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Originally Posted by Aiwendil
Too much emphasis on his romance with Arwen would have made Aragorn's character too transparent
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Agreed, but what about some or even any emphasis on same?
I think the comparison of Aragorn's story with Sam's is a good illustration of why I find this aspect of the tale so uncompelling. Sam's romance with Rosie is equally obscured but this, I think, makes narrative sense insofar as Sam's return to the Shire is his own shocking and surprising return to the promise of his later life: the reader, like Sam, is jolted into recognition that now it's time for Sam to get on with things and marry his sweetheart. But the situation could not be more different with Aragorn and Arwen: whereas Sam left the Shire not having said anything to Rose about his intention to ask for her to marry him, Aragorn has been spending the last, what is it, 60 or 70 years of his life doing everything he can to become worthy of Arwen! True, there is a danger that if Tolkien had dwelled upon Aragorn's hopeless love for Arwen it would seem as though he helps Frodo for the sake of the girl alone, and not for the more complex motives of love, duty, honour and hope. But I think that an artist of Tolkien's calibre could have struck that balance quite well...had he tried.
The more I think about this, the more I begin to think that perhaps in this regard the film actually does a more credible job than the book
in telling the story, insofar as Viggagorn is a man who is clearly motivated by a dual desire to save Gondor and marry the girl of his dreams. In Tolkien's way of telling the tale, motive one comes out loud and clear, but motive two is a jarring surprise.
*Pauses for a moment with the last paragraph highlighted, his fingers above the delete button....clicks 'Submit' instead*