Point of interest on the use of the word rape, Fordim: Tolkien of course used it himself but referring to the theft of the Silmarils, not in the context of sexual assault. (The most common early use of the word was referring to the Rape of the Sabine Women, which took in both the theft and the sex attack meanings)
But back to the subject at hand
Quote:
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If she were not raped it is hard to imagine what torment would be so bad that she could not recover
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Really? I could imagine a lot of tortures worse than rape. Although I don't
want to imagine them. And neither, I think, did Tolkien. I think his avoidance of spelling out exactly what happens to Celebrian was not so much his distaste for sexual detail but his distaste for sadistic detail.
Bethberry - that's a very good point about Tolkien not wanting to promulgate evil by repeating it in writing, I think that's exactly what he thought. And,
mark 12_30, I too was reminded of that excerpt about not wanting to repeat the true profanity of Orcish speech.
Spelling things out is not always necessary. Sometimes less is more. I remember finding the simple sentence about Elladan and Elrohir "never forgetting their mother's torment at the hands of the orcs" very haunting and effecting when I first read it as a child.
Part of her torment may well have been rape, but I don't think it really matters, what we know is that horrors she endured broke her spirit.
Oh and btw it was WWI that Tolkien fought in, not WWII.