This was so much fun to read, and too true! Snape is an egotistical, pitiful and wicked man. But I think actually you're not quite giving enough credence to the redemptive power of love itself, and you didn't talk about his relationship with Dumbledore, which does seem like there is more to it than convenience of revenge, or simply having the same enemies... Dumbledore, at least, certainly seemed to see something more than just lust and envy within Snape...
I think Dumbledore was confident that Severus would never divert from his course against Lord Voldemort because of his love for Lily and hatred of the man who killed her. I also think Dumbeldore wanted to give Severus every opportunity for growth and change. Dumbledore waw very aware of his own faults and failings and was eager to extend the opportunity of redemption to others because he knew he needed it badly himself.
I would say Dumbledore is to Snape as Frodo is to Gollum. They hope for the others’ redemption becuase they need to know they too can come back from this.
While this might not have been the original intent, I always go back to the fact that Neville, whose parents were tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange to the point of insanity, and Professor Snape is his worst fear. How awful do you have to be to top Bellatrix for Neville?
Well yes. That's a great point. I think that the worst of it for Neville is that Snape is a looming presence in his world. Whenever they're in potions lessons, Snape's prime targets are Harry and Neville.
Neville sees the results of Bellatrix having tortured his parents. He knows she's real, he knows how bad she is. I'm sure he's terrified of her.
But it's Snape's bullying that blights his day to day school life.
Oh for sure. But that just shows you how bad the bullying is that a trauma of losing his parents, that he faces every holiday is outweighed by a teacher at school.
I agree with you there. That one scene in St Mungo's shows us that the reality of what Bellatrix did to Neville's parents is no picnic. It affects his whole family.
As you say, Snape's bullying at school must be especially vile if it can make Snape and not Bellatrix the worst of his fears.
In reality Rowling might not have had the fate of Neville's parents worked out yet by the time she wrote book 3. But that kind of discrepancy is what makes great theorizing and analysis.
Brilliant article. I agree more than I disagree, but I can't say I'm 100% with you on this one. Snape is certainly a lot more dark than light, and the movies are very nice to him. But while his motives are primarily vengeful, they are also guided by something beyond himself. I think that's what separates Snape's love for Lily from lust - he fights for her memory even when she's gone, even when he has to kill Dumbledore against his intuition, even when that means supporting the boy he hates on his quest via the sword of Gryffindor. He saw something beautiful in Lily, and fought for it. Now as you say he was the ultimate scumbag as a teacher, and was insanely bitter about James (though even that's understandable), so on and so forth. I appreciate you're saying he can be understandable without having done anything good, but I think he was fighting for something that was good, which is itself a good thing to do, even if it was all for a kernel of goodness in one woman which caused him to neglect so much goodness elsewhere. I agree that he died without redemption, but to call all his actions evil is a little far, I think.
Shameless plug: I'm working on a long long defence of the Potter books as worthwhile literature, and as great literature in their own way, which won't be out until the summer. I might share that with you once it's released, since I touch a bit on Snape there too (at least in my first draft!)
If he had said so much as “sorry” or “forgive me” to Harry before he’d died, I’d be all in on that view. I’m afraid that I think the comparison is not justified in this case, though.
I can't really agree with you here because he continued on abusing a good who has had a horrible like as an orphan, all because of him. Snape had no problem with Voldemort targeting and killing another family. In fact that's the reason why he hates Neville, because he wasn't the one that got picked to die.
I'll be the first to admit that I love the fanfic, romanticized version of Snape. But, I did read the books more recently, and it became very clear that he was just an angry, bitter man and not the misunderstood hero that many people (me) like to think he is.
I've read from a lot of people who are very much 'pro Snape'.
And as well as the 'Romanticising' brigade, there are also the 'Victim', brigade.
They work from the position that young Severus was abused by his father, then viciously bullied by James and Sirius, ergo he's 'the oppressed', and 'the oppressed' can't be blamed for anything.
I prefer to think of him as a deeply unpleasant character that's been given many layers by the author.
Yes. He's gone through some terrible things, especially as a child. And we can feel for him on that score.
But it doesn't excuse what he chooses to do as an adult.
He bullies children in his care. He actively hates a boy because he hates his father.
He chose The Dark Arts. He chose to follow Voldemort.
Nothing excuses any of that. Holding him accountable for his own choices doesn't mean that we are excusing the abuse from his father and the bullying from James and Sirius.
And I think that we can look at the fact that he does do his part in helping to bring down Voldemort, putting his own life at risk to do it.
