Is Severus Snape's story more powerful if his motivation was initially Lily?

[fatairuq.livejournal.com]

I have loved Severus since I first read the Harry Potter books. Before the Snape discourse in Tumblr, I basically felt annoyed at how J K Rowling (JKR from here on) explained his motivations in DH. As someone who has gone through everything he went through except for poverty, I felt that she robbed us off one of the most important representations abuse and bullying survivors ever. You see prior to the Prince's Tale, Severus was angry and bitter even his thirties, he was competent in his line of work as a Professor, Potioneer and spy, he fell in with a fascist cult in order to survive and get ahead in life, and then he redeemed himself. He's everything survivors aren't allowed to be. He is the epitome of Bad Victim. To be Good Victims, we're supposed to forgive those who hurt us, be kind and compassionate to everyone without fail, work in small business or social work because we're not cut out for anything bigger, and while we are expected to help ourselves without support systems, we need someone us to guide us to redemption.

After the discourse which highlighted Severus' association with Lily to a ridiculous level, I hated that chapter even more. I could understand Severus loving Lily for years after her death because she seemed to be the only who gave half a crap about him but enduring torture, hate and even killing someone he cared about just for Lily? It felt so cheap. JKR didn't seem to think a Slytherin could do good and if they do it's for a Gryffindor. She takes this complex character, one of the few in her books, and constantly reduces his reasons to Lily and Severus' bitter, petty tendencies. It was maddening. I spent hours thinking about it and I'm starting to change my mind.

The truth is people don't trust survivors. It's why so many villains are survivors of some kind of violence. They think we're backstabbers and that we are taught to be selfish and violent. In pop culture Bad Victims aren't often loyal to anyone but themselves and if they are it's usually loyalty to another antagonist. Severus Snape is different. The people he is loyal to are considered the best people in canon. Lily is practically a saint and Dumbledore is a deity. Severus' loyalty is steadfast and it helps him do a lot of good. It could potentially be a powerful story on its own.

The problem is I'm not sure. I could be forcing myself to justify what felt like the flattest part of the series. What do you guys think?

Comments

[germankitty]

Is it just me, or did you possibly forget a tag or something? Because when I click on the cut, there's nothing there ... and without that, it looks as if a goodly part of your argument is missing, sorry.

[fatairuq.livejournal.com]

No, there's nothing missing. I accidently put a cut and every time I try to edit it out, all my work disappears.

[germankitty]

Oh, okay. Thanks for the info!

[star-dragon5.livejournal.com]

I don't even like Snape and that reveal felt like a cheap cop-out.

[fatairuq.livejournal.com]

It would have been amazing to see someone who didn't like Harry and had no connection to him being his biggest protector. It felt especially annoying because Severus' relationship with Lily didn't even look good in the flashbacks. It seemed like they didn't like each other very much.

I'm trying to think of this in terms of representation though. It's no surprise that queer people, mentally ill people and/or abuse survivors gravitate towards villains who are, like I said, Bad Victims. It would have been great to see Severus being on the side of good and his heroism supported by his deeds rather than his love for Lily.

[star-dragon5.livejournal.com]

I agree with all of this.

[darth-eldritch.livejournal.com]

Tbh, I never liked the entire Snape/Lily thing.

[star-dragon5.livejournal.com]

Me neither.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/I could understand Severus loving Lily for years after her death because she seemed to be the only who gave half a crap about him/

I don't, because of how shoddily she treated him after they entered Hogwarts. If Snape still hates James because of how James treated him in high school, then he ought to hate Lily even more, because at least James never pretended to be his friend. Lily and Severus were supposedly best friends, and yet she had no problem ignoring him and then flouncing out on him while his bully was humiliating him in public. And then, after he tried to apologize to her, she refused to listen to him and turned her back on him, and *then* turned around and dated his bully. For someone who can be as bitter as Snape, I'd think that a false friend would be worse than an honest enemy.

