The Great Eye of Sauron

Like the Ring, the Great Eye of Sauron indicates both the physical force of evil and the elusive quality of evil. Perched atop Sauron’s Dark Tower, behind Mount Doom, the Eye scans the borders of Mordor, but its gaze is not exhaustive. Frodo and Sam slip under its searching glance to reach the Cracks of Doom. The Eye is distracted by the forces of Aragorn to the north. Nevertheless, as Frodo and Sam approach the Cracks, the Eye becomes strangely aware of the hobbits’ presence, and the dark land underneath trembles. Through the Eye, Sauron appears capable of directing his will toward the physical world in a stream of power. As with with other forms of evil in the novel, the extent of the Eye’s real power remains elusive. It provides a physical image for Sauron, but, at the same time, Sauron remains only a shapeless idea behind the Eye. The only thing we know definitely is that the Great Eye is constantly open and searching. The final moments of Mordor indicate that, just as Denethor believes everything Sauron shows him through the palantír, so Sauron believes everything the Great Eye sees occurring outside the Dark Tower.

Mount Doom

Mount Doom is both the birthplace of the ring and the place where it can be destroyed. This is Frodo’s ultimate destination, and it also presents him with his greatest challenge. Mount Doom itself symbolizes the spiritual ascent that Frodo and Sam must make to destroy the Ring. Destroying the ring is in many ways more difficult than reaching Mount Doom, and twice we see characters fail when faced with the task. Isildur, after defeating Sauron’s armies, enters the fiery mountain intending to destroy the ring, but at the last moment he turns back and decides to keep it for himself. When Frodo brings the ring to Mount Doom, he, too, intends to destroy it, but like Isildur, he decides at the last minute to keep it. Though the ring is ultimately destroyed after Frodo and Gollum’s struggle for it, Frodo did not let it go on his own. Though he passes many tests on his journey, Frodo fails in this final test at Mount Doom. Mount Doom in this case suggests the darkness and weakness that exists even in the most pure-hearted, a lure so powerful that even the most determined voyager needs additional help to resist temptation.

Minas Tirith

The great city and fortress of Gondor situated on the border with Mordor, Minas Tirith symbolizes the precarious condition of the West in the conflict against Mordor. As a city, Minas Tirith evokes a sense of human history and the hope of future progress. Its survival determines the survival of humankind. The white walls of Minas Tirith, organized into the beauty and order of seven concentric circles, symbolize the ability for moral choice among the peoples of the West. The white exterior can be marred or preserved. Sauron’s corrupting influence over Denethor has caused the walls of Minas Tirith to deteriorate. The White Tree, the city’s symbol, remains broken. Aragorn’s rise to the throne leaves physical marks of his spiritual and political renewal of Gondor on the city of Minas Tirith. The city walls are restored, and a new sapling of the White Tree is replanted in the Court of the Fountain.

The Christ Figure

Frodo and Gandalf each fill the sacrificial role of a Christlike character at various points in The Lord of the Rings, but Aragorn’s fulfillment of the prophecies surrounding the return of the King to Gondor casts the Ranger as the most explicit Christ figure of the novel. Aragorn’s journey through the Paths of the Dead parallels Christ’s purported descent into hell after his death on the cross. Aragorn’s healing of the wounded in Minas Tirith—with only the touch of his hand and his kiss—equally recalls Christ’s work with the sick as recorded throughout the Gospels. Aragorn’s Christlike nature does not indicate that the third volume of The Lord of the Rings is intended to be a systematic analogy for the Christian narrative. Rather, the biblical overtones in Aragorn’s rise to the throne are more properly a motif, providing a structure for discerning the images of sacrifice, redemption, and rejuvenation in the Zion-like city of Minas Tirith. These principles and archetypes carry Christian meaning in Tolkien’s text.

IMPLIED MEANINGS

In his preface to the trilogy, Tolkien distinguishes between allegory and applicability in literature. While he denies having imposed any allegorical significance on his story, he asserts the right of readers to apply the story as they see fit. Readers in all generations can apply to their own age some of the overall principles embodied in the trilogy.

It’s widely agreed now and it is true that Tolkien’s tales of Middle-earth present more than just an escapist fantasyabout a magic, faraway world. Rather, they give us a view of the world as it was changing in the middle of the twentieth century, forcing us to consider the values that dominated the emerging era. Characters in the novel frequently comment on how the times are “dark,” as Éomer puts it in The Two Towers—echoing what many commentators said about World War II. The novel is a battle between the forces of good and evil, and the good side is represented by an alliance of various races with diverse customs and interests. The collaboration of Elves, Dwarves, Men, and Hobbits in pursuit of the common goal of saving the world—a sort of primordial version of the United Nations—presents an early vision of the global thinking that characterized postwar society. Cultural differences are present—we hear much about how different Dwarves are from Elves, for example—but they are put aside when collaboration is required. The pursuit of goodness and fellowship across races is part of what makes The Lord of the Rings so enduring in difficult historical times.

The evil of totalitarianistic power is one of the central themes in The Lord of the Rings. As Tolkien himself explained, The Lord of the Rings is a story “cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom with consent against compulsion that has long lost any object save mere power, and so on.” The basic plot of The Lord of the Rings involves the epic quest to destroy the One Ring, in which is contained the power to rule all of Middle-earth. While the characters and events of The Lord of the Rings generally defy precise allegorical parallels, the One Ring easily symbolizes the corruption and tyrannythat result from having unchecked political power. The One Ring confers on its wearer the power to rule Middle-earth, but also imposes an inescapable slavery to maintain this power at any cost. At one level, The Lord of the Rings allegorizes the progression of a tyrant. Beginning as a ruler, even a well-intentioned one, he or she becomes ruled by the spasmodic hunger to acquire yet more power and the insatiable desire to squelch all freedom. The tyrant then becomes as enslaved as his or her subjects, all of whom exist in a state of commonplace bondage repugnant to any expression of virtue.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 858