First lesson WAS: Re: Marietta, was Slytherin's Reputation

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 185696

Alla earlier:
> <snip>
> > And if he truly genuinely worried that Harry could be next Dark
Lord, again, why not do that extraordinary thing and just **watch**
him without antagonizing him? <SNIP>

Carol earlier:
> Later, he does exactly that. Watch him in the Duelling Club scene in
CoS. <SNIP>
> 
> Alla again:
> 
> Um, yes, he does. More than a year later, when Harry is pretty set
in thinking that Snape is the evil personified.
> 

Carol responds:
I'm not sure what your point is here since, as we know, Harry is wrong
in his assessment of Snape. I'm merely saying that Snape *does*
observe Harry on occasion without antagonizing him, exactly as you
think he ought to do. He may do so on other occasions that we don't
know about because we're viewing him from Harry's point of view, which
is, as you point out, is strongly anti-Snape by this point--despite
his knowing that Snape saved him from Quirrell's broom hex. (Yes, I
know that Hermione ended the hex by mistakenly attacking Snape, but
her blunder could have caused Harry to fall to his death. snape kept
him alive and in the air until that point.)

BTW, Harry still observes Snape's gift of quieting a room all the way
through HBP. It's just a Snape trait, neither good nor bad in itself,
that not even Harry can fail to notice. It's like noting that his
schoolboy enemy, Draco, really can fly--in the same book, SS/PS. The
fact that Draco's boast happens to be true doesn't make Harry like him
any better. It's just a fact that he considers worthy of notice.
> 
> Carol earlier:
> <SNIP>
> Whatever Snape's *intentions*, the consequence was that Harry was
clearly not regarded as a genius or prodigy by his schoolmates (who
would have found out quickly enough, in any case, that Harry was no
better than they were at anything except flying).
> <SNIP>
> 
> Carol, not defending Snape so much as pointing out that actions, as
so often in the HP books, have unintended consequences, in this case,
good ones
> 
> Alla responded:
> 
> <snip> I am only interested in the topic as related to what is
happening in Snape's head (paraphrasing). <snip> So, really I do not
care at all about unintended good consequences of Snape's actions, I
mean, I think they were not all good at all, but even if they are, to
me it does not matter.
> 
Carol responds:
I see. It does, however, matter to me. The unintended consequences of
a character's actions is a frequent and important motif in the books,
which in my view merits discussion. (I'm not asking you to respond to
it, but I do hope you understand why I brought it up. It may not be
what you, specifically, were discussing, but it is related to the
topic at hand, Snape's initial interaction with Harry.)

In any case, we can't know what's going on in Snape's head because the
book isn't written from his point of view. We see him not only from
the outside but specifically through Harry's eyes, which pretty much
eliminates any of his interactions with the Slytherins when Harry
isn't watching or listening in. (I could speculate on Snape's
motivations, but that's all it would be--speculation. And besides,
we've been there many times before and I see no point in going back
over the same old ground.)

Both of us, however, are interested in Dumbledore's reasons for not
talking to Snape about his teaching tactics. That ties in with my
point about unintended consequences. As I said earlier, I think that
Dumbledore didn't object to Snape's tactic in deliberately revealing
that "our new celebrity" was no superwizard because of the benefit to
Harry of being seen as just another first-year (who happened to have a
scar and an unusual history). Whether Snape intended to do so or not,
he was (IMO) serving Dumbledore's end of keeping Harry from becoming
any more of a celebrity than he already was. (Lockhart inadvertently
serves the same purpose the following year by illustrating the perils
of celebrity and the consequences of fan worship. Granted, Lockhart
doesn't deserve his celebrity at all, having stolen it from its
rightful owners. But Harry, too, has done nothing to *earn* his
celebrity status at this point. He has simply survived a Killing Curse
through no will or effort of his own. It's like being famous for being
a sextuplet.)

