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Again about Snape
Many Hp fans, including me, believe that Snape changed sides because he was deeply, hopelessly in love with Lily Evans Potter, and her death changed everything for him. He was guilty of it, having given an account of at least part of the prophecy to the Dark Lord, and this changed his attitude to the point where he went over to Dumbledore. HBP is full of small pieces of evidence that Snape has been keeping Dumbledore very well informed, and - as I pointed out elsewhere - that he has deliberately lied to Narcissa and Bellatrix. In other words, we know that he has been capable of lying to "the greatest Legilimens the world has ever seen" - as he sycophantically calls him to Bellatrix. Bellatrix, who is besotted with Voldemort, would be the last to challenge this description. But Snape HAS managed to do so. For that there has to be a reason.
Now, pardon me if I pull rank here. Not every one of us knows what being in love, really being in love, is about. Being in love means staking your whole being on another person. It means that Debbie, or Clare, or Ruth, or Kathy, is your reason to live or to die. It means that you will do ANYTHING she asks - to the point where she has to be careful of what she says, because you will perform every wish like a serving genie. And it means that if you lose her for any reason, the hole in your soul is as great as your whole life; the pain of Hell on earth; and yet you would rather keep the pain that lose it, because losing it would mean losing the love of her - and that is the greatest thing by far you have ever experienced.
This is love for anyone who has ever been in love. And it is a fact that some Harry fans are too young to have experienced it; and that at least one adult in her thirties I know never has. Not everyone does.
Now think of this colossal experience and cast it against Snape's miserable childhood. The revelation of love would have been, if anything, even more shattering to him than to the average person, set against a loveless background of abuse. Then comes the appalling realization that the beloved is herself in love - with your worst enemy. To be humiliated in front of her would be more than enough for the savage insult Snape throws at her in the "worst memory" scene. The sense of betrayal must be overwhelming. I am sure, myself, that it would be at this point that Snape would pledge himself to the Enemy and receive the Mark. He would consciously renounce the ways of his enemies and forget about Lily; her memory would be poisoned for him. Or at least, he would cradle himself in the convinction that it would be.
This delusion would be rudely shattered the moment he bore his intelligence of Sybil Trelawney's prophecy to the Dark Lord. Within a few minutes, he would find that Lily's son would be one of the two children in danger. That would be a shattering revelation; and in one split-second, it would make clear, lightning-white clear, to him, that he had never for a minute stopped loving Lily.
Another important side effect of this would be that he would find the power - the power that lasted him years - to reinforce his defences, to lie to the Dark Lord with a straight face. The need to save Lily at first, to avenge her afterwards, would give him the strength; the power of love, that power that Voldemort could never understand - according to Dumbledore. And I reckon that Snape sooner or later would understand the implications of this. He would understand that the Dark Lord, with all his wisdom, had not understood one thing - the most central thing in all the human soul; the thing that gives meaning to our lives, the thing for which we live and die. And having understood this, he would understand that Voldemort was simply and plainly wrong; and have an intellectual as well as an emotional reason to fight him.
AT the same time there is his moroseness, his ever-smoldering inner anger, his desire to hurt. Can you wonder? First, he could never have the one woman he ever loved; second, she is dead, and he is the cause of her death. Would this not cause enough pain and grief and anger to want to share it - especially to someone who, except for Lily and Dumbledore, has never known anything in his life except abuse and rejection?
Finally, his attitude to Harry and Neville is particularly telling. Harry is not only the son of the man who took Lily from him - and with the same face and mannerisms - but also the direct reason why Lily died. How could Snape not hate him? But Neville's case is even worse. Neville could have been the Chosen One. He could have been chosen by Voldemort; and if he had, Lily would not have died. Can you wonder that, every time he sees this harmless but rather hopeless boy in his classroom, Snape feels "Lily could have lived - and this useless blob is alive in her place"? Can you wonder that he not only sees him as worthless, but does his best to make his feelings felt? Snape does not have to suppress his feelings everywhere.
Now, pardon me if I pull rank here. Not every one of us knows what being in love, really being in love, is about. Being in love means staking your whole being on another person. It means that Debbie, or Clare, or Ruth, or Kathy, is your reason to live or to die. It means that you will do ANYTHING she asks - to the point where she has to be careful of what she says, because you will perform every wish like a serving genie. And it means that if you lose her for any reason, the hole in your soul is as great as your whole life; the pain of Hell on earth; and yet you would rather keep the pain that lose it, because losing it would mean losing the love of her - and that is the greatest thing by far you have ever experienced.
This is love for anyone who has ever been in love. And it is a fact that some Harry fans are too young to have experienced it; and that at least one adult in her thirties I know never has. Not everyone does.
Now think of this colossal experience and cast it against Snape's miserable childhood. The revelation of love would have been, if anything, even more shattering to him than to the average person, set against a loveless background of abuse. Then comes the appalling realization that the beloved is herself in love - with your worst enemy. To be humiliated in front of her would be more than enough for the savage insult Snape throws at her in the "worst memory" scene. The sense of betrayal must be overwhelming. I am sure, myself, that it would be at this point that Snape would pledge himself to the Enemy and receive the Mark. He would consciously renounce the ways of his enemies and forget about Lily; her memory would be poisoned for him. Or at least, he would cradle himself in the convinction that it would be.
This delusion would be rudely shattered the moment he bore his intelligence of Sybil Trelawney's prophecy to the Dark Lord. Within a few minutes, he would find that Lily's son would be one of the two children in danger. That would be a shattering revelation; and in one split-second, it would make clear, lightning-white clear, to him, that he had never for a minute stopped loving Lily.
