On the Character of Snape in Harry Potter Series2.doc

on the character of snape in harry potter series contentsabstract摘 要chapter 1 introduction1chapter 2 the progress of snapes character32.1 snapes childhood32.2 snape and slytherin52.3 snapes eyes6chapter 3 snapes relationship83.1 lilys influence on snape83.1.1 snapes frustrated love83.1.2 snapes redeem103.2 snape and his students133.3 snape and dumbledore13chapter 4 conclusion16references17acknowledgements18abstractthe harry potter books illustrate the challenges and adventures of growing up. rowling outlines every childs ordeal of becoming an individual, winning respect from peers, learning about loyalty, discovering the difference between forgivable vices and unforgivable sins, and believing in something bigger than oneself.in j.k rowlings story, severus snape, the head of slytherin house and the potion master, is a heroic tragic character. this thesis is divided into two parts: the first part discussed the discord in snapes family during his childhood which caused a closed heart and a somber and bizarre in snapes personality. what he had experienced also led to an insecure, vulnerable adult snape. so he craved membership of something big and powerful, something impressive: firstly, the dark art, then the dark lord voldemort. he had been eager to get others recognition, winning the respect of others. the second part explored snapes mature in psychological through the discussion of his relationship. snape began looking forward to a bright new start in life when he met and fall in love with sunniness lily evans. an amazing talent he held in dark arts after he entered hogwarts made him feel proud of himself. however, the inherent arrogance of a pure blood wizard family brought a rupture between snape and lily. from then on, he doubled his pursue to the power and strength that made him feel much safer. after his indirect affect on the murder of lily, snape learned loyalty and began to re-select his life. severus snape in these series has experienced painful process of removing illusion onto moral and emotional maturity and gaining self-recognition out of the errors. his personality is constantly developing and becoming mature. in this thesis, the exploration of the theme of severus snapes character in harry potter results not only in a new understanding of snape, but also in a greater appreciation of these books.key words: severus snape; growth; loyalty; belief; hero摘 要哈利波特系列故事表现了人在成长过程中遇到的挑战与危险。作者罗琳刻画了每一个孩子遇到的磨难经历：长大成人，赢得同龄人的尊敬，学习忠诚，理解可原谅的错误和不可饶恕的罪恶之间的区别，信仰比自己更强大的东西。在jk罗琳的故事中，斯莱特林学院院长兼魔药学教授斯内普是一个英雄式的悲剧人物。本文为两部分对斯内普的性格进行分析：第一部分认为童年时家庭的不和，被父亲所讨厌，造成了斯内普内心封闭，性格阴暗、怪异；幼时的灰暗经历也导致是成年斯内普安全感的缺失的一个重要原因，所以他一直追求让他感到安全的事物：先是黑魔法，后是伏地魔。他一直渴望得到他人的认可，赢得他人的尊重。第二部分就人物关系探讨了西弗勒斯斯内普在心理和信仰方面逐步成长的过程。斯内普少年时爱上开朗活泼的莉莉伊万斯，开始期待生活中的光明。进入霍格沃茨魔法学校后，斯内普在黑魔法领域的惊人天赋让他自傲不已；但与生俱来的纯血巫师家族的傲慢，使他与莉莉的产生分歧，最终导致决裂，从此他加倍追求让他感到安全的权势、力量。间接导致莉莉的死，让斯内普学会了忠诚，开始重新选择自己的人生。哈利波特系列中，描写了西弗勒斯斯内普在经历了一个个错误之后，抛弃幻想，获得自我，最后步入道德升华和情感成熟的痛苦过程。他的个性在不断发展并逐步成熟。本文对作品哈利波特的主角之一斯内普的性格进行分析，使读者不仅对斯内普有了新的认识，而且更好地领略了这部作品关于成长与信仰的主题。关键词：西弗勒斯斯内普; 成长; 忠诚; 信仰; 英雄chapter 1introductionby the end of the twentieth century, there were few people in the english-speaking world who had never heard of a boy named harry potter. british author joanne kathleen rowling had achieved astounding commercial success with her series of novels. the harry potter series has become so widely popular that it should be taken quite seriously. the harry potter books illustrate the challenges and adventures of growing up. rowling outlines every childs ordeal of becoming an individual, winning respect from peers, learning about loyalty, discovering the difference between forgivable vices and unforgivable sins, and believing in something bigger than oneself. but most people only focus on the leading character harry potter, and less cares about these supporting roles that also contribute much to this story. severus snape, the head of slytherin house and the potion master, is one of these supporting roles. he is not a particular likeable man in many ways. but it is his death that promoted the whole story to a climax. this character is filled with moral contradiction and conflicts. the discord in his family during his childhood caused a closed heart and a somber and bizarre in snapes personality. what he had experienced also led to an insecure, vulnerable adult snape. so he craved membership of something big and powerful, something impressive: firstly, the dark art, then the dark lord voldemort. he had been eager to get others recognition, winning the respect of others. snape began looking forward to a bright new start in life when he met and fall in love with sunniness lily evans. however, the inherent arrogance of a pure blood wizard family brought a rupture between snape and lily. from then on, he doubled his pursue to the power and strength that made him feel much safer. after his indirectly affect on the murder of lily, snape learned loyalty and began to re-select his life.severus snape is a heroic tragic character. he is a dislikable, cruel, and troubled individual who nonetheless associates himself with the righteous cause in a work filled with moral ambiguities. severus snape was a consummate spy and he died a perfect spys death: his cover intact, his final briefing delivered, remembering the woman he loved.this thesis discusses the progress of severus snapes character in chapter 2. firstly, it will seek to his childhood. because what severus snape experience in his childhood plays a very important part in the formation of his character. then it will find out why snape is a slytherin as well as how severus snape uses his eyes and what his eyes told us about his character. that also related tightly to his character. chapter 3 mainly discusses other peoples relation with severus snape, which had great impact on his character. the relation will be expounded in the following aspects: the romance severus snape had with lily which is the turning point for snapes life; the conflict and forgiveness between severus snape and harry potter; the relation between snape and headmaster dumbledore. chapter 4 is the conclusion of this whole thesis. and the limitations of this study would also be pointed out in this chapter.chapter 2the progress of snapes characterfrom the beginning of this story, severus snape impressed everyone with his spiteful looks and hostile attitude towards all surroundings. as one of the only four roles that the author described in detail, snapes story is the latest one to be unveiled. 