Heathcliff, Mr Rochester, Maxim de Winter, Inspector Morse (yes please!) always there is the fascination of the dark tormented (anti) hero.
Some of the attention that this character has received is certainly due to the seriously attractive actor, Alan Rickman (WOW!!), who plays him in the films. Probably if he had been made more unattractive this fascination would not have been so strong!
But still, we all sympathise with the outcast, the bullied-because-he-is-different, the unattractive person who hides his insecurity behind a barrier of unpleasantness or “Snappishness”. Because we see ourselves in him, we want to see him redeemed, as Saul of Tarsus (another unpleasant character in his youth!) was redeemed.
My own character, Derek Rogers, is a sort of minor Severus Snape. Based on a “Dark Angel” in my own past, he was a way of dealing with the emotional effect that particular person had on me. Perhaps JK has used her Snape character to deal with someone in her own past, I understand he was based on a hated teacher.
Unfortunately, I feel that she has made a mistake and she should have kept the horrible end of her character for her own private catharsis, allowing Severus a future in the light.
In Severus we all see our own need for salvation and our own struggle against personal evil. What a pity though- even if he had to die, a heroic death would have been uplifting for the readers. As it is, it is rather sickening, in my opinion.
Just my own take on this matter.
liz
Also see:
and
http://pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com/2007/07/severus-snape-and-transparency-of-evil.html
