It seemed pretty evident in the first book that Severus Snape was going to be an intriguing character. This is a post dedicated to the greasy potions master. Several questions for consideration and comment:
- In what clever ways did Rowling set up the Snape plot in book one?
- Any Snape foreshadowing that you missed in the discussion from Day 2?
- Reflect on your initial encounter with the character of Snape in reading book one for the first time compared with how you read him in book one now.
- Anything else you want to discuss concerning Snape in Sorcerer’s Stone.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I found Snape to be a repulsive character reading the books before Deathly Hallows. I find him to be tragic now, but I still think he needed to reflect on his actions and how that caused him to lose the girl of his dreams. Even though he was loyal to Dumbledore because of his love for Lily, I’m not sure that he still “got it” even to the end and displayed very few signs of self-reflection.
If there is any credence to the parallels theory (e.g. book 1 is like book 7, book2 like 6, etc.), sorcerer’s stone/philosopher’s stone should have shown us that even though Harry believes Snape to be the “black hat”, it foreshadowed to us that Snape was good all along.
I know it’s been touched on before, but I think one of the bigger questions especially with all of the Snape fans in the fandom, is the Snape that Rowling wrote in Sorcerer’s stone the same one that died in Deathly Hallows, or did her characterization of him change as the books progress?
I liked the way JKR set up Harry’s first encounter with Snape very much: The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell’s turban straight into Harry’s eyes – and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry’s forehead. Then Percy tells Harry ‘he’s after Quirrell’s job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape.’ Evil Snape. But at the end of the book we learn that Snape saved Harry’s life and it was Voldemort in Quirrell’s Turban who caused Harry’s pain (foreshadowing Harry as a horcrux). This pattern is repeated until the end of the last book: Snape acts suspiciously and his actions get justified in the end, at least up to a certain degree (except for his bullying). And it works again and again!
Then there is Harry’s first Potions lesson. We learn that Snape hates Harry for some unknown reason that very obviously has nothing to do with Harry himself. Because we know Harry, but Snape doesn’t. In retrospect we can see James, famous and arrogant, through Snape’s blinded eyes.
We also become acquainted with wolfsbane, bezoars and the Draught of Living Death, only the last of which did not turn out to play an important role in the later books. And, of course, Harry ‘sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.’
Snape is always the main foil against which Harry’s thoughts and emotions are played. He is a terrifying and brilliant character, an ever present menace that is more frightening because Hogwarts is his home as much as it becomes Harry’s. Harry has to put up with him, a fact even more exacerbated in that Dumbledore, perhaps the ideal teacher, shows an unwavering trust in Snape.
One aspect of Rowling’s plot development that doesn’t get enough treatment is how Potions and DADA are binaries in Harry’s education — Snape is almost always set at odds with Harry’s DADA teacher:
1) He foils Quirrel.
2) Quickly demonstrates the full idiocy of Lockhart.
3) Alludes to something hidden behind Lupin’s facade.
4) Provides the veritas serum that unmasks polyjuice Moody.
5) Intentionally subverts Umbridge’s plans in the end.
Then, he changes in HBP, and Harry recedes from DADA wunderkind, and morphs into potions master — with Snape’s help!
Thus, one reason I still feel that Snape (more to the point, his relationship with Harry) is a major missed opportunity so wonderfully written in SS/PS and so radically underwritten in DH.
The tragedy there is not only in his bitter death…
I’ve thought about this question a bit. Trying to remember my feelings regarding Snape upon my first reading of HPSS. It’s a hard thing to do. So much has happened since then. Certainly I never thought of him as a pleasant character. But his role & his connection to Harry was very downplayed at times. It’s three books in, in POA, that we learn of his mutual antipathy with the Marauders. Not much happens in GOF but things kick up a notch again in OOTP & HBP culminating of course in his supposed murder of Dumbledore. As Dave points out, we see so very little of him until his death & Harry’s examination of his memories.
The debate about him was always focused on what side is he on & why. I think Jo did a very good job through the series up through HBP of really keeping this tension about Snape going. After awhile it became a little more clear that Snape & his story is pretty closely linked to his hatred of James, although why he turned into a spy for Dumbledore remains ambiguous. At the end of OOTP, is it, that DD tells Harry that Snape felt remorse over James & Lily’s death & thus came back to the good side? Harry scoffs at that, pointing out how Snape always hated his father & wouldn’t have cared if he was dead & also wouldn’t have cared about his mom because she was a mudblood. I can’t remember exactly where that is or how it went but that’s somewhat close I think. Well, Harry was right about Snape’s feelings towards his dad but not his mom! Jo did a good job of swerving not only us but Harry as well!
Snape’s story is really fascinating. Someone who’s not quite good or bad. Someone who, for love of a woman & great remorse that his actions led to her death, switches allegiances despite the fact that it means a double life of always living under the gun, always hiding his true self, always facing imminent exposure & death. And yet his remorse doesn’t extend to overcoming his hatred of Harry because of the fact that Harry, except for his eyes, reminds him of James. He protects Harry not because he comes to love Harry or even feel affection for him but simply because Harry is Lily’s son & has her eyes & if Harry dies then the last little part of Lily left dies also.
Snape is such a deep character. He’s a bully. He hates Harry because of James but protects Harry, despite the fact that it might lead to his own death, because of Lily. He projects a disdain for others but yet protects or tries to protect others besides Harry, e.g. George from the Death Eater trying to AK him. He feels remorse when he cannot save others, such as Charity Burbage.
His story is one of tragedy & triumph, & while he does not get a chance to reconcile with Harry, Harry does forgive Snape & thus lays the old family hatreds to rest. And all of Snape’s sacrifices for Lily are not in vain because Lily does live on through her son & her grandson, Albus Severus.
