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Why do we love Snape?
This was a question asked over on the whysnape board, and here was my answer. I have expanded it a bit as a result of the bitter word's excellent essay on Dunbledore and the comments that resulted. It is an informal essay/meditation, g-rated and probably about 500 words.
Why love a fictional character? In what sense do we *love* characters in books?
Some people will never understand this love because it has never happened to them. When I was in library school, I learned about the levels of engagement and understanding children - and teenagers, and adults - go through in their reading. First it's just basic comprehension. Then you get lost in the story; you are caught up in the adventure you are reading. Then you come to the stage where you "find yourself in a book". Then, as a young adult, you begin to see layers of meaning in the story and the characters. You begin to read on more than one level. It's my guess that all Snape fans are reading on at least the third level and more probably on the fourth. Many readers never get there. They read for information and amusement, and don't necessarily identify strongly with the characters, never mind analyzing them! That's a perfectly reasonable way to read these books. It's also true that not everyone who "finds him/herself" in the potterverse will find themselves in Snape. Why would any reader identify with him, rather than with more (apparently) likable characters such as Harry or Hermione or Sirius?
Yet many of us identify with Snape more than any other character in these books. I certainly do, and here are some of my reasons. For one thing, Severus Snape is a bullied geek, and, as Jodel remarks, many of Rowling's adult readers self-identify as geeks or nerds. I dare say quite a few of us were bullied by people like James, Sirius and Lily; as a result, we may well have strong fellow feeling for young Severus when we see him in the same situation. He is also, very clearly, a man in mourning. His irritability, poor grooming, choice of clothing, and apparent insomnia all point to clinical depression, and anyone who has ever been even slightly depressed can't help but feel for him. Most of all, I find him fascinating because he is the most morally and emotionally complex character Rowling wrote, and because he (like Neville, and unlike Harry) is truly on a hero's journey. He is the only character she wrote who actually chooses to change. This is compelling. But that's true of characters in other books, isn't it? There are certainly heroes who become better people by their own efforts and who love without being loved in return. Then why is Snape so fascinating?
I think Snape's grip on the reader's imagination is so strong because of the dissonance between what Rowling apparently intended and what she actually did. As I've said so many times before, in Severus, Rowling had the chance to write one of the greatest characters, and greatest heroes, in all of English literature. It's all there on the page - the courage, loyalty, intelligence and capacity for love*. And yet, she makes it clear in the adjectives she uses about him, in the torments and humiliations she puts him through, and in Harry's viewpoint, that she doesn't want him to be seen as a hero. Never mind what she says in interviews, which is even worse!
So, those of us who, for whatever reason, identify with Severus want to see justice for him. We want him to achieve some peace and happiness, and that never happens in the text. This is frustrating, so we can't let go. We keep struggling to affirm his heroism and discover other possibilities for him.
*He's got a great sense of humor, too. That helps.
Why love a fictional character? In what sense do we *love* characters in books?
Some people will never understand this love because it has never happened to them. When I was in library school, I learned about the levels of engagement and understanding children - and teenagers, and adults - go through in their reading. First it's just basic comprehension. Then you get lost in the story; you are caught up in the adventure you are reading. Then you come to the stage where you "find yourself in a book". Then, as a young adult, you begin to see layers of meaning in the story and the characters. You begin to read on more than one level. It's my guess that all Snape fans are reading on at least the third level and more probably on the fourth. Many readers never get there. They read for information and amusement, and don't necessarily identify strongly with the characters, never mind analyzing them! That's a perfectly reasonable way to read these books. It's also true that not everyone who "finds him/herself" in the potterverse will find themselves in Snape. Why would any reader identify with him, rather than with more (apparently) likable characters such as Harry or Hermione or Sirius?
