Comparing and contrasting Snape and Mr Creakle (From David Copperfield)

Snape is willing to teach his pupils his potions subject and the pupils are not in fear to attend his class, whereas Mr Creakle enjoys punishing his pupils and not a lot of learning takes place in this classroom.  Mr Creakle’s pupils are in total fear of attending his classes.

Behaviour

In class, Snape likes to single out and blame Harry for things that are not his fault, “You Potter, why didn’t you tell him not to add the quills?  Thought he’d make you look good if he got it wrong, did you?”  This shows that Snape does not like Harry and likes to belittle him in front of the class.  

Mr Creakle likes to single out particular boys and then torment them individually, “On the contrary, a large majority of the boys were visited with similar instance of notice”.  These instances obviously being a whipping.  This shows that Mr Creakle believes tormenting one boy will influence the others.

The above shows that Snape is nasty and biased towards Harry and Gryffindor whereas Mr Creakle is violent towards the whole class.

Background and Family

Snape’s background and family are not mentioned at all.  He is a single man and not married.  Also, we are not told of Mr Creakle’s background but we do know that he has a wife and a daughter, “which so abashed me, when I was ushered into it, that I hardly saw Mrs Creakle or Miss Creakle (who were both there in the parlour)”.  Although Mr Creakle does have a wife and daughter, he never mentions them or talks to them.  He gives the impression to people that he is a single man.

Conclusion 

Both Mr Creakle and Snape come from different backgrounds, yet both have similar ideas towards education, being strict and powerful.  Mr Creakle is harsh and likes to use physical punishment wherever possible, whereas Snape  is sarcastic and likes to treat his pupils as inferior.  Despite these contrasts they both inflict mental cruelty upon their pupils.