I'm enjoying this fascinating discussion!
Squatter, I would agree that we need to accept the story the way Tolkien wrote it, rather than reading our own expectations and values into it. In rereading the lines about Aragorn’s and Arwen’s deaths, I discovered a phrase which tells us clearly that Arwen did not choose to die because she was weary of life in general (or pining for the Undying Lands).
Quote:
|
And for all her wisdom and lineage she could not forbear to plead with him to stay yet for awhile. She was not yet weary of her days…
|
According to this statement, her choice is based only on the fact that she does not wish to live on without Aragorn.
It seems to me that this element of the tale belongs to the epic narrative that Tolkien used for his stories of Middle-earth. Even
his romantic ideals weren’t such that he felt the need to die himself when his wife preceded him in death. (And that despite the fact that he had “Beren” and “Lúthien” engraved on their tombstones.) He lived two more active and fulfilled years after that.