This presentation is one of my academic activities at department of English at M. K. Bhavnagar university. submitted to Dr. Dilip Barad

1. Name : Vora Kiran Shamaldas
Class : M.A Sem. 4
Roll no : 12
Paper no. 13 : New Literature
Topic : Severus Snape
Batch : 2016-18
Email Id : kiranvora5196@gmail.com
Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi
Department of English,
M. K. Bhavnagar
University.

3.  Introduction
 Appearance
 Snape at Hogwarts
 Background of the character – Lily and
Snape
 Mysterious character
 From Harry's Perspective
 The reality of the character - ‘The Prince’s
Tale’
 Change in our thinking
 As a Tragic hero : Hamartia and catharsis

4. Introduction
• Severus Snape is a fictional
character in J. K. Rowling's Harry
Potter series.
• Birthdate: January 9 1960
• Death: May 1, 1998, during the
Battle of Hogwarts, about an
hour before the dawn.
• Ancestry: Half-blood.
• Mother: Eileen Prince (witch)
• Father: Tobias Snape (Muggle)
• Relationship: Severus loved
childhood friend Lily Evans
faithfully, but in a possessive,
obsessive way, until he died.

5. Appearance
• At 9-years old: “sallow, small, stringy.” “His black hair was overlong and
his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too short
jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown
man, an odd smocklike shirt.”
• “Snape-the-teenager had a stringy, pallid look about him, like a plant
kept in the dark. His hair was lank and greasy and was flopping onto the
table, his hooked nose barely half an inch from the surface of the
parchment as he scribbled”
• “a professor with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.”
• “His eyes were black like Hagrid’s, but they had none of Hagrid’s
warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels”
• “uneven, yellow-ish teeth”

7. • Severus Snape was a thin man with sallow skin,
a large, hooked nose and yellow, uneven teeth.
He usually dressed in flowing black robes which
made him resemble "an overgrown bat".
• He had shoulder-length, greasy black hair
which framed his face in curtains, curling lips
and dark, penetrating eyes that resembled
tunnels. As a Death Eater, he bears the Dark
Mark on his left inner forearm.
• Snape had a strong, authoritative presence. He
spoke in a soft, contained voice most of the
time, except during the occasional instances
when he lost his temper.
• "Don't push it. I've heard Snape can turn very
nasty."
• Snape could appear cold, cynical, malicious,
bitter, and sarcastic.
• He had a commanding presence that exuded
gravitas, authority and control; the ability to
keep a class quiet without effort.
• He disdained Gryffindor students, considering
them to be arrogant and attention-seeking.

8. SNAPE at HOGWARTS
• Years: 1971 – 1978.
• House: Slytherin
• Skills - Extremely skilled at potions and Occlumency
• Potions Master & Head of Slytherin House at Hogwarts in
1980 , made Defense against the Dark Arts professor in 1996
and Hogwarts Headmaster in August, 1997.
• Sirius Black: “Snape’s always been fascinated by the Dark
Arts, he was famous for it at school”.
• Sirius Black: “Snape knew more curses when he arrived at
school than half the kids in the seventh year and he was part
of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death
Eaters”.

9. Character Background
Snape and Lily
• Tobias Snape frequently unleashed his anger on his wife
and Severus
• When he was about 9 years old, young Severus
discovered another magically gifted child, and fell in love
with green-eyed Lily Evans — and tried to forget that she
was a “Mudblood,” a Muggle-born witch.
• In spite of her blood status, he innocently hoped they
would both be put in Slytherin House, which he believed
was house for the brightest students like themselves.
• Severus and Lily attended Hogwarts together but Severus
was sorted into Slytherin and Lily was sorted into
Gryffindor.
• Their other classmates included James Potter, Sirius Black,
Remus Lupin and the children of the Death Eaters Avery
and Mulciber.
• This was the decade of Lord Voldemort’s first rise to
power, and the student body at Hogwarts reflected the
turmoil of the larger world.
• He developed friendship with Slytherin Students, who
knew more spells beforehand, than the other students

10. Mysterious character
• An exceptionally skillful wizard, his coldly
sarcastic and controlled exterior conceals
deep emotions and anguish. A Professor at
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
• A central mystery of the series concerns
Snape's loyalties. For much of the series,
Snape's actions seem to serve Harry's
nemesis, Lord Voldemort, although Harry's
mentor, Dumbledore, insists that he trusts
Snape.
• Snape's character, which becomes more
layered and enigmatic as the series
progresses, was widely acclaimed by readers
and critics.

