What Do Snape Haters Take Away From Snape's Story? When They Finish The Last Page Of Deathly Hallows

What do Snape haters take away from Snape's story? When they finish the last page of Deathly Hallows and close the book, what do they think the point of Snape was in the whole series? Is the time spent reading about him just a total waste to them?

Genuinely curious...

“Revenge”

The whole “Snape only wanted revenge” argument is so strange. Not only does it ignore crucial pieces of info from canon (like the fact that Snape defected before the attack on the Potters, or that being successful in his role meant that Voldemort would likely never even know Snape was working to bring him down), but it also relies on reading Snape as aggressive and on the offensive. Which is… strange. I mean, just look at the magic associated with him. There is a reason that Snape’s magic is primarily defensive (e.g. expelliarmus, occlumency, countering dark curses, antidotes), not offensive.

Snape kills Dumbledore knowing that it will result in his own death

In a previous post, I argued that Snape’s killing of Dumbledore reflected Snape’s growing faith in his own moral judgment, and that Snape not losing his way and continuing to protect as many possible in a hostile environment displayed true, hard-earned moral resolve.

Here I would like to take a moment to appreciate the magnitude of that decision, given that the hostile environment of which I spoke is increased exponentially because of his choice.

In HBP, Dumbledore says the following about Voldemort:

“Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back! Voldemort is no different! Always he was on the lookout for the one who would challenge him.”

If Voldemort was wary of challenges in the first war, he is even more so in the second war, as he extends that paranoia to his inner circle. His own followers are among those he oppresses, especially after they’ve let him down so spectacularly during the 13 years he was trapped in his intolerable bodiless state. He subjects them to threats and torture and constant legilimency. He dispenses with masks and singles out his followers by name, forcing his followers to take accountability, and pressuring them to fall in line, deride one another, and compete for his ever-elusive approval and the wholly nonexistent material benefits of his favor.

All that to say, with a tyrant like Voldemort, one needs to be careful of doing too little OR doing too much for him. Up until now, Snape has only had to worry about falling into the first category. But now, by killing “the only one [Voldemort] ever feared”, Snape and Dumbledore understand that Snape would be painting an unavoidable target on his back.

Dumbledore does not bother trying to convince Snape that killing him would help his standing with Voldemort. Besides the fact that his other arguments appealing to Snape’s protective nature are much more persuasive, it would simply be incorrect to assume that murdering Dumbledore would cause Voldemort to “trust [Snape] completely” (I hate you movies sm for this line change), and they both know it. In the books, we see Portrait Dumbledore actually outright contradict this line of reasoning by warning Snape, even after he has been killed by the man, to take precautions as he carries out tasks for the Order, as he’s “counting on [Snape] to remain in Lord Voldemort’s good books as long as possible”. Snape and Dumbledore know that there is no such thing as Voldemort’s “complete trust”; they seem fully aware that Snape will have to continually prove himself to Voldemort to remain alive, and even that is only for “as long as possible”. Whether it’s because of his threat to Voldemort’s position or his treachery being discovered by magnified scrutiny, after he kills Dumbledore, he’s on borrowed time.

And yet Snape accepts the charge anyway. His concerns for himself do not center around his life, but his soul, and his desire to protect other lives and souls and his respect for Dumbledore weigh out over the increased difficulty of his path that, at this point, he knows ends in death.

(Dumbledore, of course, ensures this by secretly saddling Snape with the Elder Wand. Given Snape has agreed to commit an act that he knows places him in a race against the clock to complete as much as possible before his time is up, Dumbledore might have let him fully own the decision to possess the Elder wand… but Dumbledore’s tendency to bundle risk onto his most precariously positioned men and his tendency to undercut Order members’ agency with needless secrecy is a infuriating well-established pattern. But more on that in another post…)

It’s so common to have first war Snape be some super badass high ranking Death Eater, which is really odd imo. All the evidence points to Snape being not at all remarkable among existing Death Eaters. Karakaroff named him as a last resort, and didn’t attach any specific crime to his name, unlike the other names he gave. Sirius didn’t know he was a Death Eater, and Voldemort thought he was low profile enough that Dumbledore would not know he was a Death Eater and hire him as a teacher (though Dumbledore did in fact know). He wasn’t trusted with a Horcrux. His soul is also intact until he kills Dumbledore, which wouldn’t happen if he had directly killed anyone (which doesn’t remove the possibility of him killing people indirectly like he did the Potter’s).

The crime that is consistently emphasized with regards to Snape isn’t active malice or sadism. Rather, it’s indifference. Whether it’s Mary McDonald or James and Harry, the crime that is emphasized were he’s involved isn’t hurting them, but not giving a shit when others do. Only when the one person who he does care about beyond himself is murdered, by his own indifference to the suffering of an innocent by delivering the prophecy, can Snape’s moral journey begin. Evil prevails when men do nothing. Snape learned that lesson painfully, and so he embarks on a journey to learn by actively fighting against evil, so that what’s left of Lily can live. In the process, he expands his moral universe beyond Lily, culminating in his year as headmaster, where he gives everything of himself to save others, including those he hates. He also accepts that Harry has to die, acknowledging that Voldemort’s defeat and saving the wizarding world is more important than his personal atonement to Lily. He loves the wizarding world, more than he ever did Lily. Snape’s arc is one of moving from selfishness, to selflessness.

