Blog 3: Snape Unveiled

The most poignant moment in series is also one of the most problematic in my mind. The scene I’m referring to is when Snape’s motives are finally revealed post-mortem. It is one of the most poignant moments because of the tragedy of it all. Here is a man who has been in love with a girl since he was a child who not only marries someone else, but his bullying tormenter. (Just try and imagine how many therapy sessions Snape would have needed for that web of issues.) We see that it was Lily’s death that truly turned Snape away from Voldemort; the source of all of Dumbldore’s questionable trust is Snape’s eternal, albeit unrequited love for Lily.

It is also one of the most problematic scenes for me because his attitude toward Harry through the entire series. He is cruel and heartless and goes out of his way to mock and ridicule him. I understand that he’s a spitting image of his father, James; I can only imagine how jarring it would be to see a living replica of your own childhood tormenter, and how difficult it would be to process that and react to it. But Snape goes out of his way to be hateful to Harry, which I find strange because of his deep love for his mother.

Perhaps Rowling is showing how the negatives often outweigh the positives we see/focus on in people. Snape lived to avenge Lily’s death, so why would he be so cruel to her child? It was no mistake that externally Harry looks so strikingly similar to James, just constantly pushing the memory that Lily chose James over Snape in his face. But if by that logic, he hates James for ‘winning’ Lily and having that life with her, by extension does that mean he actually, in some sense, wishes to be Harry’s father? I have to believe that ultimately, Snape hated James because he married Lily, and all the bullying just poured gasoline on his undying flame for Lily. (Which is not to say that the bullying he experienced wasn’t completely awful and heartbreaking, it was, but I think he held on to it for the rest of his life because ultimately his bully got the girl of his dreams.)

The complexities of Severus Snape still pull on my heartstrings and hurt my brain if I dwell on them long enough. After reading the series three times and watching the movies innumerable evenings I still find him to be the most interesting character of the bunch.