I'm haunted by Dumbledore's soft suggestion to Severus: "I sometimes think we Sort too soon." It makes me wonder how Snape's life would have been different had he been placed in Gryffindor. Perhaps the Hat was unsure, as he had been with Harry, but, sensing Snape's desire to be in Slytherin, had placed him in that House. I really think he would have been much better off in Gryffindor, where it wouldn't have been so easy for his darker nature to flourish. I can't imagine Lucius and his cronies would have let him trail them then, and so perhaps he would have been an outcast, but he wouldn't have been under their unholy influence. I suspect Sirius and James still would have given him a hard time, but perhaps he would have found a friend in Remus, and maybe as a result the other two would leave him alone a bit. At any rate, it was his association with the cruel antics of the Slytherins that led to the dissolving of his friendship with Lily, which was deeper and older than I'd suspected. If he'd been in Gryffindor, I think it likely their friendship would have survived, and he probably would not have been lured into the Death Eater trap.
All of this is to say that I think it is sadly appropriate that his death is brought about by a snake. It's symbolic of the fact that being Sorted into Slytherin was the beginning of a slow downward spiral, bringing out the worst in him and, even more, bringing him into a dreadful situation from which he could not extricate himself.
Speaking of snakes, it's interesting that Voldemort's snakelike eyes are red, the color of Gryffindor, whereas Harry's are green, the color of Slytherin. An interesting, albeit coincidental, physical reminded of their unwitting connection...
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4 comments:
Interesting...I too had thought of the "opposite" eye colors.
And I was also moved by Dumbledore's words to Snape....another favorite line in the book!
The memories in the pensieve came so fast. We saw Snape sorted, and it seemed to choose Slytherin for him very quickly, but then would Harry have heard anything the hat said since he was just standing nearby in the memory? I think he would have had to have been under the hat with Snape (an impossibility) to hear if there was any deliberation from the hat. And there may well not have been. Snape wanted to be in Slytherin, and wanted Lily to be in that house with him. Perhaps much later, after making many different choices, the hat would have had a harder time deciding.
I did find it interesting that Rowling chose to point out to us that when Snape went to sit down at the Slytherin table after he was sorted, he sat next to Lucius Malfoy, who was a prefect.
Remember the sorting hat itself wonders about the wisdom of the whole sorting process. I suspect Dumbledore does too. And yet we know it's still going on, 19 years later.
I think for the most part the Sorting works well, though it's a shame that the Slytherins are so set apart from the others. Among the other three Houses, there's quite a bit of interaction, but not so with Slytherin. There's such a sense of isolation about them, of being cut off from the others. The school would look a lot different, for sure, if there weren't separate Houses like that - though I guess there sort of have to be those divisions from the get-go in order to situate the students in dorms and split them into classes of manageable size...
Yeah, I know what you mean. I like the sorting; I even like how it helps each student identify a certain important trait about themselves, including traits they may not yet realize they have. But I also wonder if sometimes certain kids don't feel pigeon-holed into being or acting a certain way, simply because of the sorting hat's initial judgment.
I've always been intrigued that Hogwarts doesn't seem to have any sort of graduation ceremony, just the "leaving feast." It might be interesting to have a re-sorting at the leaving feast, and give each student a chance to learn if they've stayed "true" to their dominant trait or grown into other traits.
Hmm, that would be really interesting! I definitely think there's an overlap in traits, and several students could fit just as well in one House as another.
I was wondering about the graduation; I thought maybe we it happened but we just didn't see it because it wouldn't have really involved Harry, though you'd think he at least would have gone to Percy's graduation with Ron. But at this point it really does seem like they don't have a graduation ceremony. Kind of a shame...
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