I was rereading Spinner's End and was struck by the fact that the narration never mentions Snape to be greasy or ugly. It just says that he's thin, with a sallow face, long curtain of black hair and black eyes. No mention of his nose either. I do wonder how much of Snape's ugliness is due to pov bias.
Yes, it’s such a fascinating set of omissions from what we usually hear from the narration.
What I really love about that scene is that his hair is overly described - long black hair parted in curtains. With six words, there was plenty of opportunity to throw in a ‘greasy’ or ‘unwashed’ or ‘dirty’, so it seems that the author deliberately chose not to.
I can’t decide which I like best:
the idea that the narrator can’t see past his own hate, and the repeated commentary amongst the students is because they’re Gryffindors and they’re opposed to the Head of Slytherin
the idea that when the narrator changes to Snape’s peers, in Narcissa and Bellatrix, they see someone else entirely - perhaps even if his hair is still meant to be on the side of greasy, that it’s deliberate (perhaps he’s emulating Ozzy or Axl)
the idea that it is classroom specific, and either the atmosphere in the dungeons is to blame, or the environment at Hogwarts stops Snape from washing his hair as often as he should
the idea that stuck in a two-up, two-down house with Pettigrew, Snape locked himself in the bathroom for 3 hours every day so he could have some peace and privacy, and there wasn’t much else to do other than repeatedly wash his hair
But yeah, I wholeheartedly subscribe to the idea that Snape’s unattractiveness was exacerbated by the male Gryffindor students, whilst it seems that his female Slytherin peers see someone else entirely.
Don’t misunderstand me - I’m not saying he was ever destined to be on the cover of Witch Weekly, but I think that when they’re young, children can be overly cruel and unkind about features which are not out of the ordinary as adults.
Not to mention that whole Dahl idea of ‘if you think beautiful thoughts, you’ll appear pleasant / if you think unpleasant thoughts, you’ll appear ugly’ - not least because Snape’s whole persona is of a man that the Gryffindors can’t read, with Harry observing about his eyes: they were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels - or that his expression is: unfathomable or inscrutable.
We, the reader, often assume that he’s using Occlumency or Legilimency - but as this isn’t necessarily obvious to the kids, no wonder he seemed unpleasant to them.
