Severus: What's My Motivation?
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Ah, what a delightfully juicy subject! Thank you for bringing it up. I can think of several replies.
The Doyleist explanation is that every school story has to have a resident Mean Teacher, and Severus fills that role. However, if we're going to treat these characters as real people...
1) I don't see why maintaining his cover as a DE would require Severus to treat Harry badly. I mean, the guy's a Slytherin! They're supposed to be sneaky, right? What could be sneakier than buttering Harry up, making friends with him--and then handing him over to Voldemort! That would be much more evil than being consistently nasty to the boy, thus putting him on his guard. As the old song says, "Your enemy can't do you no harm/'Cause you know where he's coming from." (The Undisputed Truth, "Smiling Faces" That could be Dumbledore's theme song.) http://www.lyricsdownload.com/undispute
2) I think Severus is a strict and demanding teacher, although not unreasonable, particularly since he's teaching a complicated and potentially dangerous subject. (People who think Snape is mean should have had my kindergarten and fifth grade teachers. They make Snape look like--well, maybe not Gandhi, but certainly Alan Alda.) Harry is not attentive or well-behaved; in fact, he's a dumb jock. They were bound to come into conflict sooner or later.
As an aside, I'd love to see Harry's records from his previous school. Did he get in trouble there, too? And how did the other Hogwarts teachers see him? The only reference we have is when Dumbledore tells Snape they liked him, but that's not testimony directly from the teachers themselves, and DD was trying to jerk Severus around in that scene, anyway.
I do think Severus was taking out some of his ire towards James on Harry, whether he intended to or not. I also think there's a strong element of self-hatred there, since it would have been impossible, at least at first, for Snape to look at Harry and not think about his own role in the deaths of Harry's parents, particularly the Sainted Lily. Guilt often makes people act nasty toward those they have wronged.
3) I do think Severus is one of those people who has trouble judging how he comes across to other people. In his mind, he's being strict but fair; in the minds of Harry and certain others, he's being an unreasonable prick.
4) In the POA scene, there's another angle to be considered: As far as Snape knows, Sirius is a ruthless traitor who killed the Potters. He doesn't know Harry has just been told Black is innocent (of that particular crime, anyway) and instantly changed to a Sirius supporter (in a completely unrealistic instant conversion, IMO). Severus must be thinking something like, "I just rescued these dumb kids from a ruthless mass murderer--who killed Potter's parents, no less!--and a werewolf who's about to transform. Yet they're still being obnoxious and disrespectful to me! Why are they not thanking me?! Why are they not down on the floor kissing my feet in gratitude?! Can they really be so stupid they don't realize the danger they're in? I know they're Gryffindors, but still!"
The Doyleist explanation is that every school story has to have a resident Mean Teacher, and Severus fills that role. However, if we're going to treat these characters as real people...
1) I don't see why maintaining his cover as a DE would require Severus to treat Harry badly. I mean, the guy's a Slytherin! They're supposed to be sneaky, right? What could be sneakier than buttering Harry up, making friends with him--and then handing him over to Voldemort! That would be much more evil than being consistently nasty to the boy, thus putting him on his guard. As the old song says, "Your enemy can't do you no harm/'Cause you know where he's coming from." (The Undisputed Truth, "Smiling Faces" That could be Dumbledore's theme song.) http://www.lyricsdownload.com/undispute
2) I think Severus is a strict and demanding teacher, although not unreasonable, particularly since he's teaching a complicated and potentially dangerous subject. (People who think Snape is mean should have had my kindergarten and fifth grade teachers. They make Snape look like--well, maybe not Gandhi, but certainly Alan Alda.) Harry is not attentive or well-behaved; in fact, he's a dumb jock. They were bound to come into conflict sooner or later.
As an aside, I'd love to see Harry's records from his previous school. Did he get in trouble there, too? And how did the other Hogwarts teachers see him? The only reference we have is when Dumbledore tells Snape they liked him, but that's not testimony directly from the teachers themselves, and DD was trying to jerk Severus around in that scene, anyway.
I do think Severus was taking out some of his ire towards James on Harry, whether he intended to or not. I also think there's a strong element of self-hatred there, since it would have been impossible, at least at first, for Snape to look at Harry and not think about his own role in the deaths of Harry's parents, particularly the Sainted Lily. Guilt often makes people act nasty toward those they have wronged.
3) I do think Severus is one of those people who has trouble judging how he comes across to other people. In his mind, he's being strict but fair; in the minds of Harry and certain others, he's being an unreasonable prick.
4) In the POA scene, there's another angle to be considered: As far as Snape knows, Sirius is a ruthless traitor who killed the Potters. He doesn't know Harry has just been told Black is innocent (of that particular crime, anyway) and instantly changed to a Sirius supporter (in a completely unrealistic instant conversion, IMO). Severus must be thinking something like, "I just rescued these dumb kids from a ruthless mass murderer--who killed Potter's parents, no less!--and a werewolf who's about to transform. Yet they're still being obnoxious and disrespectful to me! Why are they not thanking me?! Why are they not down on the floor kissing my feet in gratitude?! Can they really be so stupid they don't realize the danger they're in? I know they're Gryffindors, but still!"