Race and Physical Appearance

In part, Tolkien uses the different races of Middle-earth—Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Men, Orcs, and Ents—to display the diversity of the realm and variety in characterization. As C.S. Lewis notes, Tolkien’s characters wear their individual distinctiveness in their stature and their outward appearance. Legolas is soft-spoken and ethereal, like his “fair race” of Elves; Gimli is brutish and proud in his behavior, which mirrors his stocky size and the stalwart character of the Dwarves in general. The Ents, like the trees they resemble, are slow yet strong and wise with years. Men remain complex, as they have great physical strength proportionate to their size, yet are confused and ill-defined, as though their history lies mostly ahead of them.

Hobbits are popularly interpreted as Tolkien’s depiction of the common man, modern yet preindustrial. Certainly, Tolkien wishes us to identify more with the Hobbit protagonists than with the Men of his tales. The Men are mythic, like the giants or heroes of old who will later produce humankind as we know it. The four hobbits, on the other hand, venture forth from the sheltered Shire and experience the fantastical quality of Middle-earth. Their size reveals much about their qualities—their humility, love for common things, and jovial, amicable social habits. Their small size also emphasizes our sense that the creatures we encounter in Middle-earth are larger than life.

SYMBOLS

Symbolsare objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Water

Throughout The Lord of the Rings, water serves as a lifesaving force for the good beings of Middle-earth. Gandalf and Aragorn are saved from death after long falls when they land in bodies of water. When Arwen races to Rivendell on horseback with a badly injured Frodo, she escapes the pursuing ringwraiths when they are flooded by water. Similarly, Isengard loses its power when its plain is flooded. Water also suggests the afterlife. The elves depart Middle-earth on a boat and sail out to a great body of water. When Boromir dies, his dead body is placed on a pyre and sent down a river. Although he is dead, this journey suggests that he will live on in the memory of others. By the end of Sam and Frodo’s quest towards the Mount Doom water means for them both life and success in their journey. Without water the two hobbits would have failed to complete the task.

The Ring

As a physical object with a mysterious claim over its owner, the Ring acts as a concrete symbol of the ambiguity of evil that Tolkien explores in the novel. Created by the evil Sauron, it is at first synonymous with its maker’s evil power. Those who encounter the ring are overcome with longing for power over others, and the ring could give more power to Sauron.

The Ring has a tangible presence and it maintains easily observable powers. The Ring causes its wearer to physically disappear, but it also weakens the owner’s personal sense of identity with each use. In Mordor, the Ring appears to be an undeniable symbol of the physical force of evil. It grows progressively heavier with Frodo’s each step toward Orodruin, and it causes the violent eruption and dissolution of Mordor’s power with its deposit in the Cracks of Doom. At the same time, the Ring’s weight is felt only by the wearer, for Sam carries Frodo and his Ring with surprising ease. The Ring, in its ambiguity, symbolizes both the power and the horror attributed to it, in the pride of its owner and the physical destruction that the owner’s pride delivers upon himself and others. The Ring also suggests slavery and weakness, since whoever gives in to the temptation of the ring becomes a slave to it. Gollum is an example of what happens physically when one succumbs to the ring. Man, too, is weak, and Isildur failed to destroy the ring in Mordor. The fact that weakness affects every race of Middle-earth shows the extent of the ring’s power.

As the trilogy proceeds, new symbols emerge to counteract the temptation of the ring. The sword Anduril suggests good and unity, rather than evil and disunity. When Elrond presents the sword to Aragorn, he says that the fate of Arwen has been linked to the fate of the ring: as the ring grows stronger, she grows weaker. Arwen, therefore, serves as a kind of symbol herself, the very opposite of Sauron: the anti-ring, the symbol of hope and good.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 1008