People Will Hate On Snape For Being Mean And Sarcastic With Children But He Was Mean And Sarcastic With

People will hate on Snape for being mean and sarcastic with children but he was mean and sarcastic with everyone. He was just treating his students with the same respect he gave everyone else, if you think about it.

Shades of Snape: A Short Analysis

Snape was hanging upside-down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of greying underpants. Many people in the small crowd cheered; Sirius, James, and Wormtail roared with laughter.

[…]

At the foot of the stairs stood the only person who could make Harry’s situation worse: Snape. He was wearing a long gray nightshirt and he looked livid.

It occurs to me that the character whom Rowling once described as “all grey” in terms of where he stood as a moral archetype is only seen wearing articles of clothing that are grey by Harry in moments where he’s most candid and most vulnerable. Either as the boy whose school bullies have turned his own spell against him and left him hovering upside down with his “greying underpants” exposed to public laughter. Or, as the man who is uncharacteristically caught in his “long gray nightshirt” following Barty Crouch Jr.’s theft from his Potion’s Storeroom rather than his more customary dark, billowing robes that have earned him his moniker of “Bat of the Dungeons.”

Of course, what follows when Crouch-as-Moody appears on the scene is not only a chipping away at Snape’s confidence (i.e. confidence in his security at Hogwarts, in Dumbledore’s trust in him, where he stands, etc.) but also a key revelation that demands both Harry and the reader reevaluate what we know about this man.  

Moodys face twisted into a smile. “Auror’s privilege, Snape. Dumbledore told me to keep an eye -“ 

“Dumbledore happens to trust me,” said Snape through clenched teeth. “I refuse to believe that he gave you orders to search my office!" 

"Course Dumbledore trusts you,” growled Moody. “Hes a trusting man, isn’t he? Believes in second chances. But me - I say there are spots that don’t come off, Snape. Spots that never come off, d'you know what I mean?" 

Snape suddenly did something very strange. He seized his left forearm convulsively with his right hand, as though something on it had hurt him. Moody laughed. "Get back to bed, Snape.”

So, we have two occasions where Snape’s “shades of grey” are revealed both figuratively and literally to Harry and to the reader. In one instance, Harry witnesses Snape’s unusual vulnerability and defensiveness as Fake-Eye Moody challenges his place at Hogwarts and his authority. I would argue that it is no coincidence that Harry and the reader, subsequently, are given one of the biggest clues into Snape’s past and we see a physical, pained response from the man when reminded of his “spots that never come off.” Thus, the reader, like Harry, are encouraged to question the nature of this enigmatic man: Was he a Death Eater? If so, then what in his past or about him makes Dumbledore believe he can trust him? Most importantly, was Moody correct that there are just some spots that you can’t remove or are things, not unlike Snape himself, more complex than that? 

In the second instance where we see a “shade of grey” exposed in Snape, Harry is not only placed in the uncomfortable position where he must reevaluate what he knows about Snape again but also, what he thought he knew about his father and his friends while they were at Hogwarts. Harry is left disturbed by Snape’s memories because they seem to validate some of the uglier allegations about James and his friends that Snape has insisted upon many times, both to Harry and to others. Ultimately, it’s far easier for Harry to dismiss Snape’s bitterness and anger as being the result of a petty school-boy grudge or a case of jealousy when he feels more inclined to like and trust the people who insist on remembering his father only fondly. Indeed, Snape’s own bias and inability to see past James to recognize Harry independently only gives Harry further reason not to believe any of his accusations as, if he could be so wrong about him, then surely it must be the same for his father (i.e. bias can breed bias). 

However, it’s far more difficult to ignore the possibility that Snape might have been telling the truth (i.e. that there may have been a less kind, less noble, less idealized side to his father) once he finds himself witness to Snape’s experiences with James and the other Marauders, from Snape’s perspective.  An interesting facet of the Pensieve within the Harry Potter series is that Rowling introduces an object that could be said to embody the very spirit of critically questioning one’s perspective (otherwise known as questioning the narrator in critical theory). The Pensieve affords the user an opportunity for a closer analysis, a second look, or even an unexpected perspective shift that demands we see things from different eyes than just our own. In many ways, the Pensieve can be read through the lens of critical theory as an object that presents us with a direct challenge to the bias that informs the unreliable narrator construct within Rowling’s fiction. 

Thus, in the scene where Snape stands in his “shades of grey” before Fake-Eye Moody and his magical eye (which also functions as an object of exposure) Harry and the reader are left to question whether Snape is truly the villain he’s always been quick to believe him to be or if there may not be more to the story (his story, specifically) that he doesn’t know and which would make Dumbledore trust him, despite his “spots.” In the second instance, where Snape is more literally exposed and his “greying underpants” are own display, Harry is once again confronted with a different shade to Snape, one that he can actually empathize with due to his own firsthand experience –that of a victim of bullying. 

