Shades of Snape: A Short Analysis
Snape was hanging upside-down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of greying underpants.
Many people in the small crowd cheered; Sirius, James, and Wormtail roared with laughter.
At the foot of the stairs stood the only person who could make Harry’s situation worse: Snape. He was wearing a long gray nightshirt and he looked livid.
It occurs to me that the character whom Rowling once described as “all grey” in terms of where he stood as a moral archetype is only seen wearing articles of clothing that are grey by Harry in moments where he’s most candid and most vulnerable. Either as the boy whose school bullies have turned his own spell against him and left him hovering upside down with his “greying underpants” exposed to public laughter. Or, as the man who is uncharacteristically caught in his “long gray nightshirt” following Barty Crouch Jr.’s theft from his Potion’s Storeroom rather than his more customary dark, billowing robes that have earned him his moniker of “Bat of the Dungeons.”
Of course, what follows when Crouch-as-Moody appears on the scene is not only a chipping away at Snape’s confidence (i.e. confidence in his security at Hogwarts, in Dumbledore’s trust in him, where he stands, etc.) but also a key revelation that demands both Harry and the reader reevaluate what we know about this man.
Moodys face twisted into a smile. “Auror’s privilege, Snape. Dumbledore told me to keep an eye -"
"Dumbledore happens to trust me,” said Snape through clenched teeth. “I refuse to believe that he gave you orders to search my office!"
"Course Dumbledore trusts you,” growled Moody. “Hes a trusting man, isn’t he? Believes in second chances. But me - I say there are spots that don’t come off, Snape. Spots that never come off, d'you know what I mean?"
Snape suddenly did something very strange. He seized his left forearm convulsively with his right hand, as though something on it had hurt him.
Moody laughed. "Get back to bed, Snape.”
So, we have two occasions where Snape’s “shades of grey” are revealed both figuratively and literally to Harry and to the reader. In one instance, Harry witnesses Snape’s unusual vulnerability and defensiveness as Fake-Eye Moody challenges his place at Hogwarts and his authority. I would argue that it is no coincidence that Harry and the reader, subsequently, are given one of the biggest clues into Snape’s past and we see a physical, pained response from the man when reminded of his “spots that never come off.” Thus, the reader, like Harry, are encouraged to question the nature of this enigmatic man: Was he a Death Eater? If so, then what in his past or about him makes Dumbledore believe he can trust him? Most importantly, was Moody correct that there are just some spots that you can’t remove or are things, not unlike Snape himself, more complex than that?
In the second instance where we see a “shade of grey” exposed in Snape, Harry is not only placed in the uncomfortable position where he must reevaluate what he knows about Snape again but also, what he thought he knew about his father and his friends while they were at Hogwarts. Harry is left disturbed by Snape’s memories because they seem to validate some of the uglier allegations about James and his friends that Snape has insisted upon many times, both to Harry and to others. Ultimately, it’s far easier for Harry to dismiss Snape’s bitterness and anger as being the result of a petty school-boy grudge or a case of jealousy when he feels more inclined to like and trust the people who insist on remembering his father only fondly. Indeed, Snape’s own bias and inability to see past James to recognize Harry independently only gives Harry further reason not to believe any of his accusations as, if he could be so wrong about him, then surely it must be the same for his father (i.e. bias can breed bias).
However, it’s far more difficult to ignore the possibility that Snape might have been telling the truth (i.e. that there may have been a less kind, less noble, less idealized side to his father) once he finds himself witness to Snape’s experiences with James and the other Marauders, from Snape’s perspective. An interesting facet of the Pensieve within the Harry Potter series is that Rowling introduces an object that could be said to embody the very spirit of critically questioning one’s perspective (otherwise known as questioning the narrator in critical theory). The Pensieve affords the user an opportunity for a closer analysis, a second look, or even an unexpected perspective shift that demands we see things from different eyes than just our own. In many ways, the Pensieve can be read through the lens of critical theory as an object that presents us with a direct challenge to the bias that informs the unreliable narrator construct within Rowling’s fiction.
Thus, in the scene where Snape stands in his “shades of grey” before Fake-Eye Moody and his magical eye (which also functions as an object of exposure) Harry and the reader are left to question whether Snape is truly the villain he’s always been quick to believe him to be or if there may not be more to the story (his story, specifically) that he doesn’t know and which would make Dumbledore trust him, despite his “spots.” In the second instance, where Snape is more literally exposed and his “greying underpants” are own display, Harry is once again confronted with a different shade to Snape, one that he can actually empathize with due to his own firsthand experience –that of a victim of bullying.
Overall, I find it interesting that two key moments that would have us take a closer look at Snape as a character and reevaluate our impressions of him, Rowling would have chosen the motif of grey clothing that Snape would not have intentionally wanted to have on display. Add to that the fact that these are also moments where Harry witnesses Snape in a more vulnerable position, on the defensive in both instances and the subject of humiliation and mockery, and I would argue that we could make a case for a certain measure of deliberateness in Rowling’s choices. As subtle as the man himself, I do believe that Snape’s “shades of grey” were foreshadowing.