But, at the same time, he shows no remorse for how he treated children at school, or for having espoused Voldemort's vile ideology, in the first place.
You know, I have always loathed Snape, and no amount of "tears" at the end could make up for the horrible way he bullied a child for years. I love Alan Rickman, but I've never understood everyone loving Snape. He's a horrible grownup who picks on a little kid for years.
This is an interesting analysis! Ive always felt that the wrap up of Snapes character is lacking. This articulates it really well. I have mixed feelings about Dumbledore as well, but that another topic. Ive always wanted Dumbledore be a more noble mentor, but that doesn't seem to be his role in the story.
I love him, but Dumbledore is definitely a flawed character, though I think he genuinely cares about Harry and many others. I think he tries to control the game he’s playing against Voldemort through an odd combination of trust and secrecy which makes for some oddities. Definitely lots to think about there.
I just saw another note of yours of Harry being a literary type of Christ. Could Dumbledore be a type of Virgil? As in the Divine Comedy. A Virgil who can only go so far?
First, I must say I wholly agree with you, and that this is an overlooked aspect of the story most of the time. Also, though, this same kind of argument applies to how I have always felt about Darth Vader. He's pretty much a monster right until the end, and then all he does is save his own flesh and blood from the guy who orchestrated the ruin of his life in the first place. It's not like knowing Luke was his son inspired him to turn against the Emperor: his first impulse at that point is to get Luke to reign over the empire with him. Luke's pleas at the end of Return sway him because he is his child, and I don't think what we see supports any change of heart overall. After all, even the gentiles care for their own flesh and blood.
I've always felt this way about Vader, too. He was the Dark Lord who committed countless atrocities, yet all was forgiven in an instant. It was like a switch was flipped from Dark Side to Light over the course of about two minutes. Who does that? It took even the future Apostle Paul a few days to work things out after Jesus accosted him on the road to Damascus! Thus, I was somewhat shocked when Anakin Skywalker appeared as a Force Ghost at the end of ROTJ. His "repentance" had been, at best, a murder of the ultimate bad guy followed by a wishy-washy deathbed confession (Lucas cannot write dialogue to save his life). Not things true repentance is composed of.
All good points, although I suspect my wife would be up for fighting you over whether Snape died without redemption. Maybe I just won't show this to her!
I thought Snape was very like Long John Silver in Treasure Island- a complex, conflicting character, not necessarily good, like you say. However, I think they are very well written because of their complexity.
I think you are right in pointing out that he never acted from good motives to do good. What a good conversation to have with our younger readers!
Yes, this discussion might kindle a lifelong enjoyment of literary analysis, which should lead to better thinking, with dividends to their personal lives if they take it seriously.
I wonder if this comes from having a non-Christian write the books (though obviously she heavily borrows Christian themes). I’m no mind reader, but given Rowling’s very feminist and pro LGB views (if not, er, the T), she probably thinks something like “love is love, love is all that matters” and so views Snape as heroic for doing everything out of love. I don’t know if she’s theologically mature enough to understand that human ‘love’ cannot endure without a firm rooting in the source of all love.
Yeah, I’d be really interested to know what she personally would say as to whether Snape redeemed himself in the end. I’m not sure what her own take would be.
Do you think the new show will try to give him a redemptive arc or stay true to the books?
I agree that Rickman and the directors made him much more redemptive and less evil than he was in the books. The torture of poor Neville was more than I could stand. I also read the books after watching the movie and found book Snape so much darker.
Good point. I haven't read the later books and didn't know he was supposed to be unrepentant so I'd had hope… after reading this I hadn't thought about it that way.
I am not at all hopeful that the new show will honor the books. So much of the HP community has turned on Rowling and is pushing LGBTQ+ agendas…I can’t imagine they won’t torture these stories to death.
I agree with 99% of this. I do think Alan Rickman made Snape WAY too likable, and that we sometimes forget that Snape is really a very unlikeble, bad person.
But if Snape really only loved Lily in a sick, selfish way, why in the world would he have spent the next twenty years of his life protecting her son? She's dead, it's not like he's getting any credit for it. He can't be doing any of it for his own gain. Sure, he hates Harry, but he loves Lily in a GOOD way, and that's what made him take care of Harry.
I disagree with the assertion that it was creepy that he loved another man's wife. There's a trope in literature called "courtly love" and I think we can all think of examples of it. Courtly love is where someone loves someone that they can never actually marry, and they make peace with that and instead help them as much as they can. Snape really DID love Lily.
In my opinion Snape protected Harry out of a sense of guilt, he was paying his penance for his crime against his love. I do not, personally, see any good in it but only grief, remorse, and self-punishment of a sort.
