Severus Snape

I've talked once before about how Alan Rickman was brilliantly cast as Severus Snape. According to JK Rowling's timelines, Snape should be about 20 years younger than Rickman, but honestly who could possibly play Snape better than Rickman?

Snape is, in case you don't know, one of the most complex and satisfying characters ever put to paper. By this time, even if you have not read the books, I will be assuming that you have at least seen through the sixth movie- since it came out almost a year and a half ago. Snape starts off the story as a mean, mean man. He's a teacher who obviously favors his own students, and hates Harry in particular.


By the middle of the story, we realize the reasons for his hatred; Harry's father tormented Snape when they were in school together. Lupin, Sirius Black and Harry's father were also part of a plan that likely would have killed Snape had Harry's dad not had a change of mind. We learn that while he is not a nice guy, he at least has a reason for his mistreatment of Harry.



By the end of the fourth and fifth books, we know that Snape was a Death Eater and something happened to cause him to become a spy for Dumbledore. Dumbledore simply says, over and over, "I Trust Severus Snape." By this time, fans are entirely divided. How could a Death Eater really reform? If you're not a super HP nerd, and are still reading by this time, you should know that Rowling's Death Eaters are loosely based on the Nazis; how many high-ranking Nazis really defected? How many lived to tell the tale? Especially if they were playing both sides equally... that's how duplicitous Snape is: he's either fooling Adolf Hiter or Winston Churchill... or something to that effect, either way, it's dangerous and impressive.



But, now, here we are at the end of Half Blood Prince. Snape has not only professed himself to be the Half Blood Prince, and therefor revealing himself as violent and angry and capable of creating horrifically gruesome spells and curses, but has also murdered Dumbledore. After killing the embodiment of the anti-Voldemort movement, he fights his way through a crowd of students and flees the school with Malfoy (who had been trying to kill Dumbledore for more than a year) and Bellatrix Lestrange (who killed Sirius Black and tortured several other innocent people) and other loyal Death Eaters.


How could a man in this position still have loyal followers? After publication of this book, a website was started for fans to show their unswerving loyalty to Severus Snape. The fact that this man could kill the second most important protagonist in the story and still have a chance of being "good" in the eyes of the readers speaks to the skill and mastery behind his character profile. Rowling laid down an immensely complex character, with foreshadowing so light and almost imperceptible throughout the story.


Rickman's interpretation of the character undoubtedly adds to the core mystery of Severus Snape.

Here's to the most perfectly cast literary character of all time!