Throughout the books, and until I read Deathly Hallows, I felt the same way about Snape that Harry does, I LOATHED him. And quite possibly, only because Harry did. Since Deathly Hallows I can now appreciate him quite differently. He is a brilliant character, and in response to Brent’s question: “is the Snape that Rowling wrote in Sorcerer’s stone the same one that died in Deathly Hallows, or did her characterization of him change as the books progress?” I think that he is exactly the character she intended him to be from the beginning.
We still need to remember that Snape also had a troubled childhood and not everyone who has been neglected as a child turns out like Harry. Often they turn out like Snape, emotionally unsure of themselves, unable to express themselves and not particularly socially inclined.
I do remember what my reaction to Snape was in the first two books: I saw him as the obligatory mean and nasty teacher, the one that is there to make life miserable for the hero as well as any others who cross his path. After all, every book set in a school has at least one teacher that isnt’ nice, and most schools I was ever in had at least one teacher that, while not as vindictive as Snape, was at least unpleasant or unfair.
But then we had POA, and I started to see that Rowling might have more in mind for Snape that being the two dimensional character that I thought he was in the first two books.
There were so many set ups surrounding Snape and Harry in the first two books that were paid off in the later ones. I agree that Rowling had a complete picture of what Snape’s character would be by the end. I think what she didn’t anticipate was the fan base that Snape had. I remember when I first found some Harry Potter sites, I stumbled on some fan fiction which was usually about Snape. Most were pretty disturbing, to tell the truth. So I think most of us were aware that Snape began to take on a life outside of the books, but JKR seemed to be genuinely surprised by all the comments and questions she got about Snape before the last book.
For me, when I really became convinced that Snape was not evil, but was likely deserving of the trust given him by Dumbledore was in Order of the Phoenix. James and Sirius, as not so noble in their youth, gave Snape the reason for the hatred he clung to. Was it reasonable? Well, no. But a child who is abused, or ignored, and then bullied at school doesn’t always manage to come out of it healthy and whole. There isn’t a good explanation for why some children make it through and others don’t.
Rowling gave us three characters who had unhappy childhoods in Harry, Severus, and Tom Riddle. And each reacted to it in a unique and individual way. Riddle became a psychopath with no conscience and no understanding of anyone else or any sort of compassion. Harry was the opposite in understanding how important it was to do the right thing and doing it, and in finding friends and creating his own loving family. And Snape found someone who filled that void in his life as a child when he found friendship with Lily, but because of another choice made for him by the Sorting Hat, he was thrown in with those who were cunning and looked out for themselves. That was all compounded when James and Sirius bullied him from the first time they met him. When Snape made the choice to follow the Death Eaters instead of Lily, he set his life on a path that he might have avoided. It was his remorse over Lily’s death that convinced Dumbledore of his loyalty, and Snape, from then on, did what was right. But really, it was for the wrong reason–his actions were always for Lily, and ultimately, his biggest failing was that he couldn’t forgive himself, and in turn, he couldn’t forgive those who had made his school years so miserable, or the boy who constantly reminded him of all that pain.
Toward the end of Deathly Hallows, there is a part where Harry thinks of the three boys who shared the feeling that Hogwarts was their real home–Harry, Severus Snape and Tom Riddle. I think that was intentional by Rowling, to show what can happen to children who are neglected or abused or bullied. It was also clear that Harry, the hero, and Riddle, the villain, were going to go the way we expected. But Snape, right up to the end, was an enigma. That mystery surrounding his motives and actions stayed with us to nearly the end of the series. Because of that, he became the most complicated and interesting of all the characters. The funny thing is, I don’t think that Rowling ever meant for Snape to captivate so many readers. I wonder if some day, when she has had a chance to step back from the books she will see what so many of us saw in Severus Snape.
Pat
Pat, great comments. Agree with them all, mostly. You said that Snape had his choice made for him by the Sorting Hat? But yet in reading DH it seems clear that Snape was set on becoming a Slytherin. That was the house where he wanted to go & where he wanted Lily to go. And even after Lily was chosen for Gryffindor, Snape still went into Slytherin. He didn’t consider the possibility, “I just want to be where Lily is.” He didn’t consider the possibility that he could go anywhere other than Slytherin.
This seems to be the problem with the Sorting Hat, in that the only people who really have a choice or at least don’t have a predetermined choice are those who have no history in the wizarding world, no previous prejudices or family history, and that is the Muggleborns. They come in, for the most part, with no expectations.
Of course, Hermione is a wierdo in that she actually does background research. And Harry, starting with no expectations, gets his prejudices against Slytherin from Hagrid & then also from his own experience with meeting Malfoy.
So, I’ve gotten off from Snape here a bit, but I think a discussion of the Sorting Hat in future episodes of posts would be nice. I think Dumbledore is on to something when he says he thinks they sort too soon. Because the Sorting Hat does something that is akin to being someone born into a certain caste in Hinduism or being born into a certain vocation in feudalism.
No matter how Snape pricked Harry I never thought he would be the ultimate bad guy even though I loved to hate him. After all, in each book Snape did eventually do the right thing, whether it was to protect Harry or turn over helpful information.
It certainly wasn’t that I was so clever to figure out what Rowling was doing with Snape; it was because I, like Harry, believed in Dumbledore. I thought Dumbledore all seeing and all knowing. If Dumbledore said Snape could be trusted, then Snape could be trusted….end of discussion. Rowling easily made me trust Dumbledore, although he wasn’t one of my favorite characters.
Snape is an amazing character. I was shocked at the sympathy I felt for him in the end even though I think he was s dreadful human being.