JRRT, JKR, UKLG, and the complexity of evil

[Schlobin at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19730


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> 
>    Critics have been hard on Tolkien for his "simplisticness," his 
> division of the inhabitants of Middle Earth into the good people 
and 
> the evil people.  And indeed he does this, and his good people tend 
to 
> be entirely good, though with endearing frailties, while his Orcs 
and 
> other villains are altogether nasty.  But all this is a judgment by 
> daylight ethics, by conventional standards of virtue and vice.  
When 
> you look at the story as a psychic journey, you see something quite 
> different, and very strange.  You see then a group of bright 
figures, 
> each one with its black shadow.  Against the Elves, the Orcs.  
Against 
> Aragorn, the Black Rider.  Against Gandalf, Saruman.  And above 
all, 
> against Frodo, Gollum.  Against him--and with him.
>    It is truly complex, because both the figures are already 
> doubled.  Sam is, in part, Frodo's shadow, his inferior part.  
Gollum 
> is two people, too, in a more direct, schizophrenic sense; he's 
always 
> talking to himself, Slinker talking to Stinker, Sam calls it. . . . 
> Frodo and Gollum are not only both hobbits; they are the same 
> person--and Frodo knows it.  
> 
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Fascinating discussion.


Yet, I would suggest that Tolkien is NOT simplistic. He has quite a 
few good characters who fall into evil, and several characters who 
are not one or the other.

Boromir is a good man who succumbs to ambition and pays the 
consequences. Aragorn celebrates Boromir in song AFTER Boromir has 
tried to take the ring from Frodo, but failed.  Galadriel is tempted 
by the dark side, but prevails.
Saruman was once good, but falls. Theoden is a good man who does bad 
things while under the influence of Grima Wormtongue. Throughout 
LOTR, you see the complexity of human nature.  Many good characters 
cannot rise to the level of Frodo's heroism (the Hobbit who stays in 
the Shire rather than accompanying Frodo, or Butterburr who keeps the 
inn at Bree). I would suggest that there is a clear demarcation 
between good and evil acts, and that the good person keeps trying to 
be good, and the evil person gives themselves over to evil.

susan