*Spoiler Alert*
Severus Snape appears to us in the first book as a “bat-like
creature” swooping around in his black robes, never failing to harass those he
finds “lazy” or “arrogant”. He seems to keep to himself, not making much effort
to interact with other professors or even students he seems to like. Immediately upon meeting Harry Potter, Snape makes snap judgments based on the
reputation of James Potter, who Severus went to school with in his youth.
Severus seems (especially in books 1-3) very flat and one-dimensional. It is
hard to understand why he harangues our hero the way he does. Throughout the series, we are led to believe that Severus is the true villain, working just
beneath Voldemort, feeding him information whenever possible.
In the third book, Snape arrives just in time to “save”
Harry and his friends from the infamous murderer, Sirius Black (who is later
revealed to be innocent of all his purported crimes). Snape feels he has a
moral obligation to protect his students, even if he does not particularly like
them. However, we also observe that Severus’s interference in this scene may be
more about his grudge (and getting revenge) against Sirius and Lupin who
bullied him as children. Dumbledore later tells Harry that Severus Snape may
hate him so much because James once saved his life, and so he was indebted to
him, and consequently he is now indebted to Harry. Dumbledore also mentions
that Severus and James had a huge rivalry while in school, reminiscent of the
rivalry between Harry and Draco. This ties into the theme of trauma and
empathic connections created when trauma occurs. Both Severus and Harry were
bullied quite severely as children. Though they both react in extremely
different ways, they come to understand loneliness and feel a moral obligation
to keep others safe at the cost of their own lives (see book seven).
In the fifth book, Snape must teach Harry Occlumency (a
spell which blocks the mind from intruders seeking information) in order to
keep Voldemort out of his thoughts so that he will not be able to control him.
During these exercises, Harry uncovers an incident in Snape’s past named his “worst
memory” in which James and Sirius relentlessly bully Severus to the point where
he is nearly in tears. He then lashes out at Lily, Harry’s mother, calling her
a mudblood when she sticks up for him. We see that Snape’s way of dealing with
pain is to lash out and shut down, to withdraw and brood. It is revealed that
he was once a Deatheater, and we can easily pinpoint the reason why he
ultimately decided to join the dark side. We begin to understand that Snape is
a very complex character, not simply this cartoonish bat-like man skulking
around Hogwarts making everyone’s lives miserable just because he can. No, we
begin to realize that there is a real troubled past Severus keeps well hidden
from public knowledge.
Severus was redeemed by Dumbledore and we are told multiple
times, through the men Harry trusts, to have faith in Snape and to believe he
is a good guy. Our faith is tested when Snape appears to be a double agent,
secretly working for Voldemort in the sixth book. Again and again, we are
forced to reexamine the character of Snape. Is he a good guy or is he a bad
guy? Should we trust him just because Dumbledore says so? Can’t Dumbledore be
wrong about someone? This is a major theme of the series: defining good and
evil. I would venture to say that Snape appears to be a morally ambiguous
character for most of the series, and it is perhaps not until the very end when
we find out otherwise. Still, even when you stumble upon Snape’s real
motivation for doing everything he’s done since leaving the Deatheaters, the
question of whether he performed these deeds out of the goodness of his heart
is questionable. Love does not always have the power to redeem someone, but it
does change them. This is evident in Severus’s character arc.
and one for fun:
(Spoiler)
ReplyDeleteI see Snape as a very loyal character, though he changed loyalty when Voldemort disappeared when James and Lily died. We see the reasons why Snape makes the decisions he makes and it's all because of Harry. Though he confronts Harry every step of the way, he truly cares about him because Harry is the love of his life's child. I think that devotion to Lily, and in turn Harry, is what drives him to perfect everything he does and to be victorious against Voldemort.
I, too, chose to examine Snape's character developments. I found it interesting that we are very immediately coaxed into distrusting Snape from the first year. Rowling makes it easy for the reader to play detective. He is allegedly caught red-handed in The Sorcerer's Stone as he limps across the hall. Harry, then, happens upon the conversation between Snape and Quirrel about the stone that denotes Snape as the culprit. He is the easy target, therefore creating distrust in the character. Though we do have the same questions about Snape's loyalty, I never felt that he was a one-dimentional character if only due to his mysterious facade and questionable past. If we compare the characters of Snape and Dumbledore from the first book, we would find that we have strong allegiance to Dumbledore because we have an idea of who he is and where his loyalties lie. We are introduced to the kind of candy he likes and his affinity toward knitting patterns. The reader has a pretty good idea of Dumbledore by the end of Book 1. This is not the case while taking a look at Snape. Besides the assumption that Snape is a menacing git who finds joy out of taking points from Gryffindor, we are left with only a slight idea of who Snape is, though a growing suspicion that he is someone to get to know. We are left wanting to explore Snape's head and figure out how he ticks.
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