It's so common to have first war Snape be some super badass high ranking Death Eater, which is really odd imo. All the evidence points to Snape being not at all remarkable among existing Death Eaters. Karakaroff named him as a last resort, and didn't attach any specific crime to his name, unlike the other names he gave. Sirius didn't know he was a Death Eater, and Voldemort thought he was low profile enough that Dumbledore would not know he was a Death Eater and hire him as a teacher (though Dumbledore did in fact know). He wasn't trusted with a Horcrux. His soul is also intact until he kills Dumbledore, which wouldn't happen if he had directly killed anyone (which doesn't remove the possibility of him killing people indirectly like he did the Potter's).

The crime that is consistently emphasized with regards to Snape isn't active malice or sadism. Rather, it's indifference. Whether it's Mary McDonald or James and Harry, the crime that is emphasized were he's involved isn't hurting them, but not giving a shit when others do. Only when the one person who he does care about beyond himself is murdered, by his own indifference to the suffering of an innocent by delivering the prophecy, can Snape's moral journey begin. Evil prevails when men do nothing. Snape learned that lesson painfully, and so he embarks on a journey to learn by actively fighting against evil, so that what's left of Lily can live. In the process, he expands his moral universe beyond Lily, culminating in his year as headmaster, where he gives everything of himself to save others, including those he hates. He also accepts that Harry has to die, acknowledging that Voldemort's defeat and saving the wizarding world is more important than his personal atonement to Lily. He loves the wizarding world, more than he ever did Lily. Snape's arc is one of moving from selfishness, to selflessness.

I meant to say Snape + Grimmauld Place vs Snape + Spinner's End, but it could also be Black + GP vs Snape + SE, whatever. woops

oldstonefacevimes ha respondido a tu publicación: for your mini-essay prompts: Snape + Grimmauld…

Hi, sorry, It’s late and I’m not very articulate lol. Taking out of the way the sirius/gp vs severus/se parallels thing, how about severus’ relationship with spinner’s end? as a space, a state of mind, a prison, an externalization of snapiness, idk.

Oh!  Okay, now those I can do.

I think we can tackle both “Snape and Grimmauld Place v. Snape and Spinner’s End” and “Sirius Black and Grimmauld Place v. Snape and Spinner’s End” with the same line of thought.

As previously written about in these tags and in this post, Snape’s own psyche traps him in Spinner’s End.  He was trapped there as a child by the obvious circumstances of childhood, but when Hogwarts fails to be his saving grace he remains trapped there, and he chooses to keep his childhood home and to live there during school holidays not only as part of his utilitarian lack of self-care and as a sub-conscious form of self-punishment but as an indication of how trapped he feels in the patterns of his childhood.  With Grimmauld Place, though he is not physically trapped there, his roles as Order member and later as Order Secret-Keeper for the house (an unwanted role, one in which Moody forces him to relive the trauma of killing Dumbledore in order to enter the house and do his job) continue this cycle of entrapment, as they are part and parcel of Dumbledore’s role for him, a role he will never (in life) escape.

Sirius Black, like Snape, was trapped as a child in an unpleasant (and potentially abusive) home situation.  However, unlike Snape, Black finds salvation at Hogwarts in the form of friends and popularity, and he escapes the cycle of childhood trauma manifested by Grimmauld Place.  Unfortunately for Black, this escape is but temporary, and by the time both he and Snape end up in Grimmauld Place again they are both trapped by their lives and their roles in fighting Voldemort in the same childhood homes they had hoped to leave behind.  Snape, of course, taunts Black unceasingly for his “cowardice” in remaining safe in Grimmauld Place while the rest of the Order does their dangerous work, mostly because Snape is admittedly an asshole, but in this he almost has a point–Black’s decision to remain in Grimmauld Place is one which keeps him safe.  Snape’s decision to remain in Spinner’s End and in Grimmauld Place is one which places him in constant and immediate emotional and physical danger.

The difference between them is that, while both situations are manifested in a run-down and miserable childhood home, Black’s prison is a physical one–he would leave it behind in a moment if leaving wouldn’t put his life and his friends’ safety in immediate danger.  Snape’s prison is purely psychological–he can physically go anywhere he wants, but his memories and his mentality would never permit it.  When Sirius Black dies, though his death is tragic and meaningless and endlessly harmful to Harry Potter, he dies free, both physically and psychologically.  Snape never escapes the cycles of his childhood; he dies trapped in them, in the very place where Sirius Black tried to kill him when they were children.