Reminds Me of HP ~ Cyrano de Bergerac
It's not too difficult to see Severus Snape as Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmund Rostand - it's as plain as the nose on his . . . well, you get it, I'm sure.
This first scene I'm posting combines a sword fight with a "fop" who is very much like Gilderoy Lockhart during the dueling scene in Chamber of Secrets. Cyrano (played by the fabulous Derek Jacobi ( Read more... )
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Oh good grief! The last time I checked this it looked fine, but something's gone wrong since then. Sorry!
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I fixed the HTML and now you should be able to watch the second video with the death of Cyrano. I must have screwed it up while editing somehow.
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But--I guess that Cyrano, too, was just obsessed: a creepy stalker, just like Snape. I bet fans of Cyrano are misogynists, too.
Whoops. That darn */sarcasm/* lock was on again.
On a serious note, I like the self-deprecating note Cyrano makes about crying, mocking how "vilely suited" a tear running down his long nose would be. Perceptive of Rostrand, to be able to have Cyrano realize how cold, hard-hearted, judgmental bullies would view the grief of an ugly man--something to mock and see as a negative....Exactly how nitwits view the scene from "The Prince's Tale" that depicts Snape's weeping over Lily's letter.
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I had the same thought about the second video (which makes me cry every time I watch it). Roxanne says that Cyrano has been her friend for 15 years - hanging around, talking to her, visiting, telling her jokes. What a horrible, horrible man to stalk her that way! Clearly friendship is a form of mental illness.
I'm sure that's what JKR meant in all her interviews as well as the books. *nods head*
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Here's a nice quote from the text that reminds me of Snape and the effect Lily had on him:
Each glance of thine awakes in me a virtue,--
A novel, unknown valor. Dost begin, sweet,
To understand? So late, dost understand me?
That whole idea of love being "too late" and unrequited, and yet Cyrano doesn't change, and indeed, he can't change his course not because he obsessed or insane, but because he has internalized his love and it has become part of his personality - the hidden part but also the valiant part.
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(oh yeah, college)
Ok, CAPSLOCK time over. Swooning time begins now. *swoon* I've always loved this comparison and think it is SO apt. They both have the nose, the gift for snark, the pride, the unrequited love...
One passage you didn't mention that I think is SO Snape is the following:
LE BRET:
But this is madness!
CYRANO:
Method, let us say.
It is my pleasure to displease. I love
Hatred. Imagine how it feels to face
The volley of a thousand angry eyes -
The bile of envy and the froth of fear
Spattering little drops about me
....
The Spanish ruff I wear around my throat
Is like a ring of enemies; hard, proud,
Each point another pride, another thorn -
So that I hold myself erect perforce
Wearing the hatred of the common herd
Haughtily, the harsh collar of Old Spain,
At once a fetter and - a halo!
LE BRET (after a silence, then sadly)
Yes
Tell this to all the world - And then, to me
Say, very softly, that she loves you not.
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