I’ve really been all over the place with how I regard the character of Severus Snape.

1. Severus Snape: the man, the myth, the legend (massive spoiler!) • 2007 Jul 22 • Disordered Thought Processes

1. pathetic and yet heartbreakingly brilliant (spoilers!) • 2007 Jul 23 • Disordered Thought Processes

1. scattered thoughts (spoilers!) • 2007 Jul 26 • Disordered Thought Processes

1. this type of hero • 2007 Aug 2 • Disordered Thought Processes

1. haunted by something that never was • 2007 Aug 27 • Disordered Thought Processes

1. clinical definition of blogorrhea? (damn Lord Byron) • 2007 Aug 28 • Disordered Thought Processes

1. mindtrace (a full review) • 2007 Sep 9 • Disordered Thought Processes

1. Littlefinger and Snape • 2014 May 19 • mahiwaga.net

1. Severus Snape • 2015 Apr 7 • mahiwaga.net

At first, I was awestruck by this incredible plot arc that I hadn’t noticed at all in the first five books. It was like the big reveal at the end of “The Sixth Sense” or “Fight Club”.

But as I’ve slowly worked on deprogramming myself from the Patriarchy, I’ve come to grips with the very problematic aspects of his love infatuation obsession with Lily Evans.

In the main, he is an archetypal Byronic hero

He knew himself a villain—but he deem’d
The rest no better than the thing he seem’d;
And scorn’d the best as hypocrites who hid
Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did.
He knew himself detested, but he knew
The hearts that loath’d him, crouch’d and dreaded too.
Lone, wild, and strange, he stood alike exempt
From all affection and from all contempt:

— The Corsair by Lord Byron

Wikipedia once had a more exhaustive discussion on the characteristics of the Byronic hero:

• conflicting emotions, bipolar tendencies, or moodiness
• self-critical and introspective
• struggles with integrity
• a distaste for social institutions and social norms
• being an exile, an outcast, or an outlaw
• a lack of respect for rank and privilege
• a troubled past
• being cynical, demanding, and/or arrogant
• often self-destructive
• loner, often rejected from society

He follows in a long line of characters such as Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights and Sydney Carton from A Tale of Two Cities.

He also reminds me of Anakin Skywalker. If anyone is less deserving of redemption than Severus Snape, it is certainly the mass murderer who became Darth Vader, whose only act that is supposed to have earned him redemption was yet another murder.