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And, finally, I get tired of the fact that all these women are supposed to be so darn beautiful. Maybe I just don't have enough sympathy with myth or legend, but as I recall, Charlotte Bronte made Jane Eyre plain to prove to her sisters that a heroine did not need to be beautiful.
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Bethberry -- Yes, yes, I totally agree on this. Tolkien spends a great deal more time on the physical attributes of the female characters than on those of the males. But then, so do 90% of the authors in the world! In this respect, Tolkien is no different than many other writers, although it would have been nice if he had been.
I don't have the quotes handy, but I clearly recall that at least two of the primary male characters in LotR were physically less than gorgeous. Both Aragorn and Sam are described in such a way that it is clear that neither of them was the Greek god Adonis! Nor does Tolkien spend a great deal of time describing the individual physical attributes of the different hobbits. Frodo, for example, was seen through Gandalf's eyes as red cheeked and perky with a cleft in his chin, and taller and fairer than most hobbits. This doesn't sound like someone whom I would faint upon meeting (leaving aside any extraneous images of Elijah Wood). Then again, I probably would faint, but it would have nothing to do with his individual physical attributes!
The same is not true of the women. Galadriel, Arwen, Goldberry, and Eowyn are all blessed with great physical beauty. I do appreciate that Tolkien, to a far greater degree than Lewis, could see and appreciate the sensual aspects of a woman--this is no small thing--but again, I would like to see more diversity. And someone who looked a bit more like Jane Eyre would have been greatly appreciated by this reader.
And I simply don't think there is any female character in LotR who reaches the intellectual depth as well as the physical simplicity of Andrath in Morgoth's Ring with her silver hair, bittersweet questions about the meaning of life and death, and her poignant memories of a love which had not worked out.
Of course, part of the problem with Tolkien's women really gets back to the question of race, rather than gender. As far as I remember, there is no such thing as an ugly, or even plain, Elf, male or female. (No wonder everyone wants to be Elves in their imaginations and in RPGs!) So, by definition, if you are a female Elf, you will be drop-dead gorgeous.
I am curious what you are referring to when you say your images of women in LotR are colored by the depictions of Tolkien and his marriage in Carpenter. I don't have the biography in my hand this moment so I am trying to remember in my head. Do you mean the fact that there were a number of rocks and difficulties which they faced as a couple? This included such things as Edith's difficulty in embracing Catholocism wholeheartedly, her ambivalent feelings about the fact that JRRT spent so many nights out of the house with his male friends in literary groups, or the fact that she was a lovely young woman and accomplished pianist who did not share his intellectual life or even his writings to any significant degree. Was it things like this you are referring to, or something else I have forgotten?
sharon, the 7th age hobbit