Secrets (Long) OLD POST REPOST

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186484

sartoris22 wrote:
> 
> <snip> I think that,like Harry, we're supposed to change our view of Snape, although I'm sure that there are some readers who liked Snape before HBP or DH. 

Carol responds:
Yep, one or two of us liked Snape earlier! :-) Seriously, a lot of readers were sure that Snape was Dumbledore's man (viewed at that time as a good thing, however we may feel about DD now) and many (I wasn't among them, but never mind) believed that he was in love with Lily, as the whole LOLLIPOPS theory testifies.

But even those readers wanted to know Snape's complete motivation. The rest needed to see him clearly and see him whole (to borrow Browning's words about Shelley). Snape himself doesn't change, or, rather, he has evolved as a character before the HP books began--gifted but poor and neglected little boy with a crush on a Muggle-born to the HBP to a young man can't resist the lure of his joining his "precious little Death Eater friends" to a real Death Eater who spies on Dumbledore and reports what he heard of the Prophecy to Voldemort to a desperate young man torn by remorse and willing to do "anything" to save Lily Potter (and, later, to do anything to protect her son so she won't have died in vain) to Dumbledore's man/Hogwarts professor/headmaster, the Snape we see partly revealed in the books, usually presented from Harry's point of view but sometimes from the outside, simultaneously objectively and ambiguously, as in "Spinner's End" and "The Dark Lord Rising." Snape does evolve in that he begins to save lives not directly connected with Harry's as part of his fight against Voldemort, but it isn't his growth as a character but Harry's (and the reader's) perception of him that's important. If it weren't for shared speculations among readers as we waited for new books to come out, perhaps we'd have been as surprised as Harry (for whom Snape is a murderer and against whom he wants to take revenge) by "The Prince's Tale." It works best, I think, readers who read the whole series in sequence without discussing the books with others. But even for us, is he or isn't he evil was a big question. Borders Books centered their whole advertising campaign around it.

"The Prince's Tale" reveals the flawed human being that is Severus Snape--his mistakes, his wrong choices, his remorse, his attempts at restitution, his true motivations. Much of it is for the reader's benefit, but it's also for Harry's. He emerges from that venture into the Pensieve not only knowing what he has to do and willing to do it (as he probably would not have been had he seen only the "pig to the slaughter" memory, but with a clear perception both of Snape and of his own mission (symbolized, IMO, by the absence of glasses in "King's Cross), and ready for the next step of forgiving his "betrayer," Dumbledore.

But, yes. I agree that, like Harry, the reader who has accepted Harry's view of Snape as accurate is supposed to understand Snape and forgive him. "The Prince's Tale" is supposed to be a revelation for the reader as well as for Harry, at least for readers who have overlooked the limitations of Harry's pov and devices like the unreliable narrator. (How well it worked depends, of course, on the individual reader.)

sartoris22 wrote: 
> We find out in OOTP that James and Sirius picked on Snape. This fact, at least momentarily, changes Harry's view about James. We discover in DH that Snape loved Lily, but his insecurity about being part Muggle, a trait he shares with Voldemort, compels him to hate Muggles, although he is in love with a Muggle, The fact is that Snape, in his own way, is capable of love, a somewhat romantic love. Then we find out that Snape is risking his life as a tribute to that love, which Dumbledore uses to convince Snape to be a spy. In DH, Dumbledore suggests that Snape is warming to Harry, and Snape responds by producing the patronous of the Lily's doe and saying "Always." Snape still loves LIly and doesn't like Harry, but it is curious that at the end of his life, Snape wants Harry to know this loving and courageous aspect of his personality, to reveal, as Dumbledore advices, the better part of himself. By the end of the book, Snape is revealed to be an even more complex character, and our feelings toward him are, in my opinion, supposed to change for the better.

Carol responds:
Just one minor point: Lily is not a Muggle but a Muggle-born, and even at age nine or ten Severus distinguishes between the two, holding the Muggle Petunia in contempt because she can't perform magic and won't be allowed to attend Hogwarts but liking, admiring, and even loving Lily, who is clearly a gifted little witch with whom he is proud and happy to share his superior knowledge of the WW. I doubt that a "blood traitor" mother who married a Muggle would have taught him to hate Muggle-borns or hold them in contempt. It appears to be only Muggles that he hates and resents, probably because of his Muggle father. (I've presented my views on this point in detail elsewhere and won't repeat them here.)

Aside from that (IMO) important distinction, I agree with this paragraph. We *are* supposed to think better of Snape, just as Harry does. We're supposed to approve of his public vindication of Snape and of his naming his second son after the two wizards without whom he could not have defeated Voldemort, Dumbledore and Snape. Obviously, not all readers can reach Harry's level of forgiveness, but I think that, at the end, JKR's and Harry's and the narrator's views all come together at last. Harry chooses to honor those two characters, one for his wisdom and the other for his courage. And that is how JKR, with her "all was well" ending, thinks that it ought to be.

Carol, who thinks that the mere fact that we're still discussing Snape testifies to his complexity