IntroductionThere are probably few people in this world who can deny guilt. Some call that sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach or that nagging voice in their head the way they consciously talk to themselves. Whatever people want to call this feeling, few can deny that they have never felt it. Is it this connection between guilt and the need to alleviate it that attracts people so much to characters who have flaws? Is this inherent human need to root for people who make mistakes what draws us to the characters? Or is it the fact that in many stories those characters usually end up redeeming themselves in the end? Do we root for the flawed hero because humans want him too? A character who became beloved for his imperfections and his redemption at the end of his life is Severus Snape from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows written by JK Rowling. Examining the character of Snape from the artifact Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, through Kenneth Burke's Guilt Redemption Cycle, the question, "Has Severus Snape succeeded in alleviating his guilt according to Kenneth Burke's Guilt Redemption Cycle?" an answer will be given.ArtifactIn 1997, the first book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was released in the United States. It was then that people began to fall in love with “The Boy Who Lived,” Harry Potter, and began their love/hate relationship with the man who would end up helping save his life multiple times (Rowling, JK, 2007 ) . This love/hate relationship developed because it seems that this man, a professor at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was constantly against the hero, Harry. There is an accumulation of the fact that Sna...... middle of paper...... Corporation.Rowling, JK (1999). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York, NY: ScholasticCorporation. Rowling, J. K. (1999). Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. New York, NY: ScholasticCorporation. Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York, NY: ScholasticCorporation. Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York, NY: ScholasticCorporation. Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. New York, NY: ScholasticCorporation. Rowling, J. K. (2007). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York, NY: ScholasticCorporation. Samra, R. (1998). Guilt, purification and redemption. American Communication Journal, 1(3), 1.Scheibel, D. (1999). If your roommate dies, you get a 4.0: Reclaiming the Rumors with Burke and Organizational Culture. Western Communications Journal (63) 2