From Resentment to Empathy

 Some characters have the power to stay in the mind of the reader even years after being published, no matter how the character appears in the fictional narrative- a hero or an anti-hero. Narratives have that power to even turn the worst characters into the favourites of the readers. It is fascinating how the author, with a swift move of their pen can create such a wonderful, lively being just from their imaginations. Most often it might be the protagonist that captures the reader’s interest. But at certain unpredictable situations, the anti-hero, the villain is the one that takes the readers off their feet. 

 Recently the world has seen many representations, rewritings and reinterpretations of such anti-hero characters. It has become a recent trend that the antagonists are given prominence and their characters are being glorified. This can be seen in works of literature or movies. Some of them are Hannibal Lecter from the movie The Silence of the Lambs, Sir Sandor Clegane (The Hound) in the Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin, Sawyer in Lost series, Snape in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, Holden Caulfield from "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, so on and so forth goes the list. 

 These characters might not embody the stereotypical features and characteristics of a protagonist, but at times, the suffering or the social conditions or stigma faced by these same antagonists might create a deeper empathy in the mind of the reader towards this grey character. Snape from the Harry Potter series is one such character that has created such a novel, totally different approach in my mind for the first time ever. And for this particular reason, Snape will remain my most favourite. His character is penned by J. K. Rowling as a morally grey, serious, malevolent one. But later on, as the story progress, we see the internal conflicts and the reason why Snape has behaved in such a manner. This might serve as a reason for why people who have hated on Snape in the first few books start to empathize with him by the end of the story. Snape, being in love with character Lily, the mother of Harry, was not able to bring the love to a “happily ever after” kind of love. He loved her, but was not even able to save her from death and this has haunted him his whole life.

 The scene in the text where we see an exchange of dialogues between Dumbledore and Snape that Harry views through the Pensieve that Dumbledore left him. This is where the most prominent dialogue of the work enters. To the question of Dumbledore, “After all this time?” Snape answers, “Always” while the patronus charm of Snape appears to be a “doe” which was same as that of Lily’s. This shows the reader the depth of the love and loyalty that Snape has always held in his heart for Lily. And for this reason, even when he hates James Potter, he protects Harry until his last breath. And the readers who have hated Snape from the first book in the series onwards find themselves being empathetic towards his character. They have this feeling that they were always wrong about Snape. 

 But, like any interpretation this too have an extreme opposite end to it. Readers opine that only because of the reason that Harry is the son of James Potter, Snape shouldn’t have treated him so badly, without any humane compassion or empathy. He should not have exhibited his resentment towards James Potter to Harry. Such interpretations can be seen in many works of literature as well as movies. This is an intriguing area which makes the reader explore the works and the intricate complexities of the antagonists’ mind.

Adithya. S Assistant Professor, Department of English Al Shifa College of Arts and Science, Kizhatoor, Perinthalmanna