Severus Snape: A Tragic Hero

Hook nosed. Sallow skinned. Greasy haired. Black eyes that are cold and empty and put one in mind of dark tunnels. This is how the world was first introduced to Severus Snape.

I was intrigued by Snape when I first read Philosopher's Stone. Just who was this cruel Potions Master who seemed to have had a major lapse in judgment when he picked his career, and who secretly helped out Harry whenever he could? And why was he so bitter?

Let's do a quick rundown, shall we? I find that a no frills, unordered list will do just fine:

  • Son of a witch and a muggle who largely neglected him
  • Befriended Lily Evans, a muggle-born witch, and fell in love with her
  • Lashed out at anyone who threatened or insulted him
  • Was thrilled to go to Hogwarts and start his new life, not realizing that his defensiveness and lack of social skills was going to make for a depressing 7 years
  • Sorted into Slytherin...very disappointed that Lily was sorted into Gryffindor, but still wanted to be her best friend
  • Wound up being one of the smartest students in Hogwarts history
  • Tormented and humiliated by bullies James Potter and Sirius Black, merely because he existed
  • Developed an interest in the Dark Arts, Death Eaters, and Voldemort
  • Started hanging out with the wrong crowd
  • Lost Lily as a friend due to these new interests as well as his prejudice against muggle-borns
  • Graduated Hogwarts, became a Death Eater
  • Overheard part of a prophecy that predicted a boy would be born with the power to vanquish Voldemort...ran to Voldemort with the news
  • The boy of the prophecy is born to Lily Evans and James Potter
  • Begged Voldemort to spare Lily's life...devastated when Voldemort did not
  • Secretly left the Death Eaters and swore his allegiance to Dumbledore, as well as his vow to protect Lily's son
  • Became the Potions Master at Hogwarts, even though he really wanted to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts
  • Hated Harry Potter on sight pretty much only because Harry was the spitting image of James
  • Didn't fail to notice, however, that Harry had his mother's eyes
  • Became a double-agent after Voldemort's rebirth...pretending to serve Voldemort but in reality serving Dumbledore and protecting Harry



Okay, I think we can stop there. If you're actually taking the time to read this, chances are you know all of this already.

I've often wondered how Snape would have reacted had Harry been born a girl with a striking resemblance to Lily. I believe his attitude would have been entirely different...I think he would have had an instant affection for her and perhaps even a fatherly sort of love. This was Lily's child, not Potter's. This was not a boy who looked exactly like Snape's tormentor from years past. But all of this points to Snape's pettiness...he assumes that Harry is "his father all over again" merely because Harry looks like James. He can't see past that irrelevant exterior to Harry's true nature, which is kind, humble, and very often selfless.

And for someone who was bullied as a child, Snape appears to have learned nothing. He bullies Gryffindors for the simple fact that they are Gryffindors. He gives Harry detention after undeserved detention, he mocks him in front of the class, he belittles him every chance he gets. He refers to Neville as an "idiot child" because Neville happened to screw up a potion on his FIRST DAY in class...and unfortunately for Neville, this was only the beginning of the degrading treatment he'd receive from the Potions Master. (Let us not forget that when a boggart takes the form of Neville's worst fear in Prisoner of Azkaban, it becomes Snape.) But most unforgiveable of all, arguably, is what Snape utters to Hermione in Goblet of Fire, after an errant spell causes her two front teeth to grow all the way down past her chin:

"I see no difference."

Hermione, who had always been rather buck-toothed, turns away crying.

When Snape was a kid himself, he was tormented ad nauseum about his greasy hair and hooked nose. Snape knows exactly how awful it feels to be made fun of in this fashion. He knows that his comment will cut to the bone, that it won't be something Hermione just forgets (even if, when she had her teeth restored by Madame Pomfrey, she actually shrunk them down smaller than their original size to give herself a prettier smile). And yet he says it anyway, to a girl who has never been cruel to him in any way. He says it knowing the damage it will cause, and we can assume he never felt the slightest shred of remorse. And why? Because she's a Gryffindor. Because she's Harry's friend. Because she's an insufferable know-it-all. Who cares if her feelings are hurt?

