The Perception of Women in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

0.  Introduction  2

1.  The Female Characters  3

1.1  Their Personalities  3

1.2  Their Sexuality  5

2.  The Women's Virtues  7

2.1  Subordination  7

2.2  Self- denial  10

2.3  Weakness  11

3.  The Women's Vices  13

3.1  Temptation  13

3.2  Evil  13

4.  Conclusion  15

5.  Bibliography  16

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0. Introduction

Since the first film of Peter Jackson's trilogy, "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", was released, debates about the role of women in Tolkien's work have emerged again. Fans of Tolkien praise the writer's deep understanding of the female mind while on the other side his critics mourn about a medieval and chauvinistic perception of women in his books. In this paper, I want to examine the role of women in Tolkien's most popular and successful book The Lord of the Rings. In the first chapter I will describe the female characters as the y are presented in the book. I will put special emphasis on how the women's sexuality is presented. In the second chapter, I will analyse the most important character traits that distinguish the "good" from the "bad" women in The Lord of the Rings: subordination, self- denial and weakness. The third chapter will deal with the vices that are represented by some of the female characters: temptation and evil.

In the last chapter I will conclude the paper by summarising and discussing the main arguments of the first three chapters. I will also briefly discuss the consequences of such a presentation of women in literature. Tolkien gave birth to different kinds of fantasy races in The Lord of the Rings. I am aware of the fact that not all of the females in his work are humans. However, I found it less disturbing to the flow of the paper to speak of women rather than females all the time. I hope the reader will excuse that.

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1. The Women's Characters

1.1 Their Personalities

Most of the women we meet in The Lord of the Rings are characterised fairly similarly. The only exceptions in this are Éowyn and Shelob.

The first woman of some importance, Goldberry, is presented to be very girlish. Constantly singing and dancing around with her husband, she has a "clear, ma iden- like voice", and the "slender grace of her movement filled them with quiet delight" (Tolkien a: 171). Another sign of her apparent immaturity is that she has to go to bed early (Tolkien a: 173). At their parting the Hobbits see her "small and slender like a sunlit flower against the sky" (Tolkien a: 187). She seems pure and fresh and transforms everything around her to be just the same (see Tolkien a: 186). The first time Arwen appears, she sits next to her father Elrond and her cousin Glorfindel. The description of the two male elves is full of hints to their strength of character. Elrond is described to be "venerable as a king crowned with many winters and yet hale as a tried warrior in the fullness of his strength" (Tolkien a: 297). Glorfindel's description also reveals his power: "On his brow sat wisdom, and in his hand was strength" (Tolkien a: 297). Arwen, however, is only depicted as lovely and beautiful to look at. The next time we see her, she is sitting with her father while Aragorn stands protectively next to her, looking down on her (see Tolkien a: 311). Thus, Arwen is presented as a very beautiful woman, but we do not get to know anything about her actual character. The only thing Tolkien hints at is a certain weakness, as she is always described to be close to either her father or Aragorn, who protect her.

Just like Arwen, Galadriel is described as a pure virgin- like woman as she is "clad wholly in white" and has hair "of deep gold" (Tolkien a: 460). She seems very mysterious and it is hard to fully understand her character. Even though she is a ring-bearer, she never shows any sign of power. Galadriel is a very pure and innocent character: "There is in her and in her land no evil unless a man brings it hither himself" (Tolkien a: 465). We do get to know a different side of her, however, when she is tempted to take the

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ring. She resists the temptation and thus restores the picture of innocence and beauty.

When we first meet Éowyn, she is presented unlike any other female in the book. She seems to be very strong- minded, self-confident and restless. "But am I not of the house of Eorl, a shield- maiden and not a dry-nurse? I have waited on faltering feet long enough" (Tolkien c: 62), she tries to convince Aragorn to let her go to fight with the warriors. Her desire to fight, however, issues not from her sense of responsibility but from pride and the prospect of winning fame. She asks: "Shall I always be left behind when the riders depart to mind the house while they win renown?" (Tolkien c: 62). And when Aragorn tells her that she has to stay home, she knows exactly why he does not want her to come: "All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house" (Tolkien c: 63). In this scene, Tolkien seems to understand and sympathise with the problem of many women. To Aragorn´s question about what she is afraid of, he lets Éowyn answer: "A cage . . . To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire" (Tolkien c: 63). After the battle of Gondor, Gandalf makes a very similar remark about Éowyn´s life:

"You had horses, and deeds of arms, and the free field; but she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours. Yet she was doomed to wait upon an old man . . . and her part seemed to her more ignoble than that of the staff he leaned on" (Tolkien c: 169).

If the story did not take a turning in the end which puts Éowyn in exactly the position she feared, this would be a remarkable insight into the female mind. The way the story goes on, however, implies one thing: Even though women seem to feel that way sometimes, they are misled and need to be tamed and put into order. We will have a closer look at how this happens to Éowyn in chapter 3.1.

The female spider Shelob is the most evil creature described in the book. As a reader, we still feel sorry for Saruman as he is characterised with at least some humanity left and we never meet the worst enemy, Sauron. Shelob, on the other hand, is described in every evil detail: "She served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless blooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow;

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