So, I had a review on ffnet that made me wonder.

[of_anoesis]

It wasn't a nasty review, by any stretch. I was just someone giving their opinion about how Severus Snape would act. An opinion which was was different to my own - shock horror - but the examples they used...

They said: "I can see Snape as a spy, I can see him as a killer, I can see him writing sonnets to Lily and then tossing them in the

Comments

[hbart]

Come sweep me off my feet.

(Well, if it hasn't happened yet, it probably isn't going to). But really, I love this question. I can see the swearing issue going either way. Let me think about a real answer ...

[of_anoesis]

Never give up hope on the sweeping!

I look forward to your thinky thoughts :)

[mimimanderly]

Fuck the reviewer! I'm a "woman of a certain age" who lives in a suburb and I could curse the pants off anyone I know! Certainly Snape would use the word "fuck". He might save it for when he was REALLY pissed off instead of indiscriminately like I do, but it's just a word, after all. I know of people who don't like to swear because they see it as something only people who don't possess a large vocabulary would do. Snape might fall into that category. But I think even if he did, he would certainly deem it acceptable to use on some occasions.

As to the one thing he would never do.... I sometimes have read stories where he acts overly romantic, and I just don't see him that way. He may love someone dearly, but I don't think that he would go over-the-top with the hearts and flowers. It's just such a girly way of acting, and I don't see him as behaving like a love-struck pre-pubescent girl.

[of_anoesis]

Oh, mimi, I adore your way with words :)

Yeah, teen girl romance does seem unlikely... probably penned by teen girls as well.

I always find it jarring when Snape confesses every single feeling to a diary or an small (Hermione animagus) creature that's suddenly appeared in his home. It seems a bit out of character for a spy who couldn't even admit to liking Lily Evans until his death bed.

[mimimanderly]

Technically, it was a Death Floor, not a Death Bed... but I get your drift.... ;-)

[hbart]

Oooh, that's a good one. Of course I could play devil's advocate and say that perhaps he has no experience in these matters and no male role models to follow in how a man could/should woo a woman. And if he really wants her, he might go over the top romantic thinking that is what she would want based on television or watching adolescents around him.. Still, one has to think that he just might feel too silly with romantic gestures to do them, even if they seem like the thing to do. Yeah, I see your point on this one.

[moreteadk]

My husband says he has never heard his father swear. 'Oh heck' was about the strongest he could come up with having heard his father say. It's just not a part of who he is. But then again, he (my father in law) is older than Severus, brought up in a home where this was Not Done and a regular church goer. Husband himself does sometimes, although rarely and he has heard his mother do it in a rare moment of anger (I haven't), but never my father in law

[of_anoesis]

*nods* my mum will not swear, ever. I think in moments of extreme duress she might give in and mutter something like 'bugger' but it's rare. Plus she was very properly brought up, church, girl guides, the lot. My dad on the other hand doesn't swear because mum doesn't like it, but if she's not there he can and will. I imagine Snape's upbringing was more like my dad's than my mum's...

[arynwy]

I'm going with the concept that canon!Snape doesn't swear because it's a children's book and we mostly only get to view him via Harry's POV.

However, do you remember the way he totally lost it at the end of the Time-turner incident, the Pensieve worst memory, and when Harry chased him down after he AK'd Dumbledore? Now that is a man that is capable of swearing! Oh! It was inferred that he swore in the Worst Memory scene - Sirius or James had him eating soap over something he'd said... and Mudblood was a swear as well. Ha!

Anyway, you can't make me believe that he didn't say more than a few choice words of the more colorful, lowly sort behind closed doors. Snape really strikes me as someone who wouldn't swear in front of his students, but would not hold back in choice situations with others. Especially if he were very stressed or relaxed. I have a friend that came from a background similar to his and he strives to be very proper in his speech, but loses the battle under extreme stress or comfort.

[of_anoesis]

Of course, Mudblood is a swearword! And a really horrid one - clever you!

I agree with you about him losing it in times of high emotion - canon shows it, and I love fanfic that shows him getting all Northern when he's angry. I have a friend who becomes very welsh when drunk, so yeah, completely.

[sixpence_jones]

All the Welsh get very Welsh when drunk :)

[of_anoesis]

Hee! Her mum's from Hemel Hempstead and she normally sounds more English than me. The only time I've ever heard her be Welsher is when we wandered into Wakefield museum and there was a display about the miners strikes. She's not impressed with Yorkshire miners.

[crmediagal]

I can see him going either way. Considering his background, I can see him swearing, though, naturally, not around his students. I think you're fine to have let him drop the F bomb. In some stories, I've done it and in others I haven't. I don't see one as wrong and the other correct; it's part of what makes him such a complex, intricate, compelling character.

[of_anoesis]

I think you're right, it all depends on how you're writing him at the time... Although a hugely important character, he's given so little time in the books, which gives you a huge amount of leeway to write him yet remain true to what is already there.

And he's so much fun to play with!

[crmediagal]

Which is why that reviewer's take is a humorous one. It's fine if you can't picture him swearing, but don't knock it simply because you lack the vision. When you stop and think about it, we know so little about him, which leaves him open to a wide variety of interpretations. :)