Overall, I find it interesting that two key moments that would have us take a closer look at Snape as a character and reevaluate our impressions of him, Rowling would have chosen the motif of grey clothing that Snape would not have intentionally wanted to have on display. Add to that the fact that these are also moments where Harry witnesses Snape in a more vulnerable position, on the defensive in both instances and the subject of humiliation and mockery, and I would argue that we could make a case for a certain measure of deliberateness in Rowling’s choices. As subtle as the man himself, I do believe that Snape’s “shades of grey” were foreshadowing. 

I don't know if you have already answered this question: is there something in Snape's life that you wanted to see in The Price's Tale? For example, I think we deserved more information about "the prank".

I haven't yet! Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this ask...

There are definitely moments I wish had been included in The Prince's Tale, but I feel like it's difficult to separate what's in it/what's missing from it from Rowling's own issues as a writer and the way they intersect with Snape's story, or rather, how she tells it. Namely, her issues around writing women and her lack of research and minimal understanding of radicalization and fascist movements. Not to be a downer, because I feel like this is a very fun ask that's probably more about having curiosity around the character of Snape and playing around with what may have been there that we didn't see, but I can't help feeling that those moments are missing often because of what Rowling herself was overlooking or not thinking of.

I wish there were moments between him and Lily that showed us why they were best friends. It can't just be because they were the only magical kids in Cokeworth. There isn't one scene we see between them where Lily is affectionate or their mutual chemistry is apparent, not even a wry smile. The closest scene is when they're laying in the grass by the river as kids and Lily is asking him about the magical world. We understand through Snape's memories that he had a great deal of love for Lily, but it's not really apparent why. Rowling's issues with writing women as fully developed, interesting characters gets in the way, and although we're told they were close friends, we're never shown it. I'd have loved to see a moment or two where we see why they clicked. It could have been woven into the existing story as simply as the two of them exchanging a wordless criticism with just a shared look in the compartment on the Hogwarts Express when James and Sirius were being mean.

But it could also have been something more meaningful - after all, these are Snape's final thoughts, the most important moments of his life that connect to the information he needs to convey to Harry. Maybe a birthday gift Lily gave him, something small, a book she bought that she saved up her allowance for, and the impact on Snape of her putting thought and effort into it. I honestly would have loved something even as simple as just seeing Lily's humor and Snape's - not just him smiling when she says his name, but the two of them laughing freely. The tragedy of that lost friendship would have hit even more if we had seen a mutual affection, an understanding between two best friends, and an innocence that was consumed by a war and their separation into rival houses.

I also wish we had seen any of Snape's home life. We get the impression that he didn't like to talk about it too much and that Lily may not have quite understood how bad it was (given that Rowling has said that Snape's dad beat him with a belt, and the only reference to his home life we see is Lily asking if his parents have stopped arguing, plus the glimpse of them doing just that when Harry breaks into Snape's mind in OOtP). We have a couple of allusions to Snape's relationship with his mother:

He knows a fair bit about the wizarding world, including about dementors and Azkaban, what to expect at Hogwarts, and the Statute of Secrecy. Presumably, as there don't seem to be other wizards in Cokeworth, his mother has told him about these things. Either that or he overheard her talking to someone else/read her letters to someone/found information on it among her things (like wherever she kept her textbooks that he would inherit).

When Lily asks him, “Does it make a difference, being Muggle-born?” Snape hesitates before replying no. This implies that he's aware of pureblood bias in the wizarding world, and is making a decision about how much of his knowledge to share with Lily, or perhaps about his own stance on it. (There's something lovely in his perceiving her insecurity and choosing to shield her from knowledge that would exacerbate it.)

On the train platform, Eileen is described as, “thin, sallow-faced, sour-looking” as well as greatly resembling Severus.

This isn't much to go on, but we can reasonably infer a complicated relationship, and a woman who is emotionally closed off and/or judgmental. She's a wizard who dresses her son in hand-me-downs so either she's not very good at transfiguration or she doesn't care about him enough to allow him the basic dignity of clothes that fit and make him comfortable. I would have loved to have seen a moment or two in Snape's memories that show his relationship with his parents, and they could have been a good opportunity to also show his (possibly codependent?) relationship with Lily as he goes to her for comfort after. I don't think she would have consciously offered him any, but rather that she was a way for him to escape his home life and convince himself that he was fine. His closed-off response when Lily asks him if his parents are still fighting implies that the subject has come up before, but also that Lily doesn't understand how bad the situation is and Snape doesn't want her to (which makes sense, most abused children don't realize how abnormal and extreme their experiences are - we accept the norms we're presented with). There could have even been something as simple as Snape showing him mom a new bit of magic he learned to do and her trying to suppress it in him lest his father see and get upset, and him then showing his new skill to Lily who appreciates it and tries to learn it. This is just an example, but it would have shown a tense dynamic at home in which Eileen prioritizes not angering Tobias to protect Severus, who as a child would only perceive a kind of rejection that he seeks Lily out to replace with validation. This would make sense in the dynamic Rowling set up, and is more complex and interesting than his "greedy" looks and Lily's questions about the wizarding world.

