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The Lord of the Rings
Part III. The Return of the King
Review of J.R.R. Tolkien's Novel
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| This novel is also further
divided in two books: book five begins where the third one ended, as Pippin and Gandalf approach Minas Tirith, while
the others follow behind. As to book six, it continues with Sam in Cirith Ungol. The final events of the War of
the Ring and the end of the Third Age of Middle-Earth are finally fully told. There are also an extensive section
with many appendixes and epilogues which reveal many interesting information about the characters. |
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| Definitely the darkest
episode, The Return of the King plunges its character in the atrocities of a war which will change the
world as they know it forever. Through the character Éowyn, briefly introduced in The Two Towers, Tolkien
discreetly adds another dimension to the novel, the female perspective: he shows the impact of wars on women, while it was
only concerned with the male
viewpoint in the previous books. The author does not portray her as he did the other three female leads, Goldberry,
Arwen or Galadriel, as a goddess-like being, beautiful but self-effaced. Eowyn is portrayed as a human graspling
with violent mixed feelings, consumed from within by a deep rage and a need to be free to lead a more fulfilling
life than the relatively ungrateful 'domestic' role to serve the men, and from the passiveness society used to impose on women.
This is all the more subtly achieved as Tolkien only described her briefly almost as a statue, a silent figure next
to her father, a servant to him and the guests in the previous novel, so it is all the more interesting to
discover all the turmoil going on underneath her icy obedient appearance.
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| Meanwhile, the journey
of Sam and Frodo into Mordor is like a journey to the limit of human endurance and beyond, with the permanent
scars such pains bring to the soul, but also a celebration
of the beauty and strength of true friendship. As the malign influence
of the Ring becomes stronger and stronger onto Frodo, he becomes more and more absent as his mental suffering
paralyzes his thoughts. So it is up to the faithful Sam to try to counteract as best he can the perfidious control
of the Ring on its bearer, to guide him, to invigorate in his friend some strength and hope. But even if they should
succeed to reach the pit of the Mountain against all odds, the most difficult fight would still lie in front of them: will
Frodo still have enough of his own mind left from the slow poisoning dependance of the jewel to cast it away? Can
he overcome its infinite corruptive power?
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