2.1 snapes childhoodseverus was born in an unhappy family. he was the only child of tobias snape (a muggle), and eileen prince snape (a pure blood witch from the prince family). the snape household on spinners end in an industrial part of northern england was not a happy one. “how are things at your house?” lily asked.a little crease appeared between his (snape) eyes.“fine,” he said.“theyre not arguing any more?”“oh, yes, theyre arguing,” said snape. he picked up a fistful of leaves and began tearing them apart, apparently unaware of what he was doing. “but it wont be that long and ill be gone.” (rowling. j.k, 2007, p535)tobias snape hates witchcraft. when he knew that his wife is a witch and his son, too, may become a witch in the future, he appears to be irascible and frequently unleashed his anger on his wife, and severus, their wizard child, was neglected or worse.“doesnt your dad like magic?” (asked lily)“he doesnt like anything, much.” said snape. (rowling. j.k, 2007, p535)snape at 9-years old was described as: “sallow, small, stringy.” “his black hair was overlong and his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, an odd smock like shirt.” (rowling. j.k, 2007, p532)snape-the-teenager had a stringy, pallid look about him, like a plant kept in the dark. his hair was lank and greasy and was flopping onto the table, his hooked nose barely half an inch from the surface of the parchment as he scribbled (rowling. j.k, 2000, p573) greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin. (rowling. j.k, 2000, p100) “slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was.” (rowling. j.k, 2001, p342)all those descriptions do not provide us a very comfortable image. due to his family young severus is lonely, self-abased and autistic. having experienced an unhappy even can be called a tragic childhood is the reason of a distorted character when snape grew up. however, young snape had a highly gift in magic. snape went to hogwarts and entered the slytherin house in 1970. while as a student at hogwarts he had a lively interest in the dark arts and despite the fact that he was a mudblood, he felt pride about being a member of the slytherings. “snapes always been fascinated by the dark arts, he was famous for it at school. sirius added snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of slytherins who nearly-all turned out to be death eaters. (rowling. j.k, 2001, p342)after making friends with lucius malfoy, lucius made snape into a group of muggle-hating slytherins which turned to be death eaters later. snape held a loner character so that james potter and potters friends always bully him relying on a majority of people. james potter, sirius black, remus lupin and peter pettigrew, fellow students who found his dress odd and his hair unpleasant, teased him unmercifully. they called him snivellus. but according to snapes later recall, james potter never dared to bother him when james is alone. it seemed that having escape from the unhappy family environment of snape is not an improvement for severus; he merely jumped from a fire pit to another.as a young adult, snapes instinct pushed him to follow those who gave him a sense of belonging. firstly, he took part in those slytherins groups who were obsessed with dark arts. later, he became a death eater, the name given to the dark lords loyal followers. this must have great relationship with his desire to get rid of the past extreme misfortune. it seems snape have learned how to fight resistance early in self-protection.the adult snape always wear a black robe which reflected his complex inner heart. he acted ruthless to hide all his feelings. he learned occlumency to close all his thoughts and feelings to the others and no one can spy on them. in his life time, snape had almost no friends, or maybe he does not need one. in the order of the phoenix, snape is a shameful betrayer; while in those death eaters, snape is a coward “doing nothing all these years that heve lived in dumbledores pocket”.( rowling. j.k, 2006, p31)in the magic world, snape is a nobody. almost everyone spurned him. no one can understand why dumbledore held a firm trust in snape. but when it came to the end, the truth is unveiled. human beings can not be truly ruthless. dumbledore has heard and believes snapes story as to why he should be trusted.2.2 snape and slytherinsnape knew he would go to slytherin when he was a kid. in the harry potter books, j.k. rowling described slytherins as the cradle of evil wizard at the very beginning of the story. slytherins pursued to the extreme pure-blood which reflected a madness hunt for the noble pursuit. they are always narrated as treacherous, ambitious. sorting hat description:or perhaps in slytherinyoull make your real friendsthose cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends. (rowling. j.k, 2000, p94)the emblem of slytherin is snake. and the slytherins live like a snake: “the slytherin common room is a low-ceilinged, dungeon-like room with greenish lamps and chairs, with skulls around. it is located under the