Severus Snape

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178477

Kimberley wrote:
> All this talk about Snape, one of my truly favorite characters.
Undoubtedly he is a VERY complicated man.  The same man who can reduce
Hermione (Neville, too) to tears calling her an insufferable
know-it-all (it's not Mudblood, but just because he chooses not to say
the word doesn't change his way of thinking.) is also the same man, as
pointed out, produces the Wolfsbane Potion for Lupin, someone he
clearly dislikes.  The same man whom DD trusts with his life is the
same man who can't put away his personal feelings to help Harry learn
occlumency. Instead sees Harry as an extention of James not only in
looks but attitude.  JKR calls him a truly horrible person and yet is
capable of love.  And loving someone he is brought up to view as
unworthy to like, or love or to associate with because of their
parentage.  And remarkably this love continues even in death. A feat
not easily done as most move on to love again, Snape chooses not to.
> 
> I stand by my statement that Snape is not a good guy.  He is the
Anti- Hero, a reluctant hero.  ALL the things he does, he does FOR
LILY.  <snip> He does not do these good things because they are good,
he does them for Lily.  He does them because he told DD that he would
and he is honourable.

Carol responds:

Aren't these last two sentences mutually contradictory? Snape's being
"honourable" (a man of his word) has nothing to do with Lily, right?
The vow to do "anything" relates to Lily, but keeping it has to do
with his own strength of character (strong in that respect, however
weak it may be with respect to holding grudges, in which he is by no
means alone among the characters).

Kimberley: 
> You mentioned the Unbreakable Vow.  I don't think Sympathy was the
primary factor in doing this, although I'm sure he was very sympathic
to Narcissa and her fear for Draco. I believe Snape had no other
alternative but to make the Vow.  Imagine the scene without Bella.
Snape probably would have convinced Narcissa he'd watch Draco without
it.  Bella was so suspcious of Snape at this point nothing would have
convinced her but an Unbreakable Vow.  It's hard to take someone's
word when you don't trust them.

Carol responds:

But Snape had already agreed to kill Dumbledore for reasons that had
nothing to do with Bellatrix and her suspicions, or with Lily (whom
you argue is his only motivation for doing good). He agrees to kill DD
to protect Draco's life and soul and to give DD the death DD
wants--purely humanitatarian reasons, as far as I can see. And just
allowing himself to be bound by an Unbreakable Vow (the stated purpose
of which was to protect Draco) puts his life on the line--an act of
enormous courage that he takes as a calculated risk (we see him
pausing before agreeing to take it, with that inscrutable expression
on his face). Where in any of this is Lily?
> 
Kimberley:
> In Killing DD, yes, to spare him pain and humiliation that the
> Carrows would have inflicted upon him. (or any other DeathEater. Ask
> yourself would you choose to be killed, If you had to choose, by a
> friend or foe? I would choose my friend, although I know my friend
> would have alot to say about this, like Snape did). And partly to
> save Draco from doing it.  He didn't want Draco living with the scar
> of having killed somebody, it does something to the soul. <snip>

Carol:

Exactly. snape's love for Lily certainly prompted his initial remorse
and his desperate promise to do "anything," but he has come a long way
from that desperate and anguished young man.

Kimberley:
> A VERY complicated man indeed. That's the reason I love trying to
figure him out.

Carol:
And yet you seem to be presenting him uncomplicated by saying that he
did everything for Lily. He continues to protect Harry even after he
knows that he and DD aren't doing it for Lily, that Harry will have to
sacrifice himself in the end. (He doesn't know, of course, that Harry
is likely to survive.) He saves Katie Bell and Draco in HBP and
prolongs DD's life, scolding him for putting on a cursed ring and not
calling for his (Snape's) aid sooner. Nothing to do with Lily. He
saves Lupin's life (the Sectumsempra misses the DE's hand, but it
still prevents the DE from killing Lupin, apparently because he has to
swerve out of the way of Snape's curse), and even before the HBP
incidents, he tells DD that lately, he has only watched those people
die that he could not save. None of it has anything to do with Lily
except perhaps that he hopes to atone for his role in her death by
saving others. Certainly, he never states that motive.

I'm not denying the bad side of Snape (though I don't recall his
"know-it-all" remark reducing Hermione to tears--it was his supremely
unkind "I see no difference" that did that. In general, Hermione seems
to respect him and does extremely well in his classes. She also
defends him throughout the second through sixth books.

I'm not denying that Snape became a DE or that he revealed the
Prophecy or that he was sarcastic and unfair and (except with a few
characters, such as Narcissa and Dumbledore, the only person to whom
he could speak freely) generally unpleasant (though I, personally,
enjoy his sarcasm, especially to Umbridge, Bellatrix, and Wormtail,
and his indirect methods of getting bad characters, such as Crabbe, to
do what he wants them to do without giving away his loyalties).

"The Prince's Tale" focuses on his relationships with Lily and
Dumbledore because those are the relationships that will help Harry to
understand and trust his message, even though he himself is dead. But
it's not all there is to Snape. His other actions, especially the
lives he saves that have no direct connection with Harry or Lily, show
that he is indeed complex, motivated by something resembling principle
or at least a desire to do good, to serve the cause of right despite
his knowledge that DD is using him, and despite whatever inclinations
in his own personality and upbringing prompt him toward evil.

Carol, for whom Snape will always be JKR's greatest creation
regardless of what she (JKR) says about him