*Spoilers* for the Harry Potter books.
Recently, I spent time with a group of people around my age who were watching the Harry Potter movies for either the first time or the first time in a long time. It was fun to talk about Harry Potter canon and lore with people who didn’t know as much about Harry Potter as I did.
Eventually we started a discussion about Snape vs James and what each of their patronuses symbolize.
For those of you who have read the books, it is revealed that Snape has a doe patronus which is the same as Lily Potter's patronus. Early in the books, Harry finds out his father, James Potter’s patronus was a stag (which is also Harry's)
The contrast between Snape taking on the same patronus as Harry’s mother, the woman he loved since childhood symbolizes a desire of obsession and possession over Lily.
While Jame’s stag and Lily’s doe is a perfect representation of how they are true soulmates because they complement each other.
Snape might have once loved Harry’s mom, but after their falling out and Lily falling in love with James, that love turned into an obsession over the woman he loved but who had never loved him. It symbolizes his regret for losing Lily and how he still in some way has an intense desire to possess her affections.
You can see it in the way he begged the dark lord not to kill Lily while failing to make the same request for her husband and son. I don’t believe Snape is a horrible irredeemable person, actually it’s the opposite because I admire and am satisfied with his role in the dark lord’s downfall and his lengths he went to to help save Harry and stop the dark lord.
But I would say there are some things that are concerning about his character. When you think about the author adding information (After the books) about how Lily was pregnant with her second child when she died and she was trying to convince James to let Snape be the godfather, suggesting she might have forgiven him. He could have had Lily in his life in the form of a friend but failing to extend his request to Lily’s husband and son, it suggests he wouldn’t have been satisfied with her friendship. He might have never stopped trying to make Lily love him which might have led to another falling out but this time, It might’ve been permanent.
It was an interesting discussion to talk about and I loved detailing the hidden meaning behind Snape and James’s patronuses and how it signifies the different types of love they had for Lily.