Why did Snape never stop to think about how Lily would react to this behavior? Did it never cross his mind even once how disgusted she would have been?

There was one hateful word he never uttered, however. Even when he was headmaster at Hogwarts, he refused to allow the word "Mudblood" to be spoken. But was this about the cruelty of the term itself or was it that his own use of this word destroyed his friendship with Lily? Their friendship was already deteriorating due to Snape's fascination with the Dark Arts and Voldemort, not to mention the shady people with whom he'd been hanging around. But the final nail in the coffin for Lily was Snape's burst of anger in which he called her a Mudblood. He knew instantly it was a mistake. He tried to apologize and was desperate for her forgiveness, but Lily had had enough. Why should it matter, she reasoned, if he was sorry for this, when he would gladly fling the term at any other muggle-borns?

I think the pain of knowing that he ruined their friendship (along with hurting her so deeply) was worse - far worse - than the pain he must have experienced when she eventually hooked up with James Potter. He had no control over the latter. But the former...he had all the control there. He could have prevented it.

There were almost no surprises for me when the truths about Snape were revealed at the end of Deathly Hallows. I think we all guessed no later than Order of the Phoenix that he'd been in love with Lily. And everything else - Dumbledore having asked Snape to kill him, Snape's double-agent mission, the doe patronus belonging to him - was expected. The only thing that came as a surprise was the friendship Severus and Lily had had. I had guessed they might have been acquaintances, nothing more, and that he loved her from afar. His knowing her even before they left for Hogwarts was a delightful discovery.

Actually, no, there was one more surprise, and that was Snape's brutal death at the fangs of Nagini. I knew he would die in the seventh book (I just really couldn't see him surviving) but I never predicted that scene. It was so creepy and sudden and strange that I didn't even react to it straightaway. I didn't know how to react. Voldemort kills Snape in the Shrieking Shack because he believes this will give him power over the Elder Wand? There was nothing shocking about Voldemort doing such a thing, even though he still believed Snape was truly loyal. It probably never even crossed his mind that you don't actually have to kill your opponent to gain control of their wand; all you have to do is disarm them. It's Voldemort, after all, someone who's split his soul so many times that even the vaguest sense of goodness no longer resides anywhere inside. He's not the sort who would stop and say, "Hmmm...do I really have to kill Snape? There must be another way, right? Oh yeah...disarming him would probably work."

So no, Snape's murder by Voldemort in this fashion isn't the surprising part. It's the sheer quietness of the scene. Snape doesn't go out in a blaze of glory. He's killed for the sake of convenience, entirely separate from the battle of Hogwarts. He doesn't even know anyone other than Voldemort witnessed his death until Harry, Ron, and Hermione come out of hiding. Though he can barely speak, one almost gets the sense that Snape's hatred of Harry melts away right here, that he's seeing clearly for the first time. He doesn't waste his breath on anything trivial. "Take it," he whispers twice, referring to his memories. And then he murmurs, "Look at me..."

Originally, I'd assumed Snape's last words were connected with the memories he had just given Harry. Take this to the pensieve, watch my memories, see who I really am, look at me. Hours after finishing the book, I realized that wasn't what he meant. He literally meant look at me...look at me so the last thing I see before I die can be Lily's eyes...

That's when I started to cry buckets.

Odd thing, that. What was it about Severus Snape that was so heartbreaking? Here was a man who was appallingly cruel to his students. A man who should have been filled to the brim with empathy and yet never showed a trace of it. A bigot (well, formerly anyway) and a hypocrite, and petty beyond all reason. He became a Death Eater, served Voldemort, and wasted no time before running off to his master with the news of a prophesized child who might prove a threat. Snape's behavior cannot be excused by his poor upbringing, nor can it be excused by his torment at the hands of James and Sirius. And then there's the most unsettling question of all: if Lily had never died, never even been threatened...if the prophecy had referred to Neville or another child...would Snape have remained a Death Eater for the rest of his life?

