Satan's Spawn or Just Snape?

Blog 15

When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was first released, the big reveal was obviously the fact that Snape’s been a double agent this whole time because he was always in love with Lily. When this revolutionizing information was released, I feel like everyone immediately started worshiping Snape.

Everybody was so enthralled by the fact that Snape was secretly good the whole time, that they began to forget all the bad he had done that made us hate him to begin with. Snape was definitely a very complex character but I think people rush to immediately label him as either good or bad and they forget that there can be some sort of middle.

Snape was definitely no saint, but he definitely wasn’t Satan’s spawn like we had believed him to be previously. The entire time he truly was working for Dumbledore and following Dumbledore’s orders, but of course he had to make himself look evil so Voldemort and the Death Eaters would continue to trust him. Being driven by the underlying love he felt for Lily since they were young also has a pitying affect as well.

However, even if he was “good” you can’t just ignore his treatment of Harry and the rest of the Hogwarts students that occurred in the other six books. Snape was an adult who got joy from bullying and tormenting children. There’s absolutely no excuse for that. Even if you want to let him slide for his treatment of Harry since he hated James and basically blamed Harry for Lily’s death, the way he treated Hermione and Neville was absolutely unacceptable. Remember in Goblet of Fire when Malfoy hit Hermione with a curse to make her teeth even larger and Snape said he saw no difference? HE IS A GROWN MAN. Why would he ever make a comment like that to a teenage girl! It’s absolutely ridiculous.

Obviously, Dumbledore knew the whole time that Snape was a double agent. However, even though he knew Snape was good, he shouldn’t have allowed Snape to treat the students this way. Maybe Hogwarts doesn’t work the way muggle schools work, but if it got home to any parent that a teacher was treating their child this way, they would be fired on the spot! If Dumbledore ever had to fire Snape, his double agency would become almost useless considering one of the main reasons Voldemort needed him was his access to Hogwarts.

Lastly, Snape’s entire motivation was his love for Lily. First off, you’d think in the process of protecting her son, he would treat Harry at least a little bit better but whatever. Besides that, his everlasting, unrequited love for her is a bit stalkerish. When they were young it was cute. When they were in Hogwarts it was fine as well. But 20 years later I feel like the guy needs to move on. He can always have that love for Lily, but to never move past it becomes a little bit pathetic considering she never reciprocated it to begin with.

I’m not denying that what Snape did was heroic. He basically saved the wizarding world. However, overall I think he was definitely a morally gray character. Even though he did somethings that were absolutely great, he also did some very nasty things and I think at the end of the series, it can be easy to forget that.