lake. (rowling. j.k, 2007, p365) in hogwarts, slytherin was isolated. these brave gryffindors, just and loyal hufflepuffs, wit and learning ravenclaws are all not fond of slytherins. and the dark lord, too, was a slytherin. this made slytherin more notorious. ironically, severus snape is the head of slytherin house. he possessed all the characteristics slytherin holds. we could even say slytherin is a symbol of snapes character. in latin, severus means harsh, quite consistent with snapes character. the word “snape” and “snake” are quite similar. considering the fate of snape, to be snapped by nagini, the lord voldemorts snake, his whole life has already been arranged. however, as an unpleasant slytherin, snape do show us the courage of gryffindor, loyal of hafflepuff, wise of ravenclaw on the struggle with dark lord.2.3 snapes eyesin the harry potter series, almost every time when the story came to snape, rowling gave a detailed description of snapes eyes. those eyes are central to unraveling the mysteries of the potter stories. readers are introduced to snape for the first time at a welcoming feast where, following a now-notorious description as:professor quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.it happened very suddenly. the hook-nosed teacher looked past quirrells turban straight into harrys eyes.harder to shake off was the feeling harry had gotten from the teachers look - a feeling that he didnt like harry at all. (rowling. j.k, 2000, p94) snapes hatred of harry can be read in his eyes. they first encounter snape accompanied with a description of snapes eyes:“his eyes were black like hagrids, but they had none of hagrids warmth. they were cold and made you think of dark tunnels.” (rowling. j.k, 2000, p102)hardly a welcoming sight. snapes eyes are most often described as black, and the only other words linked to them are cold, empty, fathomless, and dark. the contrast to the closed and restrained potion master is dumbledore, whose eyes tend to “twinkle” in moments of great significance, rather than “glitter”, as snapes do. severus snape is both a legilimens and an occlumens. as snape explicitly tells harry during his fifth year at hogwarts, “eye contact is often essential to legilimency”. (rowling. j.k, 2001, p469) legilimency, literally translates as mind-reading, is the ability to extract emotions and memories from another persons mind. while occlumency is the art of magically defending the mind against external penetration, sealing it against magical intrusion and influencethe defensive counter to legilimency. severus snape is a particularly skilled occlumens and he hides his true feelings deep inside. he learned to close all his thoughts and feelings to the others since he was young. and this helped him to survive as a spy among the death eaters, under the nose of voldemort, a noted skilled legilimens who has good cause to be suspicious of snapes loyalty. severus snape is apparently better at occlumency than voldemort is at legilimency, since he has survived in his difficult role of double agent among the death eaters for so long. besides the influence his childhood brand on his character, there is another reason why snape is especially good at occlumency. we could surmise from a paragraph of harrys psychological description.his scar burned, but he was master of the pain; he felt it, yet was apart from it. he had learned control at last, learned to shut his mind to voldemort, the very thing dumbledore had wanted him to learn from snape. just as voldemort had not been able to posses harry while harry was consumed with grief for sirius, so his thoughts could not penetrate harry now, while he mourned dobby, grief, it seemed, drove voldemort out though dumbledore, of course, would have said that it was love (rowling. j.k, 2007, p387)and the other reason is the feeling severus snape holds towards lily evans.severus snape formed a closed heart and a somber personality because of the discord in his family during his childhood. growing up in muggles world, snape felt lack of a sense of belonging. so he obsessed in magic, especially the dark arts. when he entered into hogwarts, snape felt confused to get along with his schoolmates and he join in a group of muggle-hating slytherins in order to get others recognition and respect. desire to get rid of the past extreme misfortune, snape became a death eater and craved something big and powerful. the young snape had been eager to be impressive. chapter 3snapes relationship3.1 lilys influence on snape“when it comes to romance, the harry potter books focus primarily on adolescents who experience their first romantic and the stop-and-start nature of those emotional beginnings.” (currie, richard, 2008, p1) but there is one relationship hides deep in those adolescents romantics and it is not fully revealed until the seventh book, harry potter and the deathly hallows. that is the frustrated love that severus snape, the potions professor and tormentor of harry potter, bears for lily evans, harrys mother. “emanating from the time that they were children, snapes love, lifelong and powerful, as well as his portrayal throughout the seven novels, resembles a byronic hero that has influenced the literary and creative imaginations.” (currie, richard, 2008, p2)the potions professor was portrayed as a byronic figure in the relationship between severus snape and lily evans. “exhibiting unrequited love, a lifelong devotion to lily, perpetual brooding, alienation, and superiority, snape takes out his miserable feelings on those around him, especially harry potter.” (currie, richard, 2008, p2) however, snapes love for lily explains why he hates harry so much. and this love also motivates his efforts to protect harry and let harry know his feelings for lily.3.1.1 snapes frustrated lovelet us sta