Dec 16, 2009

The Fellowship of the Ring | Social Concerns

At its heart, J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Lord of the Rings in general, revolves around questions of power. Who has power, from where does power come, and to what uses should power ethically be put, all appear as thematic questions in one place or another in the text. The evil Sauron created the One Ring, but it now lays in the hands of those who would use it for good; cannot those who have the Ring justify its use against its creator, that is, for good? Virtually every character in the novel must at some point choose to accept or reject such a...