It could be that Arwen was a way of giving the truly interested reader a more deep understanding of how much the Elves truly differed from Men just by their immortality and its effects upon them. Perhaps...though that seems a little too simple for Tolkien.
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In quite often ignoring these conventions, Tolkien was harking back to others that are much older; those of, for example, Beowulf or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which would probably have come in for the same criticism had they been written in the 1950s.
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Funny how it works. I remember a thread a while back about people criticizing Tolkien for a lack of depth to his characters. I wish we could stay away from all this character psychology we so like to delve into these days. The narrarator does not need to know the characters' thoughts to express meaning or 'depth.' If they must, that could be seen as a limitation on the writer's part. Also, it can be plain creepy! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]