Grab Your Pitchforks, Because This Paper is an Unpopular Opinion Lost love, tragic backstory, and a generally sardonic outlook on life— the perfect formula for a beloved character. Chances are, when you read that description, you thought of a specific character from your favorite novel. If you read the title of this paper, you probably thought of a specific character from a specific novel, that character being Severus Snape. Now Professor Snape has a very passionate fan base. Just utter the word “always” and you will hear someone Harry Potter fans squeal and begin raving about Snape. But why? Is it because of his tragic past? Is it because he was bullied and readers relate to him? Would they love him if he were a real person? I want you to
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“But Snape loved Lily! It was love! James stole her!” Let me explain something— love and obsession are not the same thing. Snape showed more characteristics of obsession than love. He isn’t just obsessed with his love of Lily though; he is consumed by his obsession of hatred for James and his friends. Severus Snape spends almost his whole life feeling grief over Lily and resentment for James. Now you could argue that his resentment for James stemmed from his days of being bullied. But does that really make it justified? And even if it did stem entirely from his days of being bullied (which it doesn’t), you still have to acknowledge his obsession over Lily. We all know the story. Snape and Lily are best friends when they start at Hogwarts. Snape gets bullied by James and his buddies. At some point in their time at Hogwarts, Snape begins studying dark magic, he insults Lily, and their friendship ends forever. That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t. Snape literally spends the rest of his life wallowing in pity about Lily. “Oh, but he even changes his patronus to match hers because love!” Again, no. This is another sign of obsession. He’s trying to match Lily, to commemorate her. James on the other hand, has …show more content…
It had the perfect amount of turmoil and tragedy to create a tragically adored character. It was enough for heaps of people to rush to the defensive of Snape and turn their backs on years of hatred towards the character. If people could pull that in the real world, life would be a lot easier. But that’s not how the real world works. You can’t yell at children and be vindictive your whole life and claim it was because the girl of your dreams left you for the guy that bullied you. Furthermore, Snape’s backstory has some serious holes in it. We only see a small chunk of it via flashbacks. This means that a.) we saw Snape’s past from Snape’s viewpoint, giving it a huge bias, and b.) we don’t know his whole past. We were shown the specific points in his past that would make us feel sympathetic towards him. We weren’t shown the times he murdered innocent people, the times to tortured people for information, the times he practiced dark magic on other students (sectumsempra had to tested on someone at some point) during his time at Hogwarts. Who knows what other dark secrets his past
“But Snape loved Lily! It was love! James stole her!” Let me explain something— love and obsession are not the same thing. Snape showed more characteristics of obsession than love. He isn’t just obsessed with his love of Lily though; he is consumed by his obsession of hatred for James and his friends. Severus Snape spends almost his whole life feeling grief over Lily and resentment for James. Now you could argue that his resentment for James stemmed from his days of being bullied. But does that really make it justified? And even if it did stem entirely from his days of being bullied (which it doesn’t), you still have to acknowledge his obsession over Lily. We all know the story. Snape and Lily are best friends when they start at Hogwarts. Snape gets bullied by James and his buddies. At some point in their time at Hogwarts, Snape begins studying dark magic, he insults Lily, and their friendship ends forever. That should have been the end of it, but it wasn’t. Snape literally spends the rest of his life wallowing in pity about Lily. “Oh, but he even changes his patronus to match hers because love!” Again, no. This is another sign of obsession. He’s trying to match Lily, to commemorate her. James on the other hand, has …show more content…
It had the perfect amount of turmoil and tragedy to create a tragically adored character. It was enough for heaps of people to rush to the defensive of Snape and turn their backs on years of hatred towards the character. If people could pull that in the real world, life would be a lot easier. But that’s not how the real world works. You can’t yell at children and be vindictive your whole life and claim it was because the girl of your dreams left you for the guy that bullied you. Furthermore, Snape’s backstory has some serious holes in it. We only see a small chunk of it via flashbacks. This means that a.) we saw Snape’s past from Snape’s viewpoint, giving it a huge bias, and b.) we don’t know his whole past. We were shown the specific points in his past that would make us feel sympathetic towards him. We weren’t shown the times he murdered innocent people, the times to tortured people for information, the times he practiced dark magic on other students (sectumsempra had to tested on someone at some point) during his time at Hogwarts. Who knows what other dark secrets his past