"I dislike Allegory--the conscious and intentional allegory--yet any attempt to explain the purport of myth or fairytale must use allegorical language. (And, of course, the more 'life' a story has the more readily will it be susceptible of allegorical interpretations: while the better a deliberate allegory is made the more nearly will it be acceptable just as a story."
Most Tolkien admirers know of the author's relative distaste for allegory as illustrated in this now-famous quote written in a letter he sent to Milton Waldman. And as has been raised periodically during this semester, Tolkien was pretty critical of his friend C.S. Lewis's unabashed allegory in The Chronicles of Narnia. Yet, when I read The Lord of the Rings recently, I could not help but notice that that work, along with his others, seem to rely heavily on strong spiritual themes and allusions. How then, I wondered, could these works not be considered as allegory?
Then I came across the aforementioned quote in the Preface of my copy of The Silmarillion, and for a moment, Tolkien's usage of allegorical motifs seemed to make a little more sense. For one, Tolkien disliked "conscious and intentional allegory." Tolkien's description of the dragon in Beowulf, I believe, better demonstrates this point. It, being the dragon, does not quite exemplify draco, the "personification of malice, greed, destruction" but instead is written quite simply as a dragon, more independent of the qualities and vices commonly associated with the creature. Tolkien goes on stating quite simply that "the large symbolism [of the dragon] is near the surface, but it does not break through, nor become allegory." The dragon revealed traits of those vices associated with it, but it does not become that thing in a purely allegorical sense, just how Tolkien would have likely approved.
The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion utilize "allegorical language" without falling into allegory themselves. Undoubtedly, characters, events, and features in each of these books resemble many elements of the real world, yet Tolkien masterfully ensures that his characters do not become that which they tend to represent. As a result, upon reading these books, it may appear as though much of what is written is strictly metaphorical, but that is because Tolkien infused his stories with themes about life familiar to many people. Far from being pure Allegory, Tolkien masterfully employs techniques that remind readers of that which they might already know without intending for his story to be a retelling of one already told.
I like how you talk about allegory. There is a big difference between allegory like C.S. Lewis and the more allusion that Tolkien does in his works. While every author is going to add things to thier writeing that play a large part in their lives (religion in this case) I do think there is a big difference between subtlety and heavy handedness. When reading these books, I do think we become more aware of these allusions, but that is because we are studying the works and looking for this sort of thing. I remember reading these when I was younger and I did not make the connection, but I simply wasnt looking for it.
ReplyDeleteReally good points all around, especially when you distinguish allegorical language from full allegory. That probably is one of the biggest differences looking back on when I read C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series in middle school versus LOTR in high school. For example, when I think of Aslan all I can think about is the blatant allegory of Jesus Christ. Besides this image, there is not really a lot to say about this character in regards to personality, character traits, etc. Just imagine the Biblical character in the form of Panthera leo, and you essentially have Aslan. Flash forward to in class discussion where someone made a similar Christ figure comparison to Gandalf. Sure, Gandalf has some of the qualities of being a literary Christ figure; however, he has his own separate personality and traits, essentially only being clothed in allegorical language. So again, I quite agree with your assessment of Tolkien’s subtle use of allegorical techniques.
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