Snape - a werewolf bigot?? Was: Say it isn't so Lupin!!!

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 170096


> 
> Sherry:
> 
> I would not understand it.  If Lupin represents disability and
illness in
> the WW JKR has created, then Snape being bigoted against all werewolves
> because of one would be like someone hating all blind people because one
> cheated, stole or tried to murder.  I think Snape is prejudiced against
> werewolves in general--the way he refers to and speaks to Lupin--and
against
> Lupin in particular.  Neither do I think the message that Snape's
bigotry
> was counter productive is very productive in itself, considering
that's a
> pretty subtle message in a kid's book.
> 

wynnleaf
Here's JKR's quote:

"His being a werewolf is really a metaphor for people's reactions to
illness and disability."

The fact that JKR said that Lupin is a "metaphor for people's
reactions to illness and disability," does not mean that whenever any
 character dislikes Lupin, it simply *must* be because he's a
werewolf, and that Lupin can't possibly turn out to do anything
*really* wrong, because -- well, I'm not sure what the reasoning
actually is.  Because people with illnesses and disablities in
literature are bound to be good and anything wrong they do has to be
excused because of their disability?  I doubt it that's the message of
JKR.

JKR has *already* shown that Lupin would make choices -- as a human,
not a werewolf -- to let his friends bully and torment another person
when it was his clear responsibility as a prefect to attempt to stop
it.  He does this (self confessed) because of not wanting to lose
friends.  Further, he keeps secrets which could endanger an entire
school of children, once again (self confessed) in order to keep the
headmaster's goodwill.  Why would being a werewolf create some sort of
mitigating circumstance?  *Many* people suffer, for one reason or
another, from bigotry that creates a difficulty in having friends. 
That doesn't excuse actions such as Lupin's.

JKR making Lupin a werewolf doesn't somehow mean he can't possibly be
found to betray anyone.  It's like saying "handicapped people can't be
used in literature except as good guys, because otherwise it's playing
to a stereotype."  But in fact, JKR already breaks that non-rule, by
having Fenrir be completely evil.

I think the greater stereotyping for a writer would be to assume some
sort of rule or code that because Lupin is a sympathetic werewolf, he
*can't* do anything too wrong.

As regards Snape's dislike of Lupin, yes, Snape plays the werewolf
"card" to insult Lupin.  But my impression has always been that he
does that, not because of a general bigotry against werewolves (who he
never insults in a general way), but because he hates Lupin in
particular -- for his very human weaknesses -- and will use anything,
however unfairly, to insult him.

In fact, I see this quite commonly among adolescents, of which I will
agree Snape's character sometimes mimics.  Adolescents often use
bigoted comments to insult people that they dislike, not because they
specifically dislike the person for their status, but because they are
simply using *anything* at hand to be insulting.  Sure, there are also
people who are truly bigoted and use bigoted remarks *because* they
are bigoted.  But every use of a bigoted comment is not because the
speaker actually dislikes the other person for that reason.  To me,
it's a little similar to Snape's mudblood comment.  There isn't any
other instance in canon to really support Snape being a pureblood
elitist -- his Half Blood Prince name implies the opposite.  It seems
far more likely to me that he used the term just because it was an
available weapon at hand to use, not because he really had any problem
with Lily being muggleborn.

There is more however, to the Snape and Lupin enmity.  We have to
remember that Snape was actually in danger of dying at
werewolf!Lupin's jaws -- if he weren't in danger of dying, there'd be
no life debt to James.  Snape very, very naturally sees Lupin as
deadly, because Lupin *was* deadly in a personal way for Snape.  

And we have to also remember that Lupin's case is not like a case of
racial bigotry.  Lupin really *is* deadly at certain times of the
month.  And it's not just like a person with an infection, who could,
given just the wrong circumstances, infect someone else.  Until
wolfsbane was made, Lupin could easily kill someone quickly and
surely, and we learn that he was given to the very behavior (running
around wild at the full moon) that could have made that possibility
easily come true.

Later, it becomes *Snape's* responsibility to make the potion that
keeps Lupin safe.  Snape, who was almost killed by Lupin.  Snape, who
Lupin tacitly allowed to be bullied for years, and probably at least
verbally insulted himself (note Map insults).  Snape, who Lupin calls
"Severus" to his face, even though anyone should probably realize that
Snape wouldn't like that suggestion of "friendship."  Snape, who Lupin
allowed to be ridiculed in his classroom (Snape, at least would have
seen it that way).  And Snape has to make the potion to ease Lupin's
monthly transformation and make it "safe" for Lupin to become Snape's
colleague at the school.

Further, Snape never trusts Lupin.  And the thing is, Snape was right.
 Even though his assumptions were in many ways wrong, and even though
it turned out that Sirius was not the traitor, Snape was *right* to
distrust Lupin, who was keeping secret vital information and, for all
Lupin knew, was endangering the students solely for his own benefit.

With all of that, Snape has plenty of quite understandable reasons to
distrust and even despise Lupin.  Why blame it on bigotry, when there
are so many other greater reasons?  I find it much more reasonable to
blame the bigoted comments on Snape's more understandable dislike of
Lupin, then to blame the comments on some sort of baseless bigotry.

zgirnius:
In the Shack scene, Snape repeatedly refers to Lupin as "the
werewolf" instead of using his name, and states at one point, "Don't
ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," as though the
thought processes of werewolves as a class differ from those of other
humans.

wynnleaf
There is the possibility, by the way, that Snape means this quite
literally.  He's used to using legilimency to determine lies, truth,
and other intent.  It's possible that he really *can't* fathom Lupin's
mind and blames it on his being a werewolf.  I tend to think there are
enough instances of Lupin appearing to use legilimency and occlumency
to guess that he does have these abilities, and that Snape may run up
against a mental wall when trying to "fathom" Lupin.

wynnleaf