(Before I move on from the Snape and Lily childhood moments, I also want to say, I really don't like Rowling's use of the word "greedy" in The Prince's Tale. It feels aggressive and judgmental, and also out of place in describing a child who lives in abject poverty. My assumption is that what she meant was more of a hunger in Snape's face, or perhaps a determined ambition to get to know Lily, which would align with how his personality is otherwise written.)

The other thing I would have loved to see more of is his Death Eater arc. The whole point of Snape giving these memories to Harry is to explain himself, and convince him to listen to Dumbledore's instructions at the end (which, btw, Dumbledore's portrait could have done, but we all love a bit of drama, so fair). The idea that Snape defected from the DEs only because Lily's life was threatened feels like a weak character motivation and is one of the many ways that Rowling illustrates her naivete and lack of understanding of fascist movements, their use of radicalization as a tool to prey on vulnerable people, and their cult-like dynamics (and that's probably why she fell victim to radicalization herself). I've written a little bit about it before (please don't make me find the link), but I think that Voldemort's going after Lily wasn't the catalyst in Snape's defection, but the final thread that snapped.

When he and Lily argue outside Gryffindor Tower after SWM he doesn't deny it when she accuses him of wanting to be a Death Eater, but he also doesn't own it. He doesn't take pride in it and try to convince her that if only she understood what he does, she would get it. By that point he's been established as an ambitious boy who knew what house he wanted to be sorted in even before starting school - when Lily is sorted into Gryffindor, Snape is sorted into Slytherin so quickly that it's clear he hadn't even considered changing his mind in order to follow Lily. He scoffs at James on the train when he says he wants to be a Gryffindor. It can therefore be assumed that Snape isn't refraining from arguing with Lily because he's deferring to her opinion or trying to appease her. While an argument could be made that he lost his confidence through years of bullying by that night outside Gryffindor Tower, I think that, if anything, that would have made him feel an even stronger need to identify with a group like the aspiring DEs in Slytherin. There's also a bit of a disconnect between the way Lily refers to him and his friends wanting to join Voldemort and be DEs, and no one having come to Snape's defense that afternoon, not even from his own house.

And while this has veered off a bit into meta, my point is: Snape's experiences of becoming a Death Eater and eventually defecting seem complex and I would have loved to have been shown more of it. It would have been a useful thing to convey to Harry as well. Was there a moment when he became disillusioned? Was there a moment when he started feeling shame? Maybe he thought, as someone who had been bullied for years and abused at home, that once he was on the other side of that experience and in a position of power over someone else, he would feel confident and secure and safe. Maybe the first time he experienced being in that position, he instead felt pity and shame and it was like having the rug pulled out from under him. Revenge is never as satisfying as you think it will be, and something either happened to Snape, or was maybe always there, to make him choose to treat Sirius humanely at the end of PoA and hand him over to the authorities instead of using the excuse to wreak vengeance on him firsthand. I'd have loved to see moments that show us his growth as a person - profound realizations in volatile circumstances that prompted him to find a way out from Voldemort's ranks, and maybe a glimpse of how dangerous that way out was.

Rowling held so much back about Snape - a complex, grey, nuanced character - in order to drop this big reveal about him and Lily at the end of DH. When she finally told his story, all of it was focused around Lily, a character who wasn't developed and who we only see being reactive. The veil is lifted on Snape but only enough to show that he had a deep love for Lily (who, by the way, I think he would have referred to as Lily Evans even after her death, not Potter, and I will fight Rowling on this but then I'd fight her on a lot of much more important things so that's not saying much). We still don't find out much about Snape's life, background, or experiences, and even less about Lily. I wish there had been a lot more to The Prince's Tale than "sorry kid, I did it all for your mom because of my guilt in failing her as a friend." It's one of those moments that feels exciting when you first read it, but the potential to build it out into something that improves on re-reading the books was kind of lost.

And yes! We absolutely deserved more information about the prank! Could have been great to see Lupin bully Snape actively before it, and compare it to his lack of involvement in SWM. Could have been fascinating to see the dynamic between him and James as the latter tries to pull him back, or even the moment in Dumbledore's office where he's told to keep quiet, and how that moment contributed to his radicalization! Harry spends most of DH processing and questioning his relationship with Dumbledore and learning about him, and seeing Snape have a similar experience from the opposite direction would have been fantastic. Ie. where Harry venerates Dumbledore until DH when he begins to doubt him, Snape doubts Dumbledore and grows to trust and respect him over time. I'm sure there's more that I could think of, but this answer is already incredibly long so I'll leave it here for now.

