Eowyn: was Golden Compass

[or.phan_ann]

kempermentor wrote:
>
> > Ann:
> > More canon: in "The Houses of Healing" Gandalf notes explicitly  
 > > that Wormtongue has been dominating Eowyn as well as Theoden
[...] > > And "The Steward and the King" makes it clear that she's
suffering > > from something similar to modern clinical depression.
> 
> Kemper now:
> I would need more canon to address the clinical depression.  As I'm
> not into LotR, I'm disinclined to seek it myself.
> But even if so, doesn't it make woman, as Eowyn, weak due to       
> emotional problem (abuse of Wormtongue/rejection of Aragon).
> Does JRRT show Man (not a Hobbit, Dwarf, Elf) as possibly clinically
> depressed?  I don't know.

Ann:
Well, most of the Quenta Silmarillion is tragic; look at Turin
Turambar, for instance, who has it far worse than Eowyn. But Theoden
himself is a far more obvious example, and so is Wormtongue. 

I don't think that Eowyn is made out to be "weak" for especially
feminine reasons. Wormtongue has poisoned other minds, and I don't
think her problem is that she's rejected by Aragorn so much as she
constantly externalises her problems, which is why she wants him in
the first place. If she had got him, I don't think a peaceful life in
Minas Tirith would have done much for her. 

In any case, depression is an illness, and doesn't mean she's weak.
Note that her "weakness" takes the form of running away from home to
become a soldier...

> Kemper now:
> I wasn't suggesting strong meaning admirable.

Ann:
Never said you did, but Jane does some pretty nasty things. And Lady
Eboshi can be easily read as a villain, and Azula *is* the villain.

Ann