Lorrie Kim - Snape: A Definitive Reading

The Harry Potter series may be named after the Boy Who Lived, but if you want to know the story, keep your eyes fixed on Snape. This hook-nosed, greasy-haired, grumpy character is one of J.K. Rowlings enduring gifts to English literature. Hes the archetypal ill-tempered teacher: acerbic, yet horribly, deliciously funny. When hes in a scene, you cant take your eyes off him. Snape is always the story.

In Snape, Rowling created a character of almost perfect ambiguity, a double agent who rose to become the right-hand man of both generals on opposing sides of a war. Hes at once self-controlled and seething with bitterness. Every sentence, every action has at least two possible and contradictory interpretations. The question of Snapes true loyalties is at the heart of the books mysteries. Is it possible, ever, to know what lies underneath his faade?

It is. With a close look at each of the books, everything about Snape becomes knowable.

Is he a classroom bully? Without a doubt. He can be unfair, petty, mocking, prone to blatant favoritismmany of the traits that schoolchildren most loathe. But underneath his scathing surface is someone who cares desperately, enough to devote his adult life to protecting everyone in his world, even those whom he dislikes. And he does this all undercover, pretending to be evil, accepting that he will live and die without the chance to defend himself and clear his name.

Do his accomplishments cancel out the cruel things hes done? Not at all, and that is part of the power of this character. He is often unlovable, immature, unattractive, not even kindbut he made something of himself. His story tells us that hope and greatness are for everybody, not only for those who have always been good. When we learn all the harm he did in his youth, we learn how to understand without excusing, how to give ourselves and others a second chance.

With all his ugly qualities, what makes this character a favorite with so many readers?

Hes smart. Hes competent. His sarcasm is funny and his bitterness can be bracing. He always knows what to do. Hes always there when you need him. There are things that only Snape can do. A wizard who has done evil and then felt remorse knows how to undo evil magic in a way that those who have always been good cannot know.

Hes hideous, bless him, and sensitive to indignities. He loathes being mocked, especially by children; everyone sees him seething. But in all things, he does as much as he can with what he has and no more. As an adult, he becomes, not attractive, but something. Potent. Magnetic. He commands attention. When he is brave, he is almost beautiful.

He is kind to mothers, even if not to their children. He risks his life to help them. He knows how it feels to be powerless or unwanted. As vicious as he can be, when lives are at stake, there is nothing he wont do to protect others.

For a close reader, the character of Snape is endlessly rewarding. Some mysteries are easily explained; some fizzle out. But the more you read Snape, the more you learn of him, the more thrilling he becomes.

Working for Dumbledore, he learns how to atone. He chooses what is right, never what is easy. He assumes a thankless life that guarantees he will be universally hated, universally mistaken for evil, and resists the human urge to protest his innocence. He withstands these tests, even when people cry out to him at their moment of death, because his commitment is to something greater. He forgoes recognition, forgoes adult love, turns his formidable gifts to pulling off the unspeakable under conditions that are unthinkableaccepting that his achievements will never be known. He will never claim the role of hero. Against all instinct, he wills himself to do what must be done. And we, the readers, are his witnesses. Of his many sacrifices, we see that the costliest was the renunciation of his human right to show his true self. He keeps his truths tightly hidden until his dying breath, when he is finally free to command the books hero: Look at me.