At any rate, you think that Dumbledore should reprimand Snape. I don't
(and not just because I don't think his actions in that first lesson
are all that horrible). I think that DD either doesn't know or, more
likely, approves of Snape's teaching methods for reasons of his own,
one of which is that his plan to defeat Voldemort (which probably
includes Harry's self-sacrifice from the beginning) would be a
complete disaster if Harry developed an inflated ego. (And Snape,
though he's not privy to all of DD's plans, also knows that arrogance
in an enemy of Voldemort can be a fatal flaw. He's seen what happened
to that arrogant berk, James Potter, and if his protecting Harry is to
be of any use, he doesn't want an overly confident Harry prematurely
confronting Voldemort. In fact, he does his best to keep Harry away
from that third-floor corridor.)

But as I see it, Snape's motivation in publicly revealing to
Slytherins and Gryffindors alike that Harry is neither a prodigy nor a
powerful Dark Wizard in the making--which we can't, in any case
determine with any degree of certainty because we're not inside
Snape's head--is less important *to the story* than the *consequences*
of that first lesson to Harry and to Dumbledore's plans for Harry. In
theory, nothing happens in a novel without somehow moving the plot
forward, and this incident has consequences other than making a cozy
and mutually affectionate relationship between Snape and Harry even
more impossible than it already was.

What does it do? It establishes once and for all that Harry isn't a
powerful Dark Wizard who destroyed Voldemort through some act of his
own, which keeps the Slytherins from wanting to befriend him for the
wrong reason (cf. Draco before he insults Ron and ruins his own
chances). It gains Harry the sympathy of his fellow Gryffindors rather
than their mindless fan worship (in contrast to Colin Creevey in CoS).
It cements the initial preconceptions about Snape and Slytherin that
are already brewing in Harry's brain and the association of Slytherin
already indicated by his dream of Snape with Voldemort. It reinforces
Snape's view of Harry as just like his father, cheeky and arrogant and
mediocre. (The incident in flying class that leads to Harry's becoming
the youngest Seeker ever probably further reinforces that
misconception still further.) But it also enables Harry to pursue his
own friendships and interests without a gaggle of fans following him
around. (We see how annoying and inconvenient those fans can be with
Viktor Krum in GoF.)

Snape probably intended to sound Harry out, to discover the extent of
his knowledge of potions (Has he read the books? Has he inherited his
mother's aptitude?) and at the same time discover to what extent he's
inherited his father's arrogant, trouble-making personality. And, no
doubt, Harry's resemblance to James and an unconscious desire to see
James in him, distorts Snape's response. But Snape's *intentions* are
irrelevant to Harry and Harry's story and, in consequence, they are
never revealed to us. What matters is what happens as a result of that
mutual misunderstanding. We know from "The Prince's Tale" what Snape
thinks of Harry. We know what Harry thinks of Snape throughout the
books. From this bad beginning, we get, first, Harry's suspicion that
Snape is after the Sorcerer's Stone and then that he wants it for
Voldemort rather than himself. And not even the knowledge that Snape
tried to prevent Quirrell from killing him can overcome Harry's
ingrained view that Snape is evil, his sense that Snape hates him
(which may or may not be an exagferation--I think profound dislike is
more accurate), or the association in Harry's mind between Snape and
Voldemort. And, IMO, it doesn't help at all the Dumbledore attributes
Snape's saving his life solely to a wish to repay that unwanted debt
to the much-hated James, whom Harry at this point idealizes.

It's all essential to events that will unfold throughout all seven
books and to the final unveiling of Snape's true motivation and
character in book seven. And not one bit of it is, IMO, intentional on
Snape's part beyond the revelation to himself, to Harry, and to the
class as a whole of Harry's worthiness or unworthiness in terms of his
celebrity status.

Carol, who thinks that viewing particular incidents in terms of theme
and plot can be just as productive as viewing them solely from the
standpoint of character analysis, fascinating though that analysis can
be with regard to Snape