close to Harry: the DA (including Ravenclaws Cho
and Luna), his former Quidditch team, and his first and most loyal
fan, Colin Creevey. (And Percy, who has the temperament of a
Slytherin.) The teachers, and perhaps the Order, represent a variety
of Houses. (Tonks was a Hufflepuff.) We don't see Romilda Vane rushing
onto the battlefield to fight for Harry.

BTW, did anyone notice that James Potter didn't go down bravely
fighting Voldemort? He would have done so, no doubt, if he hadn't been
wandless, but he's just coldly murdered. The only difference between
his death and Lily's is that she could have survived but tried to
offer her life in exchange for Harry's.

Carol, who thinks that the blinders are off Harry's eyes at the end of
the book and he at last sees Slytherin clearly