Yet many of us identify with Snape more than any other character in these books. I certainly do, and here are some of my reasons. For one thing, Severus Snape is a bullied geek, and, as Jodel remarks, many of Rowling's adult readers self-identify as geeks or nerds. I dare say quite a few of us were bullied by people like James, Sirius and Lily; as a result, we may well have strong fellow feeling for young Severus when we see him in the same situation. He is also, very clearly, a man in mourning. His irritability, poor grooming, choice of clothing, and apparent insomnia all point to clinical depression, and anyone who has ever been even slightly depressed can't help but feel for him. Most of all, I find him fascinating because he is the most morally and emotionally complex character Rowling wrote, and because he (like Neville, and unlike Harry) is truly on a hero's journey. He is the only character she wrote who actually chooses to change. This is compelling. But that's true of characters in other books, isn't it? There are certainly heroes who become better people by their own efforts and who love without being loved in return. Then why is Snape so fascinating?
I think Snape's grip on the reader's imagination is so strong because of the dissonance between what Rowling apparently intended and what she actually did. As I've said so many times before, in Severus, Rowling had the chance to write one of the greatest characters, and greatest heroes, in all of English literature. It's all there on the page - the courage, loyalty, intelligence and capacity for love*. And yet, she makes it clear in the adjectives she uses about him, in the torments and humiliations she puts him through, and in Harry's viewpoint, that she doesn't want him to be seen as a hero. Never mind what she says in interviews, which is even worse!
So, those of us who, for whatever reason, identify with Severus want to see justice for him. We want him to achieve some peace and happiness, and that never happens in the text. This is frustrating, so we can't let go. We keep struggling to affirm his heroism and discover other possibilities for him.
*He's got a great sense of humor, too. That helps.
no subject
And the setting up of Harry's moral decline and fall regarding the Hallows - well, it wasn't quite the One Ring of Power and its effects, but I was expecting a payoff. Let me be explicit - during DH, I kept seeing brilliant storylines set up, ones that I was stunned JKR would have the balls - excuse the colloquial phrase - to do, particularly in a story that had been playing the Heroic Cliches so STRAIGHT, and do you know what? SHE KEPT DEFAULTING ON THEM! I REALLY thought she was setting up a Dark Lord Harry! What happened? Oh, it's just because he lacked faith in Dumbledore! She killed off the main character! Ooh, no, she brought him back so he could be Jesus! I really thought she was going to have us watch Neville, the new hero of his generation, save the day! It was brilliant, it was an emotional arc all set up, and she had the characters run around IN THE WRONG MOVIE SET!
Gah. So... I suppose I understand what you see. You see a character arc that was set up but never paid off, and in fact was kicked over and stomped on, and I see moral and thematic arcs that were set up, and in fact were kicked over and stomped on. I don't see yours, but I understand how you feel about people just REFUSING to see your point, as I was stunned and horrified to see people defending Harry's use of Cruciatus. GAH. Nonono. So, I sympathize. You may have a valid point. I don't like him (though I understand him and his motivations and his flaws all too well), but I suppose others might. ...Err, sorry for the rant? :D
* Except for the "Your father would never attack me unless it was four-against-one!" line. I'm rather more inclined to believe Snape than any Marauder recollection here, especially since it fits with power levels and talent. And how JKR cannot see that she's setting up a sympathetic situation with a lone talented geek being attacked by the four popular not-so-bright ones, I'll never know.
no subject
Unless, of course, she really does mean to set up Dark Lord Harry. Because that's certainly what I saw at the end of DH.
To get back to Snape again, do you know what my theory was about his antagonism to Harry? I thought, at least from OOTP and certainly from DH, that he sensed Voldemort in the boy and hated him because he SAW him as a future Dark Lord! Honestly, if you really look at Harry's actions and attitudes and take away his 'innocent, ignorant outsider' pov, he does *not* come across as a particularly nice or generous or loving kid.
That Severus hates Harry because he sees James in him and blames him for being his father's son is, I think, fanon. In canon, I think Severus hates Harry because Harry, from the minute he sees him, hates *him*. Or is there even one instance, anywhere in the books, of Harry offering Severus Snape the most basic courtesy? Of him studying and trying to improve in Snape's classes? And Snape is the one person Harry uses as a scapegoat over and over, and the one person he doesn't even try to rescue when he is hurt or in danger. Honestly - why on earth would Snape like Harry? After DH, I don't like Harry. I don't like him at all.
But this is getting way off track. Honestly, I'm at the point where i don't want to discuss these books any more.
no subject
Snape and James had the same personality conflicts.That was why they disliked each other from the very beginning.