Mourning Snape's life

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 183111

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Lynda Cordova" <sweenlit at ...> 
wrote:
>
> There was so much potential in Snape's life,

Leah: There was so much potential in Snape himself.  As to his life, 
being born into a slum-dwelling, neglectful, unhappy and possibly 
abusive family life is not normally taken as offering a lot of 
potential.  Neither is being bullied at school, publically 
humiliated, and possibly set up to be killed.  He did do well 
academically, and choose to spend his whole life serving Dumbledore 
and teaching rather then researching etc etc in reparation for 
Lily's death and to protect her son.    

 but at every opportunity he
> chose the easy way, the way his family had taught him. And, 
considering that
> although he always went along with the pureblood philosophies, 
despite being
> halfblood himself, there was a lot of self-loathing he was dealing 
with
> too. 

We don't know what Snape's family taught him. Presumably his father 
didn't teach him anything about the wizarding world, except to 
distrust Muggles.  His mother married a Muggle, which hardly seems 
to make her a pureblood fanatic.  At the age of 10/11 all we can say 
is that Snape knows that being Muggleborn can make a difference, 
which is an unfortunate fact of wizarding life, that he wants to be 
sorted into Slytherin because it's the house for 'brains', and he 
believes Muggleborns can be sorted there too.   He does not go along 
with pureblood philosophies when he becomes friends with Muggleborn 
Lily, when he tries to reassure her that being Muggleborn won't make 
a difference, when he continues to want to be her 'best friend' 
years after he's been sorted into a house with Death Eater 
wannabees. Neither is he going along with those philosophies when he 
tells Phineas Nigellus not to use the word Mudblood. 

Yes, he does become a Death Eater for reasons which are never made 
totally clear in canon. However,the easy way for him to take would 
have been to say 'tough' when he found the Potters were being 
targeted by the prophecy, and continue to rise in Voldemort's favour 
once they were all dead.  If Voldemort lost anyway, he could have 
pretended to have been imperiused like Lucius Malfoy.  The easy way 
would not involve returning to Voldemort as a spy, agreeing to kill 
Dumbledore and be reviled as a traitor, trying to save Lupin,trying 
to save those of Vodlemort's victims whom he can and failing to 
inform Voldemort that Draco Malfoy had disarmed Dumbledore.   

Snape is full of self-loathing, but I've never got the impression 
any of that was to do with being a half-blood.  Calling 
yourself 'the Half-Blood Prince' is rather more honest and self-
deprecating than deciding that you are 'Lord Voldemort'. 



>Its sad, but also a good object lesson. A lot of people have similar
> attitudes and not everyone comes to understand the wrongness of 
them or if
> they do can overcome them to find a fuller life.

Leah: What stops Snape finding a fuller life is his guilt over 
Lily's death and his attempt to make reparation by protecting Harry 
from Voldemort.

Leah
>