魔法世界的双重间谍——《哈利波特》西佛勒斯·斯内普的矛盾形象分析-文学学士毕业论文.doc

Abstract
This dissertation is to analyze the contradictory image of Severus Snape in Harry Potter, a double spy wizard in the magic world. This paper analyzes Professor Snape’s image from two aspects: his external image and his inner world. On one hand, Severus Snape’s external image reflects his inner world and character partially, on the other hand, his inner world and character decides his external hand performance. However, Snape’s external image is not all the demonstration of his inner world, nor all decided by his character. This is contradiction of Severus Snape character.
Severus Snape’s external image and inner world are mutual reflected. This paper is written by the way of flashback, first it reveals his contradictory two aspects: external image and inner world, and second it analyzes his character emphatically. Finally, it not only comes to the conclusion of his contradictory image, but also reveals how the author spread this character’s development in the works and this role’s important meaning as a bridge.
Key Words: Harry Potter; Snape; image; contradiction

摘要
本论文是分析《哈利波特》系列书中的西佛勒斯·斯内普，魔法世界中一个双重巫师间谍的矛盾人物形象。本论文从斯内普教授的外在形象和内心世界入手去剖析斯内普的形象，进而根据如此的形象和内心世界分析他的真实性格。一方面，他的外在形象部分地反映了他的内心世界和性格；另一方面，西佛勒斯·斯内普的性格和内心世界也决定了他的外在表现。但是，斯内普的外在形象既不是他内心世界的所有展示，也不全是性格所导致的，这正是西佛勒斯·斯内普这个人物形象的矛盾所在。
西佛勒斯·斯内普的外在形象和内心世界时相互辉映的。本文以倒叙的方式，首先揭示了他极为到矛盾的这两个方面，再着重剖析他的性格，从而得出他的矛盾形象结论，更加揭示了作者如何精心铺展这个人物的发展以及这个人物在作品的桥梁作用和重要意义。
关键词：《哈利波特》；斯内普；人物形象；矛盾

Table of Contents
Abstract i
摘要 ii
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Topic and its significance 1
1.2 Writing background 2
1.3 Literature reviews 3
2. Image Analysis of Severus Snape 5
2.1 Snape’s external image 5
2.2 Snape’s inner world 8
2.2.1 Snape’s eternal love to Lily 8
2.2.2 Snape’s guardian to Harry 9
2.2.3 Snape’s responsibility with the faith of love. 10
2.3 The analysis of Snape’s character 11
2.3.1 An inferiority and misery childhood 11
2.3.2 An indifferent double spy 12
2.3.3 A gloomy inner entanglement 13
2.3.4 A loyalty member 13
3. Snape’s Existing Value and Significance 15
3.1 A bridge in the works 15
3.2 The reflect of heroism 15
4. Conclusion 17
References 18
Acknowledgements 20