11. From Harry's
Perspective
• When Snape’s character was introduced in
Philosopher’s stone since then Harry always doubted
Snape, and even his character was portrayed that
way, that we feel he is a bad guy and real culprit.
• Obviously we will take Harry’s side, and will doubt
Snape.
• Snape on the other hand shown very rude towards
Harry and that may be the reason because he was a
strict teacher

12. The reality of the
character
• In the end of the 7th book we finally find the truth
• And realize that Snape was the most misunderstood
character throughout the novel, although it was
Writer who did it, but we did feel bad thinking
wrong about him
• Because he was actually the real hero of whole
Harry Potter Series
• Lets admit it, if it wasn’t for Snape, Harry wouldn’t
have succeeded
• ‘The Prince’s Tale’ is the most important chapter,
because it is the story of Snape.

13. Snape: "Very well. But
never — never tell,
Dumbledore! This must be
between us! Swear it! I
cannot bear... especially
Potter's son..." — Snape
switches sides after Lily's
murder
Dumbledore: "If you loved Lily
Evans, if you truly loved her,
then your way forward is clear.
You know how and why she
died. Make sure it was not in
vain. Help me protect Lily's
son."

14. • After killing Albus Dumbledore and fleeing the
school, Snape once more rejoined the ranks of the
Death Eaters.
• In the summer of 1997, Snape informed Lord
Voldemort that Harry was to depart from his
relatives' house four days before his birthday.
• On Dumbledore's orders, Snape told the Death
Eaters the correct date so as to continue
Voldemort's trust in him.

15. ‘The Prince’s Tale’
• We see Snape’s life as a young, neglected boy with warring parents,
his unrequited love for someone who married his school bully, and his
stressful life as a double agent.
• This pattern is woven through each book – Snape is bad; Snape is
good; Snape’s a total git; Snape saved your life over and over. When
Snape was tasked with the awful burden of killing Professor
Dumbledore, he fulfilled everyone’s narrative perfectly: here was the
final proof that Snape was untrustworthy, yet we learn that he had to
kill Dumbledore for noble reasons that barely anyone knew about.
• Snape’s bravery was staggering. He was always viewed as the cartoon
bad guy, yet what he furtively did for Harry along the way was his
tragic secret – one nobody would be likely to figure out
• It was Snape who overheard the prophecy that would go on to define
Lord Voldemort and Harry Potter’s lives for years afterwards. The
prophecy can be seen as the catalyst for everything; it led to the
death of Lily, his great love, and Snape spent the entire course of
Harry’s (and his own) life trying to make amends. If you think about it,
Snape could be seen as the greatest instigator of the story’s events.

16. • Snape died looking into Harry’s eyes: the eyes of the boy
who survived because the woman he loved died. The eyes
of the boy who looked like the spitting image of his father;
the man who bullied him, then married the love of his life.
Imagine having to look into those eyes in that moment; the
eyes that both pained you intensely and yet made you feel
love more than anything in the world. Snape’s final
moments are perhaps the bravest we saw of any character.
• Within Deathly Hallows’ lingering final chapters we
understood that Snape lived his life as a tortured double-
agent, constantly flickering from the good side to the bad
like a broken light, and all in the name of an undying love
that cemented his loyalty to Harry and Dumbledore.

17. • There comes the best two sentences of Harry
potter series -
"After all this time?"
"Always" said Snape.
• Snape loved her immensely. His love towards her
made him to protect Harry. His love was the
reason Dumbledore trusted Snape humongously.
Snape risked everything, even his life, just for Lily.

18. Change in our
thinking
and catharsis
• Rowling described him as "a gift of a character”
• Elizabeth Hand of The Washington Post opined
that Snape's life "is the most heartbreaking,
surprising and satisfying of all of Rowling's
achievements"

19. Actor
• Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman
• 21 February 1946 – 14 January
2016
• English actor and director
known for playing a variety of
roles on stage and on screen.
• Rickman gained wider notice for
his film performances as Hans
Gruber in Die Hard (1988) and
Severus Snape in the Harry
Potter series.

20. • Snape taught us that there are no good men and bad men: that we are
born full of foibles and complexities painted in thousands of different
shades
• Whether we choose to see Snape as that mean professor calling Harry
‘our new celebrity’, or as the chivalrous hero casting a meaningful
Patronus, is up to us.
• But as Dumbledore often likes to say: ‘It is our choices that show who we
truly are.’
• Snape made some bad choices, and sometimes he was hard on Harry for
no good reason. But he did spend much of his life making choices that
would go some way to repair the one, truly terrible one.

21. “After all this time?...
….Always.”