Why, exactly, does Rowling hate Snape so much?

[mary_j_59]

author mary-j-59
title Snape as wicked Stepmother?
type essay, gen, about 1,000 words
warnings, credits, etc G-rated, no warnings. Thanks to Swythyv, Bohemianspirit, and especially Jodel from aol and liznc for inspiring me and allowing me to quote them.

Comments

not so much wicked, as the image of the Dark Mother

[venturous1]

this makes so much sense to me. I have been mulling over the previous essay that suggests feminizing Snape is a way to diminish him, because these are in many ways the qualities that endear him to me. He is not hesitant to play the Dark Quiet one. There is nothing weak or fragile about a doe, I live surrounded by them. They are strong and fleet and fierce when they need to be. It's the way our culture sees these 'feminine' qualities as less valid that causes the problem.

As a goddess follower, I honor the Dark Mother, the mysterious teacher, keeper of secrets, powerful and frightening. No wonder I love him!

Re: not so much wicked, as the image of the Dark Mother

[mary_j_59]

Well, I can see your point! Perhaps especially because I(though in a different way) come from a spirituality that honors the feminine and sees it as powerful. But Snape is not *just* the dark mother; he actually also is the dark father. As I said before, he is the one person in the entire saga who expresses and unites masculine and feminine, magical and muggle, rational and emotional. And this is why I absolutely cannot see him as evil; as I said before, he has a capacity for wholeness and healing that no one else in the story begins to touch

Re: not so much wicked, as the image of the Dark Mother

[venturous1]

"It's not insignificant, I think, that the traditional, earth-mother housewife gets to kill the untraditional, childless woman. Why does Rowling do this? She's a woman! I do think liznc is right (or I am) and it is either unconscious self-hatred, or rejection of an aspect of the mother."

That sure has the ring of truth. Look at all the undeveloped females in the tale. Spinster professors, perfectionist Hermione, uber-femme Fleur, and the eccentric girls, Luna, Tonks, Bella. Gads, look what befalls author Bagshot, someone who's known for her writing rather than her family!

I know in my own journey, undoing the internalized oppression hasn't been quick or easy.

One thing though I want to laude Rowling for: elevating the Witch from ugly crone cliche to magical woman. That is actually a great step forward. I just wish The Brightest Witch of Her Age would be known for more than raising a brood of Weasleys!

Re: not so much wicked, as the image of the Dark Mother

[mary_j_59]

Yes, but as someone pointed out below, Snape is the ugly crone cliche!

I really don't think I like Rowling's attitude toward the feminine. I'm not sure I understand what she's doing here, but it feels unhealthy and wrong to me.

[sylvanawood]

That makes a lot of sense. I did have that same suspicion liznc had, but never quite knew how to word it. Projecting one's self-hatred on someone else does make a lot of sense in that context and I always wondered how we could love a character so much that was written by her (so is from her, part of her), yet hated by her so much. I almost feel paranoid herself. Looking it from that angle: I like a part of her that she apparently hates, makes a lot more sense to me and makes me feel less, err, crazy.

I do have to think some more about the stepmother thing. Looking at his apparent death scene, I think you have something there.

[mary_j_59]

Well - having seen what liznc and jodel have to say, and having thought that through and accepted it, actually makes me like the books even less, if you can believe it. Because I'm really, really uncomfortable with Rowling's rejection of the feminine. Note: Tolkien, that very traditional, old-fashioned, male author, *does not do this*. The feminine, nurturing aspects of Aragorn, Faramir, Frodo and Sam are what make them fit for leadership!

But I'm glad you liked the essay. There's clearly something deeply personal going on with Rowling's rejection of Snape.

[montavilla]

Yeah, but bah! That's what I couldn't stand about the LOTR books. No girls!

Yeah, yeah. We see a couple female elves and Eowyn. But that's it!

[mary_j_59]

I see your point. I really do. But (1), as a child, I had no trouble identifying with the hobbits, and then (2) as a slightly older child, I loved Eowyn so much! I still do, in fact; she's actually a very believable adolescent whose reactions I can understand. Finally, though the women in Tolkien are very traditional and also few and far between, all of them, without exception, are capable, and all of them speak truth to power.

Of course, I brought up Tolkien here because he is extremely traditional and conservative. Yet, even so, he does not seem to despise the feminine the way Rowling does.

[mary_j_59]

You must be a very nice person! At the end of DH, I couldn't really feel sorry for Voldemort, mostly because he wasn't really human to me (and he'd killed Snape

[pythia_delphi]

"She drops all the themes and characterizations" *nods head vigorously*

And generously sprinkes deux ex machinas instead! The reason these books meant so much to me were that I LOVED her characters, and not just Snape! And they all just fell apart in DH, most doing complete about turns, and after the dust from all the whirlwind action had settled, I just felt so empty.

I can't believe her editors didn't get off their asses and DO THEIR JOB!!! Why bother, when everyone's going to buy the book anyway, right?

[praize]

Oh yes, I wholeheartedly agree, especially on why DH doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the books. It's a fascinating find that Rowling really only started dealing with her mother's death in the final book and put that on the forefront. I, like many fans, expected a well-thought-of story that closed the already started story lines, Snape's being one of the major ones, but instead we got a sort of psychoramble that attempted to solve and explain the problem of suffering and all that

[mary_j_59]

Thanks for your comment. I agree with everything you say here. And "Harry is just very good?" Ugh! Not that he's a monster or anything, but really! Harry?

Re: OMG!

[praize]

That's an interesting idea. However, I always thought she only had the last part of book 7 written, which is the Epilogue, because it supposedly spurred her on towards the goal of finishing the books. Somehow I doubt she wrote much of book 7 first, because her style was much snappier and better in the first books, and the plot and the text started getting drawn-out and more convoluted from book 5 onwards. I doubt we'll ever find out the truth, though.

[anonymous]

praize I totally agree with you. the absent of Snape/Harry confrontation is a terrible let down of book 7. I still remember when I read book 7, waiting to get to that part and it never coming...then Snape died...and i just screaming...WHAT?!! THAT IT??!!!

Then not to mention the lack of 'reflection moment' on Harry part where he suppost to realise that he was wrong about Snape. Then the lack of mention of Snape till the end. The 'Albus severus' does not count because Albus Severus is never Severus Snape.

Well that is the first and the last time I touch book 7. I never open it again since 21/7, that is how dissipointent I am with it.

Then come JK interview where she said Snape is 'not hero', he 'sidistic', 'hate harry till the end', 'bully' etc that I just cannot stumack it anymore. I just want to scream to JK to "Shut Up!!"

I sware, if movie 7 copy exacly the storyline of book 7 without correcting this mistake, I will never going to forgive the director/producer

[mary_j_59]

I agree with both of you, and won't spend another penny on this franchise. (Except, alas, that I will have to buy the dvds for my library. I am not sure I'll be able to make myself watch them. OTOH, I'm looking forward to Prince Caspian with bated breath!)

[brainorgan]

Prince Caspian! *gasp* bated breath continues unabated

[praize]

I haven't read the book more than once either. As a R/Hr shipper I've checked out some R/Hr moments, but that's about it. I can't bring myself to read the book because with so little and such awful Snape scenes, my reason for reading the book is gone. Snape was that reason to a great degree.