Why did Snape call Lily a 'Mudblood'?

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 177629

JP wrote:
> 
> This is indeed an interesting aspect of Snape's character, his
hidden xenophobia, for lack of a better term.  I have thought alot
about Snape, as anyone that has read my posts know. I think that there
a few aspects of Snape to keep in mind:
> 
> I think Snape comes from a breeding similar to Draco's, which is
rooted in this xenophobic "racist" attitude.  It may be that JKR wants
us to remember that racism is taught not bred.  So he is obviously
drawn to Lily, but he can't escape who he is and where he is from. 
Not at such an early age.
> 
> When you look at the way that Snape addresses Lily and how he reacts
around her.  To me one very important distinction should be made.
Snape did not "love" Lily. He "coveted" her.  <snip>
> He, I think, is the in love with the idea of being in love with her.
Not truly having feelings for her.  The Dali Llama says "True love
exists when your love for one another overpowers your need for each
other" and I don't think Snape ever makes that leap.  Why else would
he still have her Patronus?  (please no need for script analysis of
that line)  So Snape coveting Lily is why he was able to demean her in
such a big way.  He never had true emotions of "love" for her.

Carol responds:

I wish I had time to answer this post more fully. Let me just say that
I disagree with it completely.

First, Draco's and Severus's backgrounds are completely different.
Draco's parents are rich purebloods who view themselves as "nature's
nobility" and have indoctrinated their son with their views to the
extent that he thinks "Mudbloods" smell and expresses the hope at age
twelve that "the Mudblood Granger' will be killed by the Basilisk.
(Draco does change in the books, but it's unclear whether his views on
pureblood supremacy changed along with his views on Voldemort and death.)

Severus, in contrast, has a witch mother who is probably though not
canonically both a Slytherin and a pureblood. His father, however, is
a Muggle, which makes Eileen a "blood traitor" in the Slytherin view
if she is indeed a pureblood. Young Severus obviously doesn't think
highly of Muggles (either his abusive father or Petunia), but he not
only likes and befriends the Muggle-born Lily but hopes that she'll be
sorted into Slytherin along with him.

As for "coveting" Lily rather than loving her, the only evidence for
that which I'm aware of is his "greedy" expression, which is used by
the narrator before Snape's love and loyalty have been fully revealed
and reflects Harry's perception (he still thinks that the boy he's
seeing grew up to be the murderer of Dumbledore). Moreover, only when
he's a child too young to feel anything resembling a desire to possess
Lily in the sense of owning her (which is what covetousness implies)
do we see that expression. 

Granted, *Voldemort* thinks that Snape "desired" Lily, but Harry
corrects him. Snape loved her and wanted her to live, and when she
died, he wanted to die as well. DD says that if he truly loved her,
he'll protect her son so that she won't have died in vain, and he
agrees to do so as long as no one knows the truth.

The Patronus is not stolen from Lily or a sign that he covets her. A
wizard doesn't control or choose his Patronus. Like Tonks', it
reflects the person he loves. A Patronus is, as JKR says on her
website, a spirit guardian, so, while Harry's spirit guardian is his
father, Snape's is Harry's mother. His Patronus is beautiful and pure
and powerful and innocent, reflecting his view of Lily, and I'd say
that his ability to cast such a Patronus is a very strong indication
of his redemption. Had it meant what you suggest, it would not have
moved Dumbledore to tears.


In contrast to the Bloody Baron, who murdered the girl he supposedly
loved, Snape wants Lily to live even after she has married his rival
and had that rival's child. (True, his love doesn't extend to James
and Harry!) His remorse drives him, the Death Eater who revealed the
Prophecy to LV, to turn in desperation to Dumbledore. When his
intervention, begging Voldemort to spare her and asking for
Dumbledore's help, fails to save her, he mourns Lily and for seventeen
years and spends those same years atoning for his role in her death. I
doubt that he would have done so had he merely "coveted" her. He would
simply have taken LV's advice and found a pureblood woman "worthy" of
him. Instead, he spends the remainder of his life working for
Dumbledore, much of it lying and spying and placing himself in mortal
danger. It begins with love of Lily but develops into something else,
a kind of personal crusade to protect Harry and oppose Voldemort that
extends to saving any life he can, whether it's DD's or Katie Bell's
or Draco's. And at the end, he wants Harry to understand. Had he
merely "coveted" Lily, there would have been no point in showing Harry
that he had loved Lily, his guardian spirit "always," from the moment
he met her until his death and perhaps beyond.

Carol, who thinks that Harry's vindication speech and the name of his
second son indicate clearly that he believed Snape's love of his
mother to be real