The "Brit a Day" series

What does a months-long parade of attractive British men have to do with fiction, you might well ask? These gentlemen have inspired some lovely scenes, part of the life I live in my head. Over time, some of these scenes reach out to one another and begin to form a story. For the present, each one of these pictures provides a writing prompt for me, a way to keep me writing with a sense of passion and narrative, even when the stories are not yet fully formed.



Saturday, July 17, 2010

A Brit a Day [#159]

This picture is from promo photos for an earlier Harry Potter film, but I do hope we see a lot more of Alan Rickman as Prof. Snape in this fashion--unkempt straight black hair, fully cloaked like an upright bat, small white rim of collar and cuffs peeking out from the severe black attire. The look creates a lot of tension about what lies underneath and curiosity about to whom he would ever reveal it. I can't help but think of the sexually repressed Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter.' Dimmesdale is sensual even in his self-loathing of his sensuality, and I tend to project the same emotions onto Severus Snape.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you completely. I've always seen little bits and pieces of other literary characters, Rev. Dimmesdale being one of them. I've also often thought of Heathcliff from "Wuthering Heights" and the title character from "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin.
They are both dark, tragic and terribly romantic!