Hiya, finally made my way over here to read what you've got, overall I rather like the vigour with which you attack such a minute moment in the book, one which is admittedly a favourite of mine in terms of being an absolute breeding ground for subtext. Generally, Harry's observations of moments like this are our only means of understanding how the adult characters interrelate, so take off that Harry Filter and we've got a goldmine to work with, although not nearly to the extent that we had in OotP.
I think your assessment of Snape's motivations was dead-on, warrior/guardian does seem a good identification for his function in the Order, and one doesn't need to be compassionate to fill either function - rather, Snape would recognize how compassion would diminish his abilities as a protector. And while i don't entirely buy the prospect of Tonks as a Slytherin - too much of a stretch on too little information, in my mind - we do know that in order to qualify for Auror training she needed NEWT-level Potions, which means she did have the aptitude to meet Snape's high standards; therefore, it's fair to presume a certain degree of respect for her as a former pupil, regardless of House affiliation.
And of course things only get more interesting from here, because it's Lupin and Snape and all the fraught history between the two and the fact that they're both oh-so-very flawed, and while I like your read of Snape's motivation to protect Tonks from his weakness/unworthiness from Snape's point of view it somehow seems like an incomplete thought. My initial thought was that Snape may not so much be solely fixated on protecting Tonks from an unworthy lover but also from warning her against her own behaviour. This isn't necessary Snape critiquing the idea of love, but rather observing what love has made of her recently; he's an intelligent enough man to spot the drastic changes in her behaviour, seen how she's gone from being a vibrant and spirited warrior to a moping lovesick girl, and I suspect his disdain is as much for her as for Lupin. I mean this in the sense of 'You are better than this and can't let your unrequited feelings get the better of you' rather than disgust for her capacity to love in the first place.
This does invest a certain read into Snape's views on love, as already mentioned above, and I don't feel qualified to say whether Snape does or doesn't have faith in love - you have to balance his relationship with Dumbledore against such things as his personality and the rough sketch we have of his parents' marriage, the latter of which is not fully clear but does leave room to guess that Snape likely had/has doubts about the validity of love given the prospect of witnessing an abusive relationship. But for the present, it seems safe to assume, in the wake of his change in loyalties back in 1980/1, that Snape is not totally dismissive of love.
But I do suspect that his disdain for Lupin is more complicated than childhood blame. I don't deny that Lupin is weak - it's one of the things that makes me love him so much as a character - but it's also clear that Snape possesses an especially weak streak where Lupin (and Sirius) is concerned, in terms of that extra dose of hate in his down-table glare at the start of PoA, insane temper tantrums where one or the other or both are concerned... well, it's all pretty well-documented. Elements such as fear, genuine hate, outright confusion over Lupin's compulsion to be so nice to him despite it all (i've been muddling over his obsessive use of 'Severus' right up until Dumbledore's death for the last few weeks), could all be playing into his warning. I'd love to hear what you think of any or all of those possibilities, it's a really rich minefield of possibilities whenever those two are involved.
And I think i've rather rambled on waaay too much here, holidays make me lax about things like editing myself, so sorry about that. Hope it helps!
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Date: 2006-02-18 09:16 pm (UTC)I think your assessment of Snape's motivations was dead-on, warrior/guardian does seem a good identification for his function in the Order, and one doesn't need to be compassionate to fill either function - rather, Snape would recognize how compassion would diminish his abilities as a protector. And while i don't entirely buy the prospect of Tonks as a Slytherin - too much of a stretch on too little information, in my mind - we do know that in order to qualify for Auror training she needed NEWT-level Potions, which means she did have the aptitude to meet Snape's high standards; therefore, it's fair to presume a certain degree of respect for her as a former pupil, regardless of House affiliation.
And of course things only get more interesting from here, because it's Lupin and Snape and all the fraught history between the two and the fact that they're both oh-so-very flawed, and while I like your read of Snape's motivation to protect Tonks from his weakness/unworthiness from Snape's point of view it somehow seems like an incomplete thought. My initial thought was that Snape may not so much be solely fixated on protecting Tonks from an unworthy lover but also from warning her against her own behaviour. This isn't necessary Snape critiquing the idea of love, but rather observing what love has made of her recently; he's an intelligent enough man to spot the drastic changes in her behaviour, seen how she's gone from being a vibrant and spirited warrior to a moping lovesick girl, and I suspect his disdain is as much for her as for Lupin. I mean this in the sense of 'You are better than this and can't let your unrequited feelings get the better of you' rather than disgust for her capacity to love in the first place.
This does invest a certain read into Snape's views on love, as already mentioned above, and I don't feel qualified to say whether Snape does or doesn't have faith in love - you have to balance his relationship with Dumbledore against such things as his personality and the rough sketch we have of his parents' marriage, the latter of which is not fully clear but does leave room to guess that Snape likely had/has doubts about the validity of love given the prospect of witnessing an abusive relationship. But for the present, it seems safe to assume, in the wake of his change in loyalties back in 1980/1, that Snape is not totally dismissive of love.
But I do suspect that his disdain for Lupin is more complicated than childhood blame. I don't deny that Lupin is weak - it's one of the things that makes me love him so much as a character - but it's also clear that Snape possesses an especially weak streak where Lupin (and Sirius) is concerned, in terms of that extra dose of hate in his down-table glare at the start of PoA, insane temper tantrums where one or the other or both are concerned... well, it's all pretty well-documented. Elements such as fear, genuine hate, outright confusion over Lupin's compulsion to be so nice to him despite it all (i've been muddling over his obsessive use of 'Severus' right up until Dumbledore's death for the last few weeks), could all be playing into his warning. I'd love to hear what you think of any or all of those possibilities, it's a really rich minefield of possibilities whenever those two are involved.
And I think i've rather rambled on waaay too much here, holidays make me lax about things like editing myself, so sorry about that. Hope it helps!