I mulled over that one for some time. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion (though I will accept it if others violently disagree with me) that he would not have stayed a Death Eater, and there's one reason, just one, why I believe this.

Snape was always trying to be something he wasn't. He was starved - due to being so thoroughly neglected in his childhood - for attention, for validation. This desire was made all the worse by the fact that he was a really smart kid and ultimately a brilliant wizard. His true value was recognized by Lily, but this wasn't enough for him. He needed more. And he fell in with the wrong crowd, not realizing how worthless his pursuits would wind up being, not realizing that the only genuine thing he had was his friendship with Lily...and his love for her.

Outside of Regulus Black, we saw just one other Death Eater betray Voldemort, and this betrayal also came from love. After Voldemort cast the killing curse on Harry, he ordered Narcissa Malfoy to see if Harry was indeed dead. Upon discovering that Harry lived, Narcissa asked him (in a whisper, of course) if Draco was alive and in the castle. When Harry confirmed it, Narcissa sat up and announced to Voldemort and the Death Eaters alike that Harry was dead. If she'd told the truth, she wouldn't have been permitted to enter Hogwarts and find her son. She betrayed Voldemort all for her love of Draco. It's a cliché that's been rammed down our throats for centuries, but it happens to be true: love conquers all. And it's for this reason that I believe Snape would have ultimately fled Voldemort and the Death Eaters (or, at the very least, become a really pathetic Death Eater who never did much or followed orders or hung around with Voldy and the other Death Eaters...and been killed for it after awhile). Snape loved Lily Evans. He was not infatuated with her, he loved her. He loved her so deeply that after her death (which he considered himself responsible for), he spent the rest of his life protecting her son and engaging in a deadly game of deception with Voldemort. There was nothing for him to gain from this. Lily was gone; it wasn't as though he could impress her or win her love. He did it because it was the last thing he could do for her. He did it because nobody else could. He did it because he never stopped loving her.

True, it took the trauma and horror of her death for Snape to turn against Voldemort and become possibly the bravest hero in the series. And without that death, no, he would never have risked his life to take down the Dark Lord. But Snape's love for Lily, which was so deep and so pure, existed long before her murder. And I find it hard to believe that a person capable of such love (which he was ultimately willing to die for) could continue to serve a shell of a human being, one who would never feel or understand love at all. Granted, it might have taken Snape a long time to think, "You know, recognition for my talents is great and all, but maybe it doesn't mean anything when I'm being recognized by this guy." But it would have happened eventually. The loneliness of his existence also might have struck him at some point. It's very likely that the first thing Snape ever wanted in life (and never stopped wanting) was friends. That's why he latched onto Lily when he discovered she was a witch - here was potential for a great friend. Snape never found friends in the Death Eaters, only acquaintances. No one who really cared about him.

So now, going all the way back to the original question I posed before this lengthy and obnoxious digression: why did Snape's death, or more appropriately his life, break my heart?

Maybe it's because under that cold exterior, under the cruelty and the pettiness and every last crappy thing he did, I see a scrawny little boy who wanted a friend, and who fell in love with the first and only friend he had. I see the agony he lived with every day as a result of losing her, of the pain he caused her, of having served the creature who murdered her. I see a man who conjured a doe for his patronus, because that's what she conjured, and I don't wonder what he thought of to make the spell successful. But almost more than anything, I see crippling loneliness. Before he went to Hogwarts, he had no control over it. But in his school years and certainly in his adulthood, this loneliness was avoidable. And if he understood that, he never tried to change it. He thought it better to remain in the fortress he'd built around himself, to lash out at students rather than trying to relate to them, to hide his truest nature, which was selfless and brave. In fact, he begged for Dumbledore's word not to share this truth with anyone.

"My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?"

It's the contrast, I think, that makes it so poignant. A cold and bitter man having one last wish before he dies...to see the eyes of the woman he loved more than anything in the world.

J.K. Rowling once described Snape as "a gift of a character". He's actually more than this. Severus Snape is a character who will forever inspire writers to write.