Re: Snape: evil or not evil?

boo wrote:

"Sirius Kase" <SiriusKase@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
snip


ideas of what is good and what is evil. And he is working for his own
idea of good.

so is Voldemort

very insightful remark, we know that Voldemort's idea of good is that
power makes right.

So what is Snape's?

Dumbledore's?

Harry's?

Dumbledore holds the position of all Good, or as good as it gets anyway,

Thats going a bit to far. I would put him at doing what's right rather then
what's easy. He is willing to break laws if it is for the greater good. He
doesn't belive in standing by and letting people do the wrong thing. He will
try and talk them out of it. But as long as it is just effecting you he doesn't
seam to step in. In fact even when it does effect more people he often stays
put. Both Katty and Ron nearly died from this inaction while DD tried to help
draco. So he shows up a little short of the top good spot.


as
Voldemort symbolizes pure evil. Harry is placed at the good side obviously,
close to dumbledore at the scale of good and evil.

Harry does what ever he thinks is right at the time. Like DD he doesn't mind
breaking rules if it will stop V or help some one. But as he is more likely to
try and help he is more likely to cause problems to others by doing this. The
only real diffrence between Harry and DD is harry is much more reckless and
that's not really a good and evil part of the character make up.


I would place Snape at evil, meaning he does do whatever he does not out of
loyalty to Dumbledore or Voldemort, but takes the pragmatic approach where
he gains as much protection as possible. This form of selfishness is a
characteristic mostly identified with the evil side.

True. But the intresting thing about this character is how well balainced the
character is between the two sides. Will I think he sees the hole good / evil
thing as a question for fools he is willing to use it for his own ends. A
better way of looking at it is that DD and V are two ends of an idea that
writers need to have in there books while snape lives in a more complex world
where nothing is good or evil but often both at the same time.


I think snape told
dumbledore he made the unbreakable vow not as much out of honesty but out of
covering his tracks.

I don't think he told DD. On the tower DD didn't seam to belive Draco when he
told DD about it.


Whatever the outcome of the final confrontation would
be he would be covered. Voldermort will thank him for killing dumbledore,
and i think dumbledore will have left some kind of testimony about snape's
position. Both sides trust him because he actually worked for both sides. He
never chose, he never had to choose.

I think he chose to be in the middle. But Harry may have dumped snape into evil
as few of the order will now help him. Even with a note from DD left behind I
doubt that many would belive it now.


Draco is an interisting figure in this respect too. His attitude in the past
books puts him mostly on the evil side, yet his inability to murder
Dubmbledore reveals some type of natural goodness within him.

Or he just wimped out. The question is which it is. If he had been asked to
use the other two unforgiveables I think he would have done it. But He wasn't
up to killing a defenseless dd, but he might have been willing to kill Harry.
But I do wounder if Draco was starting to change his mind about joining V after
how he saw how the DE's were treated.


Harry, who
doesn't have Draco's attitude-problem has found the same inability to murder
a defenseless man when faced with Sirius in POA.

Snape had no choice but to murder Dumbledore, so he can't really be held
accountable for that since he took the vow implicitly on DD's orders.

I never found that in the book. We know DD asked snape to spy but we have no
prof about DD telling Snape to take the vow. In fact that part of the question
was sprang on Snape at the last moment. And that was the first real point where
Snape had to pick one or the other.


(maintaining his cover).

If Snape helps Harry kill Voldermort, which I think he will, he will regain
his position on the good side if you look at it from a black and white
perspective.

No he would be back to the center point at best.



The ministry of magic has a likewise duality of good and evil in itsself.
They arrested the night-bus-guy-i-forgot-his-name for purely cosmetic
reasons. They take someone's happyness for the purpose of looking good. Even
though they work against voldemort they allso work for themselves, and hold
the position that this is for the best. They sacrifice an innocent man for
holding on to they're power. This is exactly the thing Voldemort himself
would approve.

That's becouse many in the minestery are vary like V. Only they went with
working with in the present power structer then trying to toppal it. Rather
funny that V didn't do that him self. Working in the minstery in the dark arts
section would have given V all the information he needed and he could have taken
over before anyone knew what he was up to. Instead he tryies to knock the whole
thing down the hard way.


Snape is continously nasty to harry without any direct reason. He does this
out of harted for James. We cant really argue that he must do this to hold
his cover, because he also does it in the private oclumency lessons. In
other words; Snape sees Harry from a perspective of hatred which stands
apart from harry himself. Snape is unable to let his hatred for james go,
and so he acts from a perspective of harted.

And it's to more then just harry. As Ron says in the first book. Snape hates
nearly all the students. But being a nasty person doesn't make you evil.


Dumbledore's perspective of love, trust, faith stand totally opposite to
Snape's attitude.

In the end, Snape does what Snape does for Snape, and no one else. This
characteristic makes him, in the end, evil.

By it's self no. But putting with it the lack of playing fair with rules and
laws, as well as a general lack of morals then you do get eivl. And Snape does
fit this. The only thing is that he may still stay out of prison.





--
Richard The Blind Typer
Lets Hear It For Talking Computers.


.