1. Introduction
1.1 Topic and its significance
As we all know that everything in the world is contradictory, events, objects, animals, even human beings. It can also say that everything has two sides. For examples, (1)Pethidine is a kind of medicine which is used to relief patients’ pain, while it is excessively used by common people, it becoming a kind of drug; (2)explosives is used to improve people’s work efficiency by exploding dilapidated buildings and old bridges. So it seems, each role of the works also has its two sides. The surface of a character in the works is not necessarily the image of his true image. Take the role Quasimodo, which is from Victor Hugo’s great work Notre Dame DE Paris for an instance. Quasimodo is a deformed and ugly hunchback who is a bellringer at the cathedral of Notre Dame during the reign of Louis XI. The two sides of Quasimodo, are his ugly appearance and his good heart. Though he has an appearance which is cannot bear to see, he has a kind heart to rescue a gypsy girl Eameralda. He even dies for rescuing her from an abductor near the end of the book.
This theory is also applied when it comes to J.K. Rowling’s works, which including seven books Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and The Chamber’s Secrets, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and The Order of Phoenix, Harry Potter and The Half Blood of Prince, Harry Potter and The Death Hallows, creating a tend of magic reading in different ages. Apart from the “triangle’’ not mention, who have very high popularity in young readers, Severus Snape is a character with cold appearance but the indispensable one.
There is a saying that one hundred readers have one hundred Hamlet. Snape is so key and important in my eyes because of his demonstration of a great contradiction. Rowling’s books succeed integrating tradictionality and modernization. As the literary critic Berstein says. In one hand, the contrast of tradictionlity and modernization is performance in Snape’s great sacrifice. The modern society is a benefit maximization society. Each thinks for himself and his benefit. (1)The Xiao Yueyue event happened in Foshan city, has revealed people’s indifference in nowadays; several person passed by Xiao Yueyue but even not rescued her and took her to the hospital; (2) many old people would fell off on the road, and few people would go to lift them up for the reason that they are afraid of being framed to hit the old man. They might just think about their own, inconsiderating of old men’s life and death. Not like these people in modern society, Snape sacrificed himself for the justice world so far to end, leaving his reputation, his own emotion and his family behind. In my eyes, he is the real big hero, an unsung hero and the one who dare to sacrifice himself in Rolwing’s books.
It has a great significance to write this title to reveal Snape’s contradiction, which contains the bad surface and a real good essence, so that to alert common people do not forget to think for others and help them whenever and wherever.
1.2 Writing background
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was published in 1998. Since then the series, including Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 1999, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 1999, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2000, Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix in 2003, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in 2005 and Harry Potter and the Death Hallows in 2007, has been attractive to readers all over the globe. The magical world in those best sellers not only amazes readers of all ages but also brings Rowling great fortune, fame and awards. The scholastic Press reports on its website that all seven books have been on the New York Times Best Seller List. In the United States, there are 80 million copies of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in print. Besides, Harry Potter books have won awards such as the Hugo Award, the Bram Stocker Award, a special commendation for the Anne Spencer Lindbergh Prize, a special certificate of being a three-year winner of the Smarties Prize, as well as many other honors. The Press describes this publishing phenomenon as a mania of reading. The Harry Potter books create a fantastic inspiration for children readers, and the popularity of the Harry Potter books shows the social impact the series had.
Rowling’s books stem from traditional fairy tales. However, they are modernized. The familiarity of the plots, the characterization of the protagonists and antagonist lead the readers comfortably into Harry Potter’s magical world.
Harry’s story, in other words, with its early images of alienation, rejection, loneliness and powerlessness leading to its classically fairy tale ending, contains the same basic message that Bettelheim described in The Uses of Enchantment. It is “that a struggle against severe difficulties in life unavoidable, is an intrinsic part of human existence—but that if one does not shy away, but steadfastly meets unexpected and often unjust hardships, one masters all obstacles and at the end emerges victorious(Bernstein).
Besides containing some of the traditional elements, such as the adventures of an orphan hero, Rowling’s tales appeal to modern thought. The background of not a forest, but a wizarding world, a parody of the readers’ real world, in which has schools, railway station, banks and stores, people do their own work to earn money just like us common people in modern society. There also existence bad person or the good guy—Volderment killing people so that he can find hallows to obtain the life just like some crime killing for money; there are famous people or some offers silently, such as Harry Potter or Severus Snape.
Rowling’s books also succeed in the revelation of mystery. She arranges witches and wizards to be both antagonists and protagonists. She tells us how witches and wizards are cultivated, including the selection of the wizards, the schooling they received and regulations they have to obey. She vividly describes the wizarding world, such as Hogwarts and Diagon Alley. We can see where witches and wizards associate with each others, and what buildings there are to house them in.
Rowling’s books also reveal character’s contradiction. The characters are full of contradictions everywhere in Rowling’s books. Volderment’s paradox is that his death with his new born; Harry’s paradox is that the weak of his spell with his mother’s strong love. The largest paradox character is Severus Snape, who is described as a marblehearted person with Death Eater sign on his arm, however he is reused by principal. On the other hand, he is member of the phoenix but he has killed Albus Dumbledore, the strongest resistant to Voldemort.
1.3 Literature reviews
Since the reading fanaticism has been lifted all over the world, a series related studies of Harry Potter books have been written in domestic or foreign. These researches cover many aspects including translations, values, heroism of characters, functions, ect.
These studies rise initially in abroad first, and have the trend of spread as Harry Potter books publication has successively. For instance, among the foreign studies, Bamdas, Joann Tucker (2002) studied the imagination at working improving adult literacy with the Harry Potter novels, which analysis feelings and reflections after reading Harry Potter books and then provide some proposes that tell adults how to read to improve their literacy; Main, Meredith Ann (2005) constructed the child in the Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter, which compares how those children overcome difficulties in order to fulfill their commissions; Noren, Mary Elizabeth (2007) proved the myth and the modern world view in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter beneath the invisibility clock, which reveals some modern views reflected in books; and Muddiman, Ashley (2007) studied Harry Potter and the public relations phenomenon; Lennard, Anthony(2007) learned Harry Potter and the quest for values, how the boy wizard can assist young people in making choices; Green, Covey Jordan investigated existentialism in Harry Potter.
Besides these foreign researches, there also a large amount of studies related to Harry Potter books written by either English majors or non-English majors in recent years. Such as 韩迪 (2009)、孙媛媛 (2010) engaged in the Gothic technology in Harry Potter books, showing how Gothic is used to build atmosphere in the books. And others like 吕丹丹 (2009)、周建 (2008) investigated the Harry Potter series from female perspective and feminism. 谢希琰 (2008) made studies on the translation of rhetorical devices of Harry Potter books, interpreting that how rhetoric is used in books to improve the abstraction. 金晶 (2005)、张顺美 (2006) conducted diversified initiation theme in books, such as theme of home, society, and adolescent. 梁红艳 (2009)、夏艳丽 (2011) studied internal relationship between Harry Potter books and his western tradition, like prototype motif of the bible, while 林慧贞 (2007) learned the death and afterlife which emerges on many people like Harry, Voldemort, Sirius Black, Ablus Dumbledore, and Severus Snape.
Through the researches mentioned above, we can see that the previous studies about Harry Potter books concentrated on the analysis of the works itself, such as technique and translation, or the theme and value, like hero, initiation. However, few people concern with the characters, especially the image of character. Due to this reason, I develop in the studies of character image of Severus Snape, a non-leading role but a key one.

