Quote:
And since we're talking about mythology, the same traits can be observed in characters like Zeus - when his lust transforms him into a jealous, cruel and impulsive villain - or Loki, an outcast among the Aesir.
There is no such thing in Tolkien's books. We know what Sauron has gained by embracing evil, but we don't know what he has lost. He remains a cipher, we learn nothing about his motivations, about the secrets of his heart. Sauron is not the same kind of villain as Gloucester, he's more like Moby **** , a powerful and obscure force of nature that we will never truly understand. If we did, he would be really convincing as an evil character, instead of being just a dangerous character.
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Let us not forget that we are still talking ALL of Tolkien's works. Melkor was the first evil. An evil force created and driven by desire for power and domination, in turn reduced to the earthly form which the elves named Morgoth Bauglir. Morgoth coveted and hated the creation of Ilúvatar, and if you read the Silmarillion - and read 'between the lines' - you will indeed learn the secrets and motivations of his heart. They are primal and basic, yet Melkor - being a divine life form - is also very complex. Sauron is sort of a copy of Melkor, and he works the same way Melkor did, only Sauron did not start out as 'evil' himself, he was deceived and corrupted. Later on, in Lord of the Rings, Sauron acts like Melkor did; deceiving and corrupting - not only 'lesser' races, but also other entities (if Saruman can still be counted as a true entity in his form of a Man). Sauron is not the
true evil , but he is evil, by all means. He is definetely more than "just a dangerous character".
Of course, if you read
only LotR, you may not know him for what he truly is, but you are not supposed to, either. As Thingol pointed out: "The Ring is a character onto itself in the book." It is the Ring we 'get to know', only understanding it is very hard, as we do not usually think of objects as living (read: thinking). Also, this is something of a revelation, which we have to come to understand for ourselves.
To understand Sauron, we first have to understand Melkor. Then we have to interpret what it is that Tolkien is trying to tell us through the Ring. The 'direct encounters' with Sauron in LotR all happen through or in relation to the Ring (except for Pippin seeing in the Palantír of Orthanc). Then, *writer trying not to wander off in all directions at the same time* [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] to understand Melkor, thus becoming able to understand Sauron/the Ring, we
have to read the Sil. You cannot simply read LotR and criticise it for its lackings if you have not read the Sil as well. LotR is a close-up of one huge story/mythology/thing which Tolkien created as something to bind his languages to. The language part was the most important one, but ironically, it was the one to never be published.
Read Thingol's post (a very good post ) to get some more referances to what I wrote.
[ February 06, 2002: Message edited by: Carannillion ]