Understanding Snape

[pippin_999]

Jim said:
>>This isolation, misanthropy, pent-up-resentment, is so like 
Snape, combined with the roots of his early home life and school 
days, that I just had to believe social isolation/social 
phobia/serious shyness is a major element of Snape's 
character.<<

Just as  more than one physical flaw contributes to Snape's 
ugliness, I think there is more than one reason for his feelings of  
inadequacy. Indeed, each book has revealed a new one : the 
said ugliness, failure to save James, career blockage, 
unpopularity at school, a criminal past, an unhappy family 
life...and I'm sure there's more to come. Listies have delighted to 
guess: socio-economic discrimination, romantic 
disappointment, sexual frustration, racial or religious prejudice, 
social phobia, yada yada. Maybe all of them.

 Why has JKR chosen to burden one character with so many 
frustrations? And to emphasize that  some of his wounds  may 
run too deep for healing? 

Much as I enjoy speculating about what's to come 
*cough*vampires*cough* , I think we should not expect a grand 
resolution where all Snape's difficulties are revealed to be 
caused by (fill in the blank).  Perfectionist that he is, he is
always going to feel inadequate about something, and always 
need to gain power over this feeling by pointing out the 
inadequacies of others. (I think this, not sadism, is the driver for 
his cruelties.) Potions, where perfectionism is a virtue,  is the 
perfect subject for him--possibly if he were less of a perfectionist 
he'd be a better person but a much worse potion maker--and 
who would make wolfsbane potion then?

 I think the  question JKR wants to deal with is not  what makes 
people act like Snape. There can be lots of different reasons. But 
she wants us to see that people can be so valuable despite their 
faults that we ourselves will be crippled if we can't learn to put up 
with them.  For Harry, it's a package deal. If he wants Hogwarts 
in his life, he's going to have to endure Snape.


The question is, given that there will always be reasons for us to 
feel bad about ourselves, how does one avoid becoming 
similarly afflicted?  It may be too late for Snape to develop better 
coping strategies.  But if Harry ceases to be so sensitive about 
his own failings, Snape's taunts will lose their sting.

 Pippin