If Snape was a better person...

…he would have called out and reminded Lupin of the wolfsbane potion when he saw Lupin rush out out of Hogwarts. Even at the Shrieking Shack, he should have thrust the potion at Lupin out of sheer self preservation, because he couldn’t have been sure he (and the three students and the outlaw) could have made it back to Hogwarts before a transformed Lupin caught up to them.

Anyone ever pissed at Snape because he literally had the students buy shitty potions textbooks?

Like literally the same book he used when he was at hogwarts

The same book he spent time correcting so that it actually worked

That’s the book he had his students buy, and then he didn’t give them the corrections.

That alone makes him an unforgivable character because he liked to watch children fail.

idk if you've already talked about this, but what's your take on the prank? did sirius act on impulse without thinking about the consequences, or was he just super callous to remus because he thinks he sees him as a friend but also sees the werewolf thing as just a cool and dangerous thing without understanding or respecting how it affects remus?

Get ready for an essay haha.

I think I may have already posted about this, but I can't find it. I don't think it was premeditated. I think Sirius may have been already angry about something, and Snape provoked him, so Sirius said something along the lines of,

"If you're so brave and not a stupid coward, why don't you go down and see for yourself? Here's how…..."

This fits with how they argue as adults, goading each other and attacking each other's sense of masculinity: 

“I’ve warned you, Snivellus,” said Sirius, his face barely a foot from Snape’s, “I don’t care if Dumbledore thinks you’ve reformed, I know better — ”

“Oh, but why don’t you tell him so?” whispered Snape. “Or are you afraid he might not take the advice of a man who has been hiding inside his mother’s house for six months very seriously?”

“Are you calling me a coward?” roared Sirius, trying to push Harry out of the way, but Harry would not budge.” OoTP

So fundamentally, I see the prank being motivated by the following: 

Impulsivity and Adolescent Judgment: Teenagers' brains are still developing, particularly in areas responsible for impulse control and understanding the consequences of their actions. Sirius's decision to divulge such a dangerous secret to Snape might have been more about proving a point or winning an argument than considering the potentially lethal consequences for Snape, Lupin, or even the broader implications for himself and his friends. I also see Sirius as an adrenaline junkie (he goads Bellatrix and loses himself in the heat of battle), so I wonder about his ability to judge danger generally. While Sirius might have genuinely cared for Remus, his actions suggest a lack of understanding or disregard for the gravity of Remus's struggles with lycanthropy. It's possible that Sirius, in his youth and recklessness, saw the werewolf aspect as an exciting, if dangerous, attribute of his friend without fully appreciating the pain and danger it brought to Remus's life.

Masculinity and Identity: The challenge to masculinity and bravery, as highlighted by their adult interactions, potentially has roots in their youth. And I view this through the lens of hegemonic masculinity.

This theoretical lens posits that certain traits and behaviours are culturally elevated to represent an ideal form of masculinity. Traits such as dominance, competitiveness, emotional restraint, and a propensity for risk-taking are valorised, establishing a hierarchy that privileges these characteristics above others and marginalises those who do not conform. Additionally, hegemonic masculinity is about power over other masculinities. 

Within this context, Remus Lupin's lycanthropy positions him at the periphery of hegemonic masculinity. Despite the physical strength and power Lupin embodies in his werewolf form, this manifestation of strength is not coded as hegemonic. Instead, it is attached to a marginalised identity, thereby complicating his relationships with his peers and with himself. This divergence from the norms underscores a critical aspect of hegemonic masculinity: power and dominance must be socially sanctioned and conform to cultural ideals to be recognised as such. Lupin's struggle, thus, not only challenges the traditional notions of power and dominance associated with masculinity but also illuminates the societal tendency to overlook or misinterpret experiences that fall outside the conventional bounds of masculinity and power.

Sirius Black's position in this dynamic is markedly different. As a pureblood wizard, who is also magically powerful, Sirius occupies the apex of the social pyramid. This elevated status endows him with a form of masculinity that is both hegemonic and imbued with power, allowing him to navigate the social hierarchy with an authority that Lupin cannot access. Sirius's failure to fully appreciate the impact of Lupin's condition on his life, therefore, can be seen not just as a personal oversight but as a manifestation of broader societal dynamics.

Additionally, his challenge to Snape, who, despite being magically capable, is positioned lower due to his economic background and the stigma attached to his less prestigious blood status, can be interpreted as a reinforcement of Sirius's own position within the social and masculine hierarchy, a demonstration of hegemonic masculinity that seeks to maintain its dominance by subjugating those perceived as weaker or lower in status.