An Analysis of Personality on Snape in Harry Potter

JIANG Yeshu

Abstract The novel Harry Potter came into peoples eyes once it is published. And every one speaks highly of it. Harry Potter is one fairy tale character all around the word. And behind Harry， there also have lots of characters widely acclaimed by readers. Severus Snape is one of them. The emotion of Snape is very complex； he is Harrys friend and also Harrys enemy. Snapes story made many readers detest him， and his experience also touched the reader. Snapes two-faces personality is performed by the following points： 1） Snape is a half-blood wizard. His family affect his personality a lot. 2） Snape is a double agent. He works for Voldemort， and actually he pledges loyalty to Albus Dumbledore. 3） Snape has a love-hate relationship with Harry. He loves Harrys mother Lily for all his life and hates Harrys father James a lot. 4） The dangerous Snape faces cannot be imagined， but his brave is beyond Harrys impression.

Key words Snape； personality； complex； two-faces

中圖分類號：I106 文獻標識碼：A

1 Introduction

Severus Snape， the fictional character in Harry Potter？series， teaches Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts in Hogwarts School， a wizard and witch training school. He acts as the head of Slytherin House and the headmaster of Hogwarts after Albus Dumbledores death. Snape is a role of paradoxes， which serves as a spy sent by the Order of the Phoenix to the Death Eaters， and a previous spy of Voldemort as well. Thus the author， J. K. Rowling， portrays him as a character with defects but not an insidious one. Furthermore， the complexity of the character contributes to his unique fate in the fiction.

2 Cause of psychopathology

2.1 Social reality

It is normal that people want to be recognized and needed by others， which should be owed to the need of affiliation. It would be explained by peoples fear towards unknowns that normal people in the fiction exclusive and even hate the wizards and witches， which forms an irreconcilable conflict between Muggles and wizards. That an inevitable tragedy would be fixed when Snapes witch mother falls in love with his Muggle father. Therefore， as for the fiction， his father violently abuses his mother when he understands his wife is a witch.

Children like Snape who is a ‘half-blood of Muggle and witch， turn out to be an abnormal “freak” as for the ordinary world； simultaneously， he is disdained and laughed at by the wizarding world because of his mothers ancestry of Slytherin. Surviving in such a social context， Snape is destined to be miserable personally because of his unhappy family experience.

2.2 Family reasons

The form of personality could be partly attributed to heritage from their parents. However， it could not deny that the environment of living and family， especially in the period of childhood forms key and profound influence to ones personality.

As mentioned in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Snapes mother is a ‘pure witch while his father who has little wizarding blood is bad-tempered and violent. It can be easily seen that Snape was born in a family of unhappiness， in which he barely felt love and care from his parents. He witnessed his fathers strictness and termagancy， which rooted deeply in his childhood memories and directly caused his callous personality in the future.

Living in a family without love， although Snape might acquire a little warm from his mother， he was not companied by friends or fellows， which means that he could not share his worries， fears or depression. Thus there was no proper way for him to express his emotions and he has to digest his dark childhood himself. The loneliness in his childhood induced the difficulty to communicate with others as well as express himself. Consequently， he develops lonely and dissocial personality in the rest of his life.

2.3 Personal reasons

Everyone is afraid to loneliness. That is why man needs friends and Snape is no exception. He hopes to gain more comfort from having friends especially when he fails to feel warm from his family. But Snape， a man possesses magic is freak in muggles world. Slowly he loses his passion， under the eyes of fear and scream of “freak” by his friends again and again. Snape equips thick armor with sticks for himself. Each word spoken by Snape seems bitterly sarcastic， whilst could feel his unique and special care after going over these words.

Snape never try to explain the misconception on him to other people for his conceited. Snape has been conceited and lonely as always， until he met his lifetime love – Lily Evans. Snape inherited his mothers Slytherin descent， which makes him act as a moths fire when falling in love. Snape had always lived in his own world that filled with dark until Lily？Evans appeared. She opened his armed closed heart. She is like a sunshine straight to his heart and warmed him as he never felt before. However， Snape was really not a good raver at all. He pushed Lily out of his world when he said “Mudblood” to her.

Personality is a character hard to change once formed for human beings. But changes of personality do occur when life encounters huge changes. Snape was once a faithful death eater to Lord Voldemort， but Lilys death really shocked him. He realized that the person he loved most died because of his unintentional mistake. This fact tortured him and made him miserable. He then be brave enough to undertake the consideration， which was breaking away from Voldmort and becoming a double agent between death eaters and the Order of the Phoenix. He promised to Dumbledore to protect Harry Potter and as in doing so he kept protecting his favorite Lilys child in his own way. All of these things he had done reflected Snapes character of tenacity， forbear and brave.

Snape eventually died for protecting Harry Potter. He struggled with his last vestiges of strength to left the truth to Harry before he died. And this is the last and only one occasion when Snape speaks out the truth and his feelings. He loved Lily for his whole life， and he was so single-minded that even his patron saints image was the same with Lilys. He was like a child when facing with love although he is actually an adult. He had forbidden his students from saying the hurtful words because he once spoke “Mudblood” to Lily. His last word before dying was “Looking at me” just because Harry had his mothers eyes. And it is this pair of eyes that supported him to stick to his words， even with the tolerance of double agents life， to protect Lilys child， forever.

3 Conclusion

We have to accept that J. K. Rowling？takes the character Severus？Snape as？the biggest highlight of？the book which is a tragic character in the certain social circumstance. At the beginning of “Harry Potter” series， Snape was treated as a villain， cold and harsh individual who purposely made difficulties for Harry and showed partiality to the Slytherin college. Nearly everyone thought he was a bad guy with difficulty to close.

However， although with the development of the story， his spy identity surfaced， it didnt make people like him due to his elusiveness. To？"Harry？Potter and the Half Blood Prince"，？Snape became？the main line？of this part. At that time， readers gradually？came to know？Snape deeply， but still？had a misunderstanding of？some of his？behavior.？Until the end of the entire novel， readers find that Snape is one of the？true to life？character.

Miserable childhood， humiliation school life and spy life formed the painful and dark life of Snape. He had been trying to find his own values of life， hoping to prove that he is needed by others and trying to be satisfied by feeling to be loved in the first half of his life. While he was living in the pain abyss which was full of guilt and remorse during his later life， and can only use his life to protect Harry potter. In the last moment of his life， he died with looking these eyes， which is the greatest desire in his life. Any sacrifice he made before is worth. At that moment his dark life should be filled with warm and bright.

Snape performed cold on the surface， but his heart was actually soft. He filled with pride on his face， and his heart was actual inferiority. He was ostensibly paranoid relentless， but he had a purest heart and the most sincere love. He was positive because of his deep love for Lily， so that he could hover between good and evil once and walk out of a path of his own way. Snape was such a complex character. However， he was the naive boy who just sat side by side with the girl who had a pair of clear green eyes at the riverside in the shade——Severus Snape boy.

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