An analysis inspired by my username :)
There are about 300* times in the series that Snapeās delivery of dialogue contains additional descriptives beyond āsaidā, giving us insight into his tone. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at what this can tell us about Snapeās character. And if youāre a fic writer looking to have your Snape reflect canon!Snape as much as possible (or even if not, and youāre looking to make choices that will distinguish him from canon!Snape), I figured this might be a helpful resource.
[Adverbs] Snape says thingsā¦
...softly or quietly, most often, followed by coldly, coolly, or icily, and then smoothly, silkily, or sleekly.
This trend holds when we look across not just adverbs modifying āsaidā but all verbs of speech. Here's how those descriptors are used across the books in the series:
And here's what that looks like split up by the different eras in Snape's life:
Snape is most often described as saying things ārepressivelyā or ādismissivelyā as well as ācalmlyā, āslowlyā, or ādeliberatelyā in his double agent days, which are adverbs that convey a certain amount of control over the conversation, information, and his own temperament. Taken together, this may reflect his increased caution and the high-stakes nature of information at this stage.
Although Snape displays little patience for those not at his level even in his teenage years (ājust shove a bezoar down their throatsā comes to mind), his dialogue only reflects this with adverbs such as āsharplyā or ācurtlyā once he has established himself as an authority figure. We will see a similar pattern below with verbs and adjectives conveying impatience.
[Verbs] When Snape doesnāt simply āsayā something, heā¦
...Most often is expressing a negative emotion: shouting, yelling, bellowing or snarling and spitting. The largest portion of Snapeās shouts occur in HBP, specifically in Flight of the Prince, as he tries to direct the Death Eaters to leave and faces Harry. But looking across these first two emotionally-charged categories, about 30% of these (perhaps not surprisingly) occur in Prisoner of Azkaban, where Snape is spends a notable chunk of the book in an extremely emotional state.
However, he's not always shouting or snarling; approximately 15% of the time when he is not simply speaking, he is whispering or hissing, which complements the 25% of the time that he is speaking softly or quietly.
Let's look at this in relation to Snape's timeline:
It's fitting that the majority of Snapeās inquiries occur after Voldemortās return, when he returns to his double agent role, gathering intelligence.
I also think itās interesting what we donāt see in Snapeās school days. In childhood/school thereās relatively little superciliousnessāinstead, we see more argumentation; Snape argues, demands, pants, splutters, and backtracks.
Snapeās brand of snippy impatience and condescension (sneered/snarled/snapped, etc) is most evident in his days as a professor (before Voldemortās return through his years as a double agent). In his deep cover years it declines; he no longer has the time and heās focused on the task at hand.
Let's now look at the adjectives used to describe Snape's tone. Snape says things in a tone of voice that isā¦
...Most often soft, low, or quiet, followed by cold or icy, and then by sneering or sardonic. I find it fitting that Snapeās tone is described as impatient in GOF and HBP, both books in which Snape spends the year on tenterhooks, waiting for the axe to fall.
When we look at how these adjectives are distributed across Snape's lifetime, we can see that Snapeās vocalizations described as āterribleā only three times, and they occur at pivotal moments: Lilyās death and his own. Additionally, Snapeās unconcerned or bored tone comes out during his double agent years, and 3 out of the 4 times it is used as an affectation.
Misc. notes: It is also notable when there are a lack of descriptors surrounding Snapeās speech altogether. There are definitely fewer in the first two books, likely given their shorter length and lower reading level. However, there are three moments in Deathly Hallows that, taken together, really stood out to me: The Dark Lord Ascending, Voldemortās visit to Hogwarts to take the Elder Wand, and Snapeās meeting with Voldemort in the Shrieking Shack (that is, up until the moment of Snapeās murder, during which he protests and lets out a terrible scream). The lack of any description of Snape's speech is a neat nonverbal way to convey to us readers the effect of Occlumency.
Anyway, hope this was interesting, and Iād absolutely love to hear any additional insights you all pull out of this!
*This is by no means meant to be the definitive, exhaustive analysis of Snapeās speech. This was completed doing simple searches for dialogue with āSnapeā (didnāt have the raw text to write a script or anything), so itās entirely possible that Iāve missed several instances of Snape speaking when referred to as āheā and the dialogue in question is several lines away from his name. However, I believe those cases are relatively few, so Iām fairly confident that I have a majority of the instances in which Snapeās dialogue is described with an adverb, adjective denoting tone, or with a verb other than āsaidā. Itās likely the remainder would follow similar trends if they are dispersed sporadically throughout the series.
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