Meaning/Translation of "stopper death"

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 168255

bboyminn wrote:
> 
> "Metaphorically" is the key. Snape is speaking, not literally, but
in symbols. People are always confused about 'stopper death', but no
one every question the likelihood of literally 'bottling fame, or
'brewing glory'. He may be able to brew potions that are related to or
affecting 'fame' or 'glory', but unlikely to be taken literally.
<snip>
> 
> Some assume 'stopper death' means to contain death in a bottle as in
a poison. He can contain a substance in a bottle that can cause death.
> 
> The other interpretation  is that Snape can contain a substance in a
bottle that will restrain death. To contain it in the sense of holding
it back or restraining it or keeping death at bay. In other words, a
means of preventing eminent death.
> 
> So, 'stopper death' can mean to cause death or to prevent death.
Personally, I think it means that, within certain limits, this magic
potion can hold off or prevent eminent death. Again, within limits.
<snip>

Carol responds:
Right. Snape, bless his poetic soul, is speaking metaphorically. He
can teach his more gifted students (presumably not first-years) to
"bottle fame and brew glory" in the sense that they can brew and
bottle potions which, if drunk, will have those effects, just as Felix
Felicis is not really liquid luck but a potion that temporarily makes
the drinker lucky and a love potion is not bottled love but merely a
potion that temporarily causes the drinker to become infatuated.
(Warning to Potions students: Don't trust to bottled fame or brewed
glory!)

The question is whether "stopper death" is metaphorical in the same
way. Does it merely mean a potion that can cause death (no temporary
effect like bottled fame or brewed glory)? Is he boasting that he can
teach his students to brew and bottle poisons, in which they can then
literally put a stopper? Although he certainly *can* teach them to
brew poisons, I don't recall his doing so. In any case, that seems
like an odd boast, especially since "stopper death" is in the
climactic final position ("bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper
death"), suggesting that it's the greatest achievement of the three.
Wouldn't HRH have whispered after class about a teacher they thought
was planning to teach them to brew poisons?

Or does Snape mean, as Steve suggests, a potion that will hold off
imminent death (as Phoenix tears, Unicorn blood, and Bezoars also do
in their very different ways) or perhaps a brewed, bottled, and
stoppered antidote that will save someone from poison? (He certainly
can and does teach his students to brew antidotes, particularly in GoF.)

On the one hand, "stopper death" could simply mean to put death
(poison) in a bottle and stopper it--which Snape certainly could teach
them to do (if the MoM and DD allowed it). On the other hand, the
ambiguous wording and the climactic position of the phrase suggests
something less sinister and less mundane, blocking or stopp(er)ing
death as you would stop the flow of a liquid by corking the bottle. 

The fact that Snape questions Harry about both Bezoars, a
near-universal antidote, and the ingredients needed to brew the
Draught of Living Death suggests, but by no means proves, that the
second meaning is the one he has in mind. The Draught of Living Death
is not an antidote, of course, but it isn't bottled death in the same
sense as a poison is, either. In fact, it fits better with the other
two examples, bottled fame and brewed glory, than either poisons or
antidotes because, if brewed correctly, its effects are temporary and
reversible. It's "death" in a (stoppered) bottle in the same sense
that Felix Felicis is "liquid luck." It is and it isn't.

In short, while I'm not sure of Snape's exact meaning, I'm pretty sure
he's not telling his brand-new students that he can teach them to make
poisons.

Carol, who believes that the Draught of Living Death will play a role
in DH regardless of Snape's intended meaning in SS/Ps