2. Image Analysis of Severus Snape
2.1 Snape’s external image
Each character’s image description in every book is the most intuitive description to all readers. As a rule, what description the author setup to the role, what kind of inner world and personalities the role reflects. In the series books of Harry Potter, not mention the plot, Severus Snape is the most unique role except Harry Potter under the image description in readers’ eyes. There, to analyze Snape’s contradiction is to analyze his external image first, so as to dissect the contradiction more clearly.
2.1.1 A hardhearted and slovenly teacher
When it comes to Severus Snape, it first comes to his name. Character names in Harry Potter are carefully chosen nor to be lifelike but rather to color out understanding of various characters’ social ranks and personalities. This technique is closer to caricature than to realism and gives each character a larger-than-life, mythical feel. Snape is no exception, whose name is come from the word “snap”, meaning “breaking something suddenly with a sharp noise, or speaking saying something in an impatient, usually angry, voice” (Oxford: 2004:1659), associating him not only with unfair snap judgments of others but also with his violent intentions to snap the bones of his enemies.
Most of the series works of Harry Potter are set out to write from Harry’s visual, giving readers to the side of feeling. The first appearance of Severus Snape and his facial description are coming Harry’s eyes. When Harry came to Hogwarts, there, in the hall, he saw Professor Snape:
Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.
It happened very suddenly. The hooke-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell’s turban straight into Harry’s eyes—and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry’s forehead(J.K. Rowling 1997: 77).
The first description of Snape was an indication of Snape’s cold personality. First, the school opening ceremony is a very festive occasion, in where both professors and students were enjoying eating and drinking, laughing, only him, Professor Snape, closing his face, without talking or laughing. Second, the first description showed that he had a greasy and black hair. The word black, was usually mean unfriendliness. Besides, he had a hook-nosed, which was often a symbol of sharpness.
Snape’s hard-heart mainly display in his strict requirements to his students especially some bewilders to Harry. His strictness was sent out from inside to outside. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word—like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort (J.K. Rowling 1997: 83). There is a saying that eyes are the windows of the soul. Except his voice, his eye also can make students feel cold. His eyes were black like Hagrid’s, but they had none of Hagrid’s warmth. They were cold and empty and make you think of dark tunnels (J.K. Rowling 1997: 83).
Harry and Professor Snape’s first confrontation occurred in their first