I respect your right to disagree, of course, but I do think Snape's love for Lily was sinful and wrong. Being singly devoted to another person's spouse is absolutely wrong. You mention courtly love, that's indeed a good comparison, but I think courtly love is wrong for all the same reasons. Courtly love is courting danger and I think Lancelot and Guinevere's story is plenty proof of that. Further, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight I take the poet to be pitting the knight's chivalric code and the concept of courtly love against Christian piety and virtue. The poem forces those things into conflict and demands that Gawain make his choice.
Anyway, we may just disagree, but I stand by my original position that Snapes motivations were never because of love in a Christian sense, but rather motivated by hatred, revenge, and self-inflicted penance for his sin against Lily.
There is a moment at the very beginning of the movie version of The Deathly Hallows part 2 where it shows Snape watching a group of students being marched through the courtyard. It can be interpreted in multiple ways but I always sensed it was meant to show him being inwardly tormented by how his choices in life had led to that moment. A glimpse of “almost” repentance, but not quite there.
It’s worth noting that JK Rowling herself has pointed out that just because Snape did good things, that doesn’t necessarily make him a good man. It makes sense, given that she’s also repeatedly said that she based Snape on a real-life teacher who bullied her as a child.
Enjoyed reading this! I really like movie Snape, but have been shocked and disappointed by how completely awful he is in the books. They’re almost two completely different characters even though they accomplish similar things. I’m not quite finished (on book 6) but I’m saddened to know Snape’s ending is not redemptive.
15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
To put a Christian slant on it. This is very true. Very much a Snape and Gollum comparison. Both characters mired by the terrible choices they've made, vile actions and poisonous company.
And yet they can be instrumental in bringing down one more evil in the world.
The Source of Goodness can use anyone, no one is too bad for that.
This was so much fun to read, and too true! Snape is an egotistical, pitiful and wicked man. But I think actually you're not quite giving enough credence to the redemptive power of love itself, and you didn't talk about his relationship with Dumbledore, which does seem like there is more to it than convenience of revenge, or simply having the same enemies... Dumbledore, at least, certainly seemed to see something more than just lust and envy within Snape...
Do more Harry Potter theology!!
I think Dumbledore was confident that Severus would never divert from his course against Lord Voldemort because of his love for Lily and hatred of the man who killed her. I also think Dumbeldore wanted to give Severus every opportunity for growth and change. Dumbledore waw very aware of his own faults and failings and was eager to extend the opportunity of redemption to others because he knew he needed it badly himself.
I would say Dumbledore is to Snape as Frodo is to Gollum. They hope for the others’ redemption becuase they need to know they too can come back from this.
Beautifully said! No one "deserves" mercy
While this might not have been the original intent, I always go back to the fact that Neville, whose parents were tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange to the point of insanity, and Professor Snape is his worst fear. How awful do you have to be to top Bellatrix for Neville?
Well yes. That's a great point. I think that the worst of it for Neville is that Snape is a looming presence in his world. Whenever they're in potions lessons, Snape's prime targets are Harry and Neville.
Neville sees the results of Bellatrix having tortured his parents. He knows she's real, he knows how bad she is. I'm sure he's terrified of her.
But it's Snape's bullying that blights his day to day school life.
Oh for sure. But that just shows you how bad the bullying is that a trauma of losing his parents, that he faces every holiday is outweighed by a teacher at school.
I agree with you there. That one scene in St Mungo's shows us that the reality of what Bellatrix did to Neville's parents is no picnic. It affects his whole family.
As you say, Snape's bullying at school must be especially vile if it can make Snape and not Bellatrix the worst of his fears.
In reality Rowling might not have had the fate of Neville's parents worked out yet by the time she wrote book 3. But that kind of discrepancy is what makes great theorizing and analysis.
Yes. It looks like that could have been the case. And it certainly does get the imagination working. As we are seeing here. 😁
Brilliant article. I agree more than I disagree, but I can't say I'm 100% with you on this one. Snape is certainly a lot more dark than light, and the movies are very nice to him. But while his motives are primarily vengeful, they are also guided by something beyond himself. I think that's what separates Snape's love for Lily from lust - he fights for her memory even when she's gone, even when he has to kill Dumbledore against his intuition, even when that means supporting the boy he hates on his quest via the sword of Gryffindor. He saw something beautiful in Lily, and fought for it. Now as you say he was the ultimate scumbag as a teacher, and was insanely bitter about James (though even that's understandable), so on and so forth. I appreciate you're saying he can be understandable without having done anything good, but I think he was fighting for something that was good, which is itself a good thing to do, even if it was all for a kernel of goodness in one woman which caused him to neglect so much goodness elsewhere. I agree that he died without redemption, but to call all his actions evil is a little far, I think.
