SEVERUS SNAPE AS A TRAGIC

HERO
 Aristotle’s Concept Of Tragic Hero
Four important qualities of tragic hero

Goodness-The hero of the tragedy should be good but not a

perfect character . He should pass from prosperity to adversity.

Appropriateness- The characters must naturally be linked with

their age , sex ,social class, status and nationality.

Lifelikeness- The character should be true to life .

Consistency- A character should be consistent . He should be

consistently inconsistent.
Snape’s Life From Childhood to Death
Severus Snape, a half blood wizard who teaches at Hogwarts
School of Wizardry.
In his childhood he met Lily Evans ,with whom he grew a strong
friendship and eventually fell in love with.
They later got separated because he called Lily a muggle for
which she did not forgive him and then she got married to James
Potter , who use to bully Snape.
 Snape became a Death Eater , a follower of Voldermort.
When he heard a prophecy that a boy born will kill Voldermort,
and found that the child was of lily, he begged to spare her life but
Voldermort refused.
Lily got killed which made Snape a double agent for both
Voldermort and Dumbledore.
All his life he had been a stubborn ,abusive teacher.
 Before he died he showed his actual love which he actually had
for Harry because he loved Lily very much.
 SNAPE’S TRAGIC HEROIC
QUALITIES
Aristotle’s first quality : the hero
should be a good man but not perfect.

Snape as a character was a good person

.He had a pure love for Lily but due to
the prophecy revealed by him to
Voldermort ,Lily gets killed. Snape,out
of love for Lily , cared for Harry but
never showed it directly . For example
in Qudditch game a professor who was
a agent of Voldermort tried to kill harry
but Snape saved him through his spells.
Aristotle's the second and third
qualities are appropriateness and true
to life.

Snape as a character has an

appropriate class of being a wizard
and he throughout his life worked as a
wizard.

He is like a real life character . He is a

person with extreme feelings and
actions. His life has all those qualities
which human around us too posses.
From being bullied since childhood
by James and his friend and from
being betrayed in love with Lily and
too losing her for his own fault has
made him rude, arrogant and harsh
towards others.
Aristotle’s fourth quality; the
character should be
consistent.

We meet Snape from

beginning till the end as a
rude, arrogant, harsh person
,which he showed towards
Harry and many other
students .He remained
throughout as a double agent
working for both Voldermort
and Dumbledore .At his
death only do we get know
the reason behind his
rudeness.
ARISTOTLE COINED THREE TERMS IN
RELATION TO TRAGEDY AND TRAGIC HERO
Peripetia : It is translated as reversal of the situation.. In Snape’s life
this comes shortly after he becomes a highly valued Death Eater by
delivering the prophecy , and then he realizes that the prophecy
interpretation will cost Lily’s life.

Anagnorsis: It is translated as recognition . Anagnorsis regarding

Snape’s could either be the moment when he realizes Voldermort’s
interpretation of the prophecy , or when Harry realizes Snape’s true
intentions in The Deathly Hollow. Finally there must be a scene of
suffering which directly precedes the death of the tragic hero.

Hamartia:It has been explained as ‘flaw’ by Butcher and Bradley,

‘error’ by Bywater, and ‘sin’ by Humphrey House. Snape life’s tragic
flaw or hamartia is that he acted as double agent for both Dumbledore
and Voldermort. He worked for Voldermort as a Death Eater and on the
other hand he worked for Dumbledore and tried to save Harry .
 CONCLUSION
From book 1,Harry Potter and the
Philosophers Stone till the last book
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,
we find Snape as a villain ,who is cruel
,abusive, and harsh .But at the end of
the last book ,at the verge of his death
we actually get to know his past and
his love and care both for Lily and her
son Harry whom he was only trying to
save from Voldermort rather than
actually harming him. With his death
we actually have pity for him and see
him as a tragic hero and fear by his
tragic death.
 THANK YOU

PRESENTED BY :Sreeparna Sengupta

MA Final.