/enduring torture, hate and even killing someone he cared about just for Lily?/

Not to mention that that explanation doesn't even match up with what we've seen him do in earlier books. When McGonagall says that a student has been taken down into the Chamber of Secrets, Snape grips his chair in alarm. How was that because of Lily? Snape tries to watch out for Draco in HBP, was that only because of Lily too?

And it negates the message of the ending reveal of PS/SS too. Harry was convinced that Snape was the mastermind behind everything because Snape was a mean and unpleasant person. But then he and the reader learn that, no, Snape was actually trying to stop Quirrell. Therefore, the lesson is that just because someone is unpleasant doesn't necessarily mean that they're an evil person.

But now? No, the only reason that a harsh and nasty man could ever do the right thing is because he had an unrequited crush.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

For someone who can be as bitter as Snape, I'd think that a false friend would be worse than an honest enemy.

Much worse. She was his friend, we're shown their friendship as children. She grew apart from him, then turned her back on him, which he would see as a betrayal.

Therefore, the lesson is that just because someone is unpleasant doesn't necessarily mean that they're an evil person. *snip* No, the only reason that a harsh and nasty man could ever do the right thing is because he had an unrequited crush.

Right. The 'mean teacher' isn't mean because he or she likes to torture students, it's because he or she is concerned about the student's progress. Might not be as dramatic as fighting trolls and evil masterminds plastered to the back of someone's head, but it's a reason that has to do with the teacher's core motivations and nothing to do with the student's sainted parents or some other outside force. Totally negates the 'mean teacher's' self-actualization.

I did see Severus/Lily coming up from the minute Petunia refused to specify who that 'awful boy' was. Seemed like a good 'gotcha' reveal. Her switch from her childhood friend to his bully (and I didn't see James as a continuing bully character, but that happened) came out of left field for me.

[sunnyskywalker]

Part of the problem was just how few pages JKR tried to cram this whole subplot into, also. That made it feel extra flat. Just think if Harry had found out that Snape and Lily had been childhood friends in HBP instead, and Harry had time to wonder what exactly had happened and how much he didn't know. Finding out that Snape was the one who gave Voldemort the prophecy would have made him seem that much more like a clear villain--he was so mad about his friend ditching him that he got her and her husband killed, how evil can you get! Then the reveal of his true loyalties and affections would have been more powerful after the buildup.

But also, this would have given more time to hint at things like whether he had motivations besides Lily. Which would have made it much less flat as well, because how often to people have only one single motivation driving them for 16 years?

[fatairuq.livejournal.com]

You're right. There are about three instances that we see that Snape might have other motivation. The CoS one you mentioned, Snape trying to save Remus and “Lately, only those whom I could not save.”

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

A live journal friend, Sionna Raven, pointed out what's really going on with Lily/Snape. It's not that he's still carrying a torch for her. After all, she's dead. It's that he is absolutely haunted by guilt, and trying to find his way forward in the face of that guilt. I actually find that a very believable motivation. What's awful is that Dumbledore continually plays on Severus's guilt and keeps him from moving forward.

Of course, the other thing that's going on is that Lily/Severus is a cut-rate version of Catherine/Heathcliff. In some ways, both Lily and Severus are better people than Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and the story doesn't map exactly onto Wuthering Heights. But it's closer than you might think!

[fatairuq.livejournal.com]

I would have loved it if it was guilt. Guilt is a powerful motivator and it adds layers to Snape's character but JKR (and Pottermore) keeps insisting that it was love.

Edit: I just remembered that she mentioned guilt in her Twitter 'defense' of Snape but the love part is far more emphasised in all her interviews and the Pottermore articles.

Guilt stems from love--

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

At least in this case. And, as both a writer and a reader, I strongly believe in the "death of the author". Rowling does not get to dictate how her books are interpreted once they are published. That Severus acts out of guilt and grief makes sense of the character and fits what we see in the books. It doesn't matter in the least whether J.K. Rowling agrees.