Another important side effect of this would be that he would find the power - the power that lasted him years - to reinforce his defences, to lie to the Dark Lord with a straight face. The need to save Lily at first, to avenge her afterwards, would give him the strength; the power of love, that power that Voldemort could never understand - according to Dumbledore. And I reckon that Snape sooner or later would understand the implications of this. He would understand that the Dark Lord, with all his wisdom, had not understood one thing - the most central thing in all the human soul; the thing that gives meaning to our lives, the thing for which we live and die. And having understood this, he would understand that Voldemort was simply and plainly wrong; and have an intellectual as well as an emotional reason to fight him.
AT the same time there is his moroseness, his ever-smoldering inner anger, his desire to hurt. Can you wonder? First, he could never have the one woman he ever loved; second, she is dead, and he is the cause of her death. Would this not cause enough pain and grief and anger to want to share it - especially to someone who, except for Lily and Dumbledore, has never known anything in his life except abuse and rejection?
Finally, his attitude to Harry and Neville is particularly telling. Harry is not only the son of the man who took Lily from him - and with the same face and mannerisms - but also the direct reason why Lily died. How could Snape not hate him? But Neville's case is even worse. Neville could have been the Chosen One. He could have been chosen by Voldemort; and if he had, Lily would not have died. Can you wonder that, every time he sees this harmless but rather hopeless boy in his classroom, Snape feels "Lily could have lived - and this useless blob is alive in her place"? Can you wonder that he not only sees him as worthless, but does his best to make his feelings felt? Snape does not have to suppress his feelings everywhere.
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Of course, Snape's actions in HBP still need explaining. I'm among those who believe he was acting on Dumbledore's orders - for a multitude of reasons which I'm pretty sure I wrote about when the book came out.
But the explanation had better be a good one. I can't really figure out what could've been going on - I just hope JKR knows!
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Remind me of how we know Snape's childhood was loveless; I am quite willing to believe it from how miserable he seems in school, but I need pointing to the plot details.
His internal life--the small fragment we see of it via his notes in his textbook in HBP, make him seem imaginative and inventive, but somewhat cruel (nothing on Voldemort, though).
If he fell in love with Lily--which seems quite likely given that she was so talented at potions, as well as beautiful and kind--that would definitely add to his hatred of James (who is such a horrible brat in that scene in the pensieve--no amount of good things I read about him afterward could change the image of him as a big bully), and your reasoning about why he'd hurl insults at Lily seems sound too.
Why does he have such a fixation purebloodness, given that he's a halfblood himself? If one of his parents is a muggle, where and when did he adopt his racist views? Is it all about trying to feel included somewhere (but a group of people who would despise you for being a halfblood seems a bad group to pick...not that people are logical in these choices...)? Or about trying to be the best? Groups that put no limitations on one's use of power may seem appealing to people with natural talents, especially people whose grudges and misery make them want to use their power in ways that are unacceptable.
Your take on his feelings about Neville is interesting--I would be quite willing to put Snape's behavior down to a talented person's lack of patience with the less (or virtually un?) talented, but what you say makes sense.
The question is, has the experience of love showed Snape how to be loving? We see very little evidence of it... only, maybe, in his shielding of Draco and his preventing Harry from using an unforgiveable curse... slim pickings, but better than nothing.
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(Anonymous) 2006-08-17 07:22 pm (UTC)(link)Snape's miserable childhood is seen briefly but very clearly towards the end of Chapter 26, "Seen and Unforeseen", of OotP. For the first and only time, Harry manages to get the better of Snape in Occlumency, and penetrates his mind: he sees his memories, including a miserable boy cowering in a corner while his father screamed at his mother, and a bored teen-ager killing flies with his wand.
I have a suspicion that he took his mother's side against his father. His mother being a witch, and a Prince at that, the thought that he was "half a Prince", as Hermione points out, must have been precious to him. That is also why he would hate Mudbloods - his father was one. Of course Lily would upset all his categories, but the moment she saw him in an embarrasing position in the hands of his worst enemy, he would want to hurt and reject her, and the old gibe about purity of blood would come back naturally.
I do not think that Snape's attitude to Neville has anything to do with his being talented or talentless. It is not that he is annoyed with him for being slow and clumsy; he is actively trying to make him more slow and clumsy, and feel ashamed of himself to boot. With Neville, Snape behaves in the exact opposite way of how a teacher should behave, and he very successfully paralyzes the poor boy.
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Being in love means staking your whole being on another person. It means that Debbie, or Clare, or Ruth, or Kathy, is your reason to live or to die. It means that you will do ANYTHING she asks - to the point where she has to be careful of what she says, because you will perform every wish like a serving genie.... This is love for anyone who has ever been in love.
Gosh. I've been in love. I am in love. Truly, madly, deeply in love. But the above sounds more like idolatry or obsession than love. I would not want to be loved in this way, let alone to burden someone else with it.
And it is a fact that some Harry fans are too young to have experienced it.
To my way of thinking, it sounds exactly like the sort of thing the young experience.
And it means that if you lose her for any reason, the hole in your soul is as great as your whole life; the pain of Hell on earth; and yet you would rather keep the pain that lose it, because losing it would mean losing the love of her - and that is the greatest thing by far you have ever experienced.
Okay, that I can relate to a little more (though I would substitute the word "if" for the word "because"). "It is a fearful thing to love what death can touch."
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