Shameless plug: I'm working on a long long defence of the Potter books as worthwhile literature, and as great literature in their own way, which won't be out until the summer. I might share that with you once it's released, since I touch a bit on Snape there too (at least in my first draft!)
I am very interested in reading your defense of the series.
Maybe perhaps a little like the thief on the cross? Didn't do anything good himself, but saw that Love is good and chose that, even in death.
If he had said so much as “sorry” or “forgive me” to Harry before he’d died, I’d be all in on that view. I’m afraid that I think the comparison is not justified in this case, though.
I can't really agree with you here because he continued on abusing a good who has had a horrible like as an orphan, all because of him. Snape had no problem with Voldemort targeting and killing another family. In fact that's the reason why he hates Neville, because he wasn't the one that got picked to die.
I'll be the first to admit that I love the fanfic, romanticized version of Snape. But, I did read the books more recently, and it became very clear that he was just an angry, bitter man and not the misunderstood hero that many people (me) like to think he is.
I've read from a lot of people who are very much 'pro Snape'.
And as well as the 'Romanticising' brigade, there are also the 'Victim', brigade.
They work from the position that young Severus was abused by his father, then viciously bullied by James and Sirius, ergo he's 'the oppressed', and 'the oppressed' can't be blamed for anything.
I prefer to think of him as a deeply unpleasant character that's been given many layers by the author.
Yes. He's gone through some terrible things, especially as a child. And we can feel for him on that score.
But it doesn't excuse what he chooses to do as an adult.
He bullies children in his care. He actively hates a boy because he hates his father.
He chose The Dark Arts. He chose to follow Voldemort.
Nothing excuses any of that. Holding him accountable for his own choices doesn't mean that we are excusing the abuse from his father and the bullying from James and Sirius.
And I think that we can look at the fact that he does do his part in helping to bring down Voldemort, putting his own life at risk to do it.
But, at the same time, he shows no remorse for how he treated children at school, or for having espoused Voldemort's vile ideology, in the first place.
You know, I have always loathed Snape, and no amount of "tears" at the end could make up for the horrible way he bullied a child for years. I love Alan Rickman, but I've never understood everyone loving Snape. He's a horrible grownup who picks on a little kid for years.
But yes, I totally agree with what you said
This is an interesting analysis! Ive always felt that the wrap up of Snapes character is lacking. This articulates it really well. I have mixed feelings about Dumbledore as well, but that another topic. Ive always wanted Dumbledore be a more noble mentor, but that doesn't seem to be his role in the story.
I love him, but Dumbledore is definitely a flawed character, though I think he genuinely cares about Harry and many others. I think he tries to control the game he’s playing against Voldemort through an odd combination of trust and secrecy which makes for some oddities. Definitely lots to think about there.
I just saw another note of yours of Harry being a literary type of Christ. Could Dumbledore be a type of Virgil? As in the Divine Comedy. A Virgil who can only go so far?
He definitely plays the role of a guide!
First, I must say I wholly agree with you, and that this is an overlooked aspect of the story most of the time. Also, though, this same kind of argument applies to how I have always felt about Darth Vader. He's pretty much a monster right until the end, and then all he does is save his own flesh and blood from the guy who orchestrated the ruin of his life in the first place. It's not like knowing Luke was his son inspired him to turn against the Emperor: his first impulse at that point is to get Luke to reign over the empire with him. Luke's pleas at the end of Return sway him because he is his child, and I don't think what we see supports any change of heart overall. After all, even the gentiles care for their own flesh and blood.
I've always felt this way about Vader, too. He was the Dark Lord who committed countless atrocities, yet all was forgiven in an instant. It was like a switch was flipped from Dark Side to Light over the course of about two minutes. Who does that? It took even the future Apostle Paul a few days to work things out after Jesus accosted him on the road to Damascus! Thus, I was somewhat shocked when Anakin Skywalker appeared as a Force Ghost at the end of ROTJ. His "repentance" had been, at best, a murder of the ultimate bad guy followed by a wishy-washy deathbed confession (Lucas cannot write dialogue to save his life). Not things true repentance is composed of.
All good points, although I suspect my wife would be up for fighting you over whether Snape died without redemption. Maybe I just won't show this to her!
I thought Snape was very like Long John Silver in Treasure Island- a complex, conflicting character, not necessarily good, like you say. However, I think they are very well written because of their complexity.
