LOTR and Gender
I realise this is nothing original and people must have written volumes about this but I just thought about it, so...
You know how Tolkien is accused of misogyny? The Lord of the Rings saga doesn't pass the Bechdel test. No two female characters ever talk to each other in the course of the three novels. There are some female characters but they are mostly just objects for the men. They have no goals of their own. They are goals. Rosie for Sam to moon over, Arwen to be Aragorn's tragic love, and Galadriel, who is supposedly a powerful elven queen but who doesn't really do anything expect give the male heroes some handy hints and gifts. Okay okay, Arwen's goal is to get to be with Aragorn but her role is much more passive in the books than the films make it out to be. She's an object more often than a subject in the syntax of LOTR.
Eowyn is a refreshing exception among the passive female characters. She is given a personality and she actively pursues the things she wants. At first that's Aragorn, but then also glory on the battle field. She wants to be active and do something instead of hiding and waiting it out with the other women and children. She defies male authority and sneaks her way into the final battle - and ends up killing the Witch King of Angmar whom "no man can kill." Epic!
(Also remember how Macbeth thought he was indestructible because the witches had told him that no one born of a woman would be able to kill him. Macbeth thought that prophesy meant no one could defeat him but was slain by someone whose mother had died in childbirth and who had been "cut out of her mother's womb" and so technically hadn't been born of a woman. Not a gender issue but it's always cool when supernatural conditions have loopholes for technicalities. In Macbeth's case the witches were probably messing with him on purpose, making him believe he was invincible. In the Witch King of Angmar's case, it seems it was a mere oversight. He hadn't thought he would need to ward himself against being slain by a woman.)
Tolkien was trying to create new mythology for the Britts, so that's my justification to making comparisons with the Bible. Also, even if Tolkien hadn't been writing a new mythology, the Bible has had a huge influence on any stories our culture has come up with. Whether or not you believe in the stories found in the Bible, they are the great mythology of our culture. Women's role in that mythology is to bring about the fall from grace, and there are no women in the Bible who in any way redeem Eve's original sin. The one to do that is a man, Jesus. That's more than an epic story because billions of people have grown up believing in Adam, Eve and Jesus for the past two millenia, so the premise that a woman caused the fall from grace and a man repaired the damage (as much as it could be repaired) has had a huge impact on our culture and on our attitudes towards men and women.
Tolkien reverses that set-up. The one that caused mankind's fall from grace in Lord of the Rings is Isildur, a male ancestor of Aragorn. He took the ring from Sauron with good intentions (as Eve took the apple) but the ring's power corrupted him, and all of mankind with him. The great men of Numenor, who used to live as long as the elves, dwindled and became mere ordinary men who struggle to survive in the changing world. Their life span grew shorter and they became generally less awesome. Eowyn sets matters straight at great personal cost. She doesn't die like Jesus but she suffers a lot. Anyway, her victory over the witch king is crucial. No one else could have defeated the bastard (except maybe another plucky woman), so Aragorn gets to live and get in touch with his kingly side, and lo! The world is saved! The paradisiacal existence of Numenor cannot be regained but something of the old valour is restored when Aragorn becomes king.
So yeah, there may not be that many female characters in LOTR, and mostly the women are just passive decorations. But Tolkien did give Eowyn a pretty important role in the grand scheme of things, and he reversed the whole fall from grace situation. (It doesn't wholly compensate for the two thousand year tradition of holding women responsible for all the sins, but it's a nice gesture.) Eowyn doesn't redeem the whole mankind all by herself like Jesus does, but her bit is crucial. If it hadn't been for her, the indestructible witch king would probably have slaughtered all the male heroes of the West. Frodo, Sam (and Gollum) might have still have destroyed the ring (and therefore Sauron) but there would have been no king Aragorn to lead the West to a bright new future, and you can bet the witch king would have picked up from where Sauron left!
You know how Tolkien is accused of misogyny? The Lord of the Rings saga doesn't pass the Bechdel test. No two female characters ever talk to each other in the course of the three novels. There are some female characters but they are mostly just objects for the men. They have no goals of their own. They are goals. Rosie for Sam to moon over, Arwen to be Aragorn's tragic love, and Galadriel, who is supposedly a powerful elven queen but who doesn't really do anything expect give the male heroes some handy hints and gifts. Okay okay, Arwen's goal is to get to be with Aragorn but her role is much more passive in the books than the films make it out to be. She's an object more often than a subject in the syntax of LOTR.
Eowyn is a refreshing exception among the passive female characters. She is given a personality and she actively pursues the things she wants. At first that's Aragorn, but then also glory on the battle field. She wants to be active and do something instead of hiding and waiting it out with the other women and children. She defies male authority and sneaks her way into the final battle - and ends up killing the Witch King of Angmar whom "no man can kill." Epic!
(Also remember how Macbeth thought he was indestructible because the witches had told him that no one born of a woman would be able to kill him. Macbeth thought that prophesy meant no one could defeat him but was slain by someone whose mother had died in childbirth and who had been "cut out of her mother's womb" and so technically hadn't been born of a woman. Not a gender issue but it's always cool when supernatural conditions have loopholes for technicalities. In Macbeth's case the witches were probably messing with him on purpose, making him believe he was invincible. In the Witch King of Angmar's case, it seems it was a mere oversight. He hadn't thought he would need to ward himself against being slain by a woman.)
Tolkien was trying to create new mythology for the Britts, so that's my justification to making comparisons with the Bible. Also, even if Tolkien hadn't been writing a new mythology, the Bible has had a huge influence on any stories our culture has come up with. Whether or not you believe in the stories found in the Bible, they are the great mythology of our culture. Women's role in that mythology is to bring about the fall from grace, and there are no women in the Bible who in any way redeem Eve's original sin. The one to do that is a man, Jesus. That's more than an epic story because billions of people have grown up believing in Adam, Eve and Jesus for the past two millenia, so the premise that a woman caused the fall from grace and a man repaired the damage (as much as it could be repaired) has had a huge impact on our culture and on our attitudes towards men and women.
Tolkien reverses that set-up. The one that caused mankind's fall from grace in Lord of the Rings is Isildur, a male ancestor of Aragorn. He took the ring from Sauron with good intentions (as Eve took the apple) but the ring's power corrupted him, and all of mankind with him. The great men of Numenor, who used to live as long as the elves, dwindled and became mere ordinary men who struggle to survive in the changing world. Their life span grew shorter and they became generally less awesome. Eowyn sets matters straight at great personal cost. She doesn't die like Jesus but she suffers a lot. Anyway, her victory over the witch king is crucial. No one else could have defeated the bastard (except maybe another plucky woman), so Aragorn gets to live and get in touch with his kingly side, and lo! The world is saved! The paradisiacal existence of Numenor cannot be regained but something of the old valour is restored when Aragorn becomes king.
So yeah, there may not be that many female characters in LOTR, and mostly the women are just passive decorations. But Tolkien did give Eowyn a pretty important role in the grand scheme of things, and he reversed the whole fall from grace situation. (It doesn't wholly compensate for the two thousand year tradition of holding women responsible for all the sins, but it's a nice gesture.) Eowyn doesn't redeem the whole mankind all by herself like Jesus does, but her bit is crucial. If it hadn't been for her, the indestructible witch king would probably have slaughtered all the male heroes of the West. Frodo, Sam (and Gollum) might have still have destroyed the ring (and therefore Sauron) but there would have been no king Aragorn to lead the West to a bright new future, and you can bet the witch king would have picked up from where Sauron left!