Snapedom

Well, personally I think JKR was conflicted in herself about Snape. My own opinion is that she was conflicted about Snape because she was conflicted about Nettleship. And Snape, in my opinion, is based very strongly on Nettleship. My guess is that she had a person that in real life she could not reconcile in her thinking and therefore, because Snape is so strongly based on a real person who she could not completely decide on, she couldn't be clear on Snape in her own head. I think it comes across in the way she talks about Snape.

But Snape is not the only character who she has a love/hate relationship with. Notice how she deals with Dumbledore. Sometimes Dumbledore is the Great Wise Wizard and the "epitome of goodness", sometimes the picture of remorse and repentence, and quite often he is Machiavelli (by her own admission).

Of course, in reality most people are not consistent and can present quite different aspects of character at different times, with different people, and in different situations. Snape and Dumbledore are very real in part *because* JKR makes them so ambiguous in their actions, motivations, etc. Is it bad writing? Did she do it by mistake? Or did she base many of her characters on real people and was simply an extremely good observer of real individuals and good at putting them down on paper? I don't know. I sometimes lean toward the last possibility.

Nice talking. :) I need to go.