Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Eowyn's Transformation
As we begin the Return of the King, we see an awful lot of storyline dedicated to Eowyn and her role in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Theoden does not want her to join the battle, probably for her own protection and because he does not think she will make a huge difference. However, she helps to turn the tide of the whole battle by slaying the Witch King of Angmar with Merry's assistance. When introduced to her in the Two Towers, she wants to join in the fighting because she sees this as the only way she can help destroy the evil. The long hours haunted by Grima she spent in the Golden Hall instilled her with a sense of near hopelessness and coldness. However, when she is injured and taken to the Houses of Healing, we see Faramir slowly bring her around and warm up to become a much more gentle and loving character. She also discovers her vocation in healing since it did so much for her. What kind of message do you guys think Tolkien is trying to send with this character? Is it something surface level, like the idea that healing is better than fighting, or something deeper, such as a character change from coldness and despair to warmth and hope? I would argue the latter.
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I feel like her transformation has a lot to do with Tolkien's belief that all things are innately good (and only become evil/negative when influenced). By showing Eowyn influenced by both good and bad things and how she either thrives or falters does a good job of demonstrating Tolkien's view that a good person is helped and positively transformed by goodness in their life.
ReplyDeleteI think that Tolkien is trying to show that there is so much more to defeating evil than directly fighting it. You can't fight fire with fire and because Sauron's army only uses brute force if the armies of the free people only fought back then the two armies would brutally destroy one another. (The free people are probably most likely to die seeing as there are many more soldiers in Sauron's army). However, we see that healing plays a major role in battles on the free people's side. I think showing care and concern for your soldiers is important as it raises moral and lets them fight another day. The soldier's in sauron's army don't get that same treatment, instead they are treated as expendable and not important. The leader of the Ring wraiths even strikes fear in the hearts of his soldiers, while Theoden sparked inspiration and encouragement.
ReplyDeleteA part of being good means you take care of others, while the bad ignore the needs of others and focus solely on what they want.