Let's Talk About Snape

Like any loyal fan, I found myself anxiously awaiting the release of the seventh and final Harry Potter book.  When July 21^st, 2007 finally rolled around, I was standing in line at a Borders after having spent the previous hours enjoying all of the fandom festivities that the store had set up.  One of these activities involved an employee offering you two stickers, of which you had to choose only one.  It could either read “Snape is GOOD” or “Snape is EVIL”.  Throughout the previous six books, the character of Severus Snape was intentionally mysterious and ominous.  No one was quite sure if he had truly switched his allegiances to that of Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix, or if he was still loyal to Lord Voldemort.  All of this conflict and speculation culminated in the finale of the sixth book when [SPOILERS] Snape kills Dumbledore.  And for the many months following the conclusion of the sixth book, people debated what all of this meant.  Was he good and this was all part of some bigger plan?  Or was he evil all along and we were fools for ever having trusted him?  GOOD? Or EVIL? 

Personally, I would argue that there should have been a third sticker.

You see, people ended up loving Snape by the end of the story.  He was catapulted to the level of hero within the span of one fabulous chapter.  However, I think it is important to realize that having a redemptive quality does not automatically erase a person’s wrongdoings.  In other words, it would be wrong to model one’s life and actions after Snape. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I think he is a fascinating, complex, and incredibly brave character.  I just don’t think he is an outright good person.  He is a pretty terrible person who ended up doing some good things. 

One example of this is how he treats many of his students.  There are seemingly countless examples of Snape intentionally harassing and insulting Harry and his friends in front of their peers.  He sets completely unattainable standards and then publicly belittles and attacks the kids with whom he has personal problems.  The very first day of class, he shames Harry for his lack of knowledge in regards to fairly advanced potion-making techniques and knowledge.  To put it simply, he is a jerk.

He dislikes many of his fellow teachers.  He personally outs Remus Lupin as a werewolf because of past issues from their days together at school.  He constantly mocks Sirius Black for his need to stay hidden instead of being an active agent of the Order.  Essentially, Severus Snape is a man who is holding a serious grudge for many years.  That grudge is the fact that the only woman he ever loved married someone else and was then murdered by the evil man he had chosen to follow. 

At a young age, Snape meets and falls in love with Lily Evans.  They go to school together and are close friends.  However, Lily eventually falls in love with and marries James Potter.  They go on to have a son named Harry.  A prophecy is then made that seems to involve Harry being the only person who could potentially defeat Lord Voldemort.  So Voldemort goes and kills James, Lily, and attempts to kill Harry.  We know all this. 

But we need to realize that this is why Snape treats Harry like such a childish bully.  Harry is not only the son of the woman he loves.  Harry is the reason that Lily is no longer here.  Harry is the embodiment of why Snape and Lily are not together on a number of levels.  Harry even looks like James, the man who Lily marries.  So every time Snape sees Harry, he sees the man who he lost to and the reason Lily is dead.  That drives him crazy with rage and hatred. 

Except for one instance.  I strongly believe that the chapter entitled “The Prince’s Tale” is the single best chapter in the entire series.  It is when we fully discover who Severus Snape is and why he behaves the way he does.  It uncovers how deeply Snape still loves Lily even after several years have passed.  This chapter is not meant as a justification for how Snape acts, but as an explanation.  It makes you empathize with Snape and understand Snape.  It shouldn’t make you like Snape or condone his actions.

I think it is interesting to realize that this whole chapter is started by Snape giving Harry the ability to view these memories.  It is his final act before death.  Snape’s black eyes meet Harry’s green eyes.  And those eyes are the only part of Harry’s appearance that give Snape positive memories and associations of Lily.  Snape literally dies fighting on the side of good.  He is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice because he simply cannot be on the side that killed Lily.  And as he dies performing this completely selfless act, he is able to look into Lily’s eyes one more time and receive the comforting reminder of why he was willing to change.  The sacrificial bravery that he showed was in honor of Lily.

We cannot have a conversation about Severus without talking about his most famous quote:

“But this is touching, Severus,” said Dumbledore seriously. “Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?”
“For him?” shouted Snape. “Expecto Patronum!” From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe: She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.
“After all this time?”
“Always,” said Snape. 

This is when it becomes clear that Snape’s only motivation has been to fight against those who caused the death of Lily Potter.  He still loves her.  But if we read it more closely, we see that this is a selfish motivation.  On one hand, it is romantic and poetic that the secret motivator of this seemingly evil man has been true love.  I love that.  However, I would argue that as romantic as that is, how can that be his only motivation?!  Good triumphing over evil is not why he is doing this.  It almost seems that he is only doing this for revenge.  If it were truly to honor Lily’s memory, then how has he not come to care for her son.  He has to know that Lily would have wanted that. 

So like the rest of Snape’s story and legacy, this ultimate memory is tainted and complex.  And that’s why it is so brilliantly written.  This character creation by J.K. Rowling is pure genius.  She is able to build this multi-layered character with an intriguing and emotionally weighted backstory who is both good and bad.  He’s human. 

He is a human who has been through many terrible and confusing traumas.  He is conflicted himself.  The fact that we are confused about his emotions and motivations is important because Snape himself is confused about those things quite often.  The one thing that he is certain of is that he loves Lily.  He will always love Lily.  That love is massive and humongously powerful.  But given how difficult it is to grasp what true love is and how it behaves, we are left with a broken man who is struggling to figure out what it means to do good.  It takes him a while, but at the end of the day, he is willing to die for the side of good. 

Think of it this way.  The one person who taught Snape what it meant to be a good person was Lily.  The fact that Snape lays down his life for the cause that Lily herself died fighting for means that he must have learned something.

I definitely think Snape deserves respect.  I even think that in a unique sense, he shows an amazing capacity for love.  My problem is that people often make him out to be a saint who we should have been rooting for from the beginning, and that is going too far.  The whole reason the character is so fantastic and beloved is that he isn’t perfect.   

So what sticker do I want?  I want one that says “Snape is COMPLICATED, BRAVE, and in LOVE with Lily. Always.”