I think you are right in pointing out that he never acted from good motives to do good. What a good conversation to have with our younger readers!
Yes, this discussion might kindle a lifelong enjoyment of literary analysis, which should lead to better thinking, with dividends to their personal lives if they take it seriously.
Love it, thank you!
I wonder if this comes from having a non-Christian write the books (though obviously she heavily borrows Christian themes). I’m no mind reader, but given Rowling’s very feminist and pro LGB views (if not, er, the T), she probably thinks something like “love is love, love is all that matters” and so views Snape as heroic for doing everything out of love. I don’t know if she’s theologically mature enough to understand that human ‘love’ cannot endure without a firm rooting in the source of all love.
Yeah, I’d be really interested to know what she personally would say as to whether Snape redeemed himself in the end. I’m not sure what her own take would be.
This is such a good point. I do think that JK Rowling views a redeemed character just because he ”loved" Lily.
Do you think the new show will try to give him a redemptive arc or stay true to the books?
I agree that Rickman and the directors made him much more redemptive and less evil than he was in the books. The torture of poor Neville was more than I could stand. I also read the books after watching the movie and found book Snape so much darker.
I'm not betting on HBO making a black man an unrepentant evil character who's only good comes from his love of a white woman.
Good point. I haven't read the later books and didn't know he was supposed to be unrepentant so I'd had hope… after reading this I hadn't thought about it that way.
I am not at all hopeful that the new show will honor the books. So much of the HP community has turned on Rowling and is pushing LGBTQ+ agendas…I can’t imagine they won’t torture these stories to death.
I agree with 99% of this. I do think Alan Rickman made Snape WAY too likable, and that we sometimes forget that Snape is really a very unlikeble, bad person.
But if Snape really only loved Lily in a sick, selfish way, why in the world would he have spent the next twenty years of his life protecting her son? She's dead, it's not like he's getting any credit for it. He can't be doing any of it for his own gain. Sure, he hates Harry, but he loves Lily in a GOOD way, and that's what made him take care of Harry.
I disagree with the assertion that it was creepy that he loved another man's wife. There's a trope in literature called "courtly love" and I think we can all think of examples of it. Courtly love is where someone loves someone that they can never actually marry, and they make peace with that and instead help them as much as they can. Snape really DID love Lily.
All in all I thought this VERY interesting!
Hi Fiona,
In my opinion Snape protected Harry out of a sense of guilt, he was paying his penance for his crime against his love. I do not, personally, see any good in it but only grief, remorse, and self-punishment of a sort.
I respect your right to disagree, of course, but I do think Snape's love for Lily was sinful and wrong. Being singly devoted to another person's spouse is absolutely wrong. You mention courtly love, that's indeed a good comparison, but I think courtly love is wrong for all the same reasons. Courtly love is courting danger and I think Lancelot and Guinevere's story is plenty proof of that. Further, in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight I take the poet to be pitting the knight's chivalric code and the concept of courtly love against Christian piety and virtue. The poem forces those things into conflict and demands that Gawain make his choice.
Anyway, we may just disagree, but I stand by my original position that Snapes motivations were never because of love in a Christian sense, but rather motivated by hatred, revenge, and self-inflicted penance for his sin against Lily.
There is a moment at the very beginning of the movie version of The Deathly Hallows part 2 where it shows Snape watching a group of students being marched through the courtyard. It can be interpreted in multiple ways but I always sensed it was meant to show him being inwardly tormented by how his choices in life had led to that moment. A glimpse of “almost” repentance, but not quite there.
Right, I know the one. I agree. The movies definitely leave more room to interpret Snape in a better light.
It’s worth noting that JK Rowling herself has pointed out that just because Snape did good things, that doesn’t necessarily make him a good man. It makes sense, given that she’s also repeatedly said that she based Snape on a real-life teacher who bullied her as a child.
Interesting. I wasn’t aware of her comments. Thanks!
Enjoyed reading this! I really like movie Snape, but have been shocked and disappointed by how completely awful he is in the books. They’re almost two completely different characters even though they accomplish similar things. I’m not quite finished (on book 6) but I’m saddened to know Snape’s ending is not redemptive.
Bad people can be used towards good ends?
15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
Genesis 50:15-22
To put a Christian slant on it. This is very true. Very much a Snape and Gollum comparison. Both characters mired by the terrible choices they've made, vile actions and poisonous company.
And yet they can be instrumental in bringing down one more evil in the world.
The Source of Goodness can use anyone, no one is too bad for that.