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Originally Posted by Thinlómien
Sounds quite depressing... At least for the orcs.
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Indeed. As I have said, I have major philosophical difficulties with the idea of a race of beings that are evil by their very nature, through no choice or fault of their own. An Orc is evil simply by virtue of being born an Orc. He or she has no choice in the matter. And that does seem terribly unfair.
I think Tolkien recognised this. Hence his later thoughts which envisioned Orcs as soulless beasts rather than sentient beings. I am not sure that this necessarily solves the problem, though, as they are still living things that suffer by virtue of their naturally evil state, whether or not they have souls.
But is it any less depressing to regard Orcs as being capable of repentance and/or redemption? As being capable of being “cured” of their evil state? I am not so sure that it is, given that there is no suggestion in any of Tolkien’s writings that this ever actually occurred. Indeed, they seem to be regarded by those on the side of good as being naturally evil and incapable of redemption or repentance, whether or not this is the case. The treatment of Orcs, for example, is in marked contrast to the treatment of those Men who served evil, such as the Dunlendings, whose gripe against Rohan is given some justification and with whom the Rohirrim are seen to be reconciled following the battle of Helm’s Deep, and the Haradrim, for whom some sympathy is engendered in Sam’s musings upon the fallen warrior in Ithilien. Orcs are never regarded through the same sympathetic eyes and nor are they ever shown any mercy by those on the side of good.
The fact is that, even if they were not evil by their very nature, the chances of an Orc ever being “reformed” are extremely slim. Their appearance, their temperaments, their reputation, the nature of the societies into which they are born (or spawned
) and their likely upbringing all mitigate so severely against their likely rehabilitation as to make the chances of it ever happening virtually nil. Which is little better, in practical terms, than being “irredeemably” evil.