The HMS STFU - Post a comment
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June 19th, 2009
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| Silver Ink Pot/rattlesnakeroot never fails to bring the lulz: I'm going to ramble a bit about Jane Austen and Snape: I see Harry as more of an Emma, and I believe JKR even mentioned Emma as an inspiration. Harry is naive and sure of himself like Emma. And they both make mistakes have to eat some crow in order to grow up and gain wisdom. It's the people around them who have the drama although they do their part to set things in motion that they don't really understand. And that's where the big difference with Snape comes in. He is also full of confidence as a boy when he gets on the train to Hogwarts, but unlike Harry he loses his best friend and gains alot of bad friends. And then Snape's life goes downhill from there. You could say that Snape is something of an Eliza Bennett when he is young, even though she has a much happier ending. In Pride and Prejudice, Eliza constantly finds herself at a social disadvantage due to her embarrassing family and their lack of money. People are constantly putting her down for reasons that have nothing to do with her own worth - just as Slytherins are dismissed as evil, or Snape is taunted for his nose or gray underwear. Eliza is brilliant, but only her father seems aware of it, just as Slughorn seems to be the only one who was aware of Snape's intelligence. When Eliza holds her head high, she is thought to be getting above her station in life and bullies like Mr. Bingley's sisters have to put her in her place. Eliza is also very loyal refuses to believe all the bad things she is hearing about her friend Mr. Wickham, just as Snape won't believe what Lily says about Mulciber. So Lily plays the Mr. Darcy role in having this dark knowledge about Mulciber. But sadly, it's as if Darcy had already fallen in love with Miss Bingley and left Eliza standing there with no one left but Mr. Wickham. Yes, I think that analogy works. Lily had already fallen for James and left Snape without any friends except Mulciber and the other Slytherins. Both Snape and Eliza Bennett have to learn from hard experience just what bad people their so-called friends can be. I think that's why Eliza is a more realistic protagonist than the girl in Mansfield Park who is never fooled by anyone, and why Snape is sometimes more appealing than Harry. Sure, Harry is misled by people, but he is blessed with friends who never let him down and never betray him. He also never has to prove himself to anyone - they just accept him, while Snape feels he has to impress people by becoming a Death Eater, while Eliza is pressured to act a certain way to "catch" a rich husband. To wrap up my rambling: Of course, Eliza never sinks to the same level of Wickham, but then Snape also avoids using Unforgivables unlike Mulciber. Snape avoids prison thanks to Dumbledore, but I believe Snape also gave information that landed Mulciber in jail, which shows how much he changed from when he was a kid. The main thing is that both Eliza and Snape make a choice - Eliza refuses to either be a snob or to throw her life away like her sister Lydia, who runs away with Wickham. Something much worse happens to Snape when he tells the Prophecy to Voldemort and lives to regret it, but he also manages to redefine himself as a good guy while remaining the Half-Blood Prince from Spinner's End. ETA: One more thing . . . Eliza is wracked with guilt over the shotgun marriage of Lydia to Wickham. She feels responsible because of secret knowledge she had of Wickham which she never told anyone. That's a nifty literary parallel to Snape. Eliza couldn't control what Lydia did, or what Wickham did, but she still blames herself and only confiding in Mr. Darcy solves the problem. |
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