Severus Snape – a glimpse behind the mask


When Severus Snape appears for the first time in the first book of Harry Potter “Harry Potter and the Philsopher’s Stone” Harry is under the impression that the man sitting at the high table and staring at him is the reason why his scar is hurting. Instantly the reader is supicious about Snape and this impression is furthermore fostered by the fact that according to Percy Weasly he fancies the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher that is currently filled by Quirrel, a nice and shy man Harry has already met in the Leaky Cauldron in London. With this short scene the picture seems clear: Snape is the villain who as we later learn wants to steal the Stone which gives him eternal life. Snape is described in a very unpleasant manner which gives you the impression that he was not planned to be liked by anybody: pale, greasy, bat-like and generelly ugly he is haunting the dungeons where he lives and tortures the students in his potions classes. Furthermore he is Slytherin’s head of house and this exactly the house in which Draco Malfoy is sorted into, the house that produced the most Dark Wizards, the house in which Voldemort had been sorted- which links nicely Snape to Malfoy to Voldemort who all apparantly hate Harry.

In the potions class Snape insults Harry making it very clear that he despises Harry for being famous without having done anything and favours his Slytherins by indicating that just by being who they are they possess the right predispositions to excel in potions. This marks him as unfair and prejudiced towards the houses where as Minerva McGonagall, who is Gryffindor's head of house, lectures Harry and Ron for being late without taking into consideration that they are in her house. He is the prefect suspect all in all.

During the story Harry and Ron see Snape with a wound at his feet and suspect he has tried to get past Fluffy to steal the Philosopher’s Stone and later he threatens Quirrel to “reconsider where his loyalities are” and we are even more sure that he is Harry's enemy in this novel. In the end of course it is revealed that Snape wasn’t the one trying to steal the Stone but Quirrel and that the potions Master indeed tried to protect the stone and what is even more important was trying to protect Harry the whole time.

With this clever scheme J.K.Rowling points something out that shows through the whole series: Snape is not really easy to see through, is a person with layers who isn’t clearly considered good or bad until Goblet of Fire and even then there remains a certain doubt about his motives. Snape stays a mystery and his unfriendly behaviour towards the Gryffindors, who are clearly the heros in this story, strengthens the belief that this is an indication where he is standing. J.K.Rowling has pointed out several times that she is very fond of Sirius Black who in his youth loved to torture Snape and even attempted murder when he send him after Lupin in werewolf form and so it is pretty clear that she can’t value Snape’s well-being very much. She said that he wasn’t completely the loyal spy and that he had some suprises in store in the future which could lead to the conclusion that Harry’s and Ron’s suspicions get confirmed- he is not really on Dumbledore’s side but secretely working for Voldemort again. Hermione points something out in Goblet of Fire that I find very interesting: That if they trusted Dumbledore, they had to trust Snape as well. Dumbledore is all-knowing in the book- would he really be fooled by Snape?

The answer is still some time away since we are still waiting for book six of Harry Potter where hopefully a lot of these questions are answered.



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