The Structure of The Lord of the Rings

[davem]

Originally Posted by Fordim

but in the Shire, in the incident of the Scouring and its immediate aftermath, I just don’t see any of that. I find the whole incident an extraordinarily purgative/healing (even cathartic) process of regeneration: of the turn from good to better, through momentary worse.

Ok, but if we go back to the Prologue we find:

Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today; for they love peace and quiet and good tilled earth: a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favorite haunt. They do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom, though they were skillful with tools. Even in ancient days they were, as a rule, shy of 'the Big Folk', as they call us, and now they avoid us with dismay and are becoming hard to find.

'They avoid us with dismay & are becoming hard to find.' Maybe the Hobbits, after the War & the defeat of Saruman felt they had entered a Golden Age of living 'happily ever after', but Tolkien knew better, & wasn't going to let his readers get away with not facing the truth that what happens at the end of the story would be the case forever. He makes sure we'll read that its all over now, by putting it at the start of the book, & not tucking it away in one of the appendices.

The interesting thing is that the defeat of Saruman is only an apparent defeat - they destroy the wizard himself, but actually he brings about their permanent destruction - he's the serpent in their Garden - its what he symbolises with his ''mind of metal & wheels'' that seals their fate - Just as Sauron is not fianlly defeated but remains as a spirit of malice to corrupt men's hearts, so 'Saruman' remains as the spirit of the Machine. The Hobbits ultimate tragedy is foreboded in his appearance in the Shire. And while Frodo may believe Saruman has lost all power & that his words:

'Whoever strikes me shall be accursed. And if my blood stains the Shire, it shall wither & never be healed.'

the Shire does wither. Saruman's 'poison', the poison of 'Machine' thinking, control & coercion of nature rather life in harmony with it is the seed that grows from the spilling of Saruman's blood.

There is a darkness at the end of the story - its the 'shadow' cast by all that 'light & joy' perhaps. However wonderful it all may be, for Frodo its not any kind of Utopia, & Sam by the end longs for the Sea. The story ends with Sam coming home 'as day was ending once more'. After the Scouring there is a brief reward for labour spent, but its no more than that. It will all pass away - after all, as we know, Hobbits are 'becoming hard to find'.

[Aiwendil]

Fordim wrote:

The 'party line' seems to be that in the Scouring of the Shire we see that evil will never suffer a final defeat and that the stain of this incident upon the Shire serves as a reminder of that fact.

Well, the problem I have with this theory is that in the Scouring of the Shire the very last of the (Third Age) evil is done away with in the form of Saruman's death. After this (relatively minor) battle, the story is quite clear that life in the Shire actually improves.

I don't think that these two propositions contradict each other. Yes, the result of the Scouring of the Shire is good - that is, Saruman is defeated and life in the Shire improves. But the first point is not contingent upon the outcome of the scouring. The discovery of such evil in the Shire makes the point that even such a tremendous event as the final defeat of Sauron is not a final defeat of evil, and it makes that point regardless of whether Saruman is in the event defeated or not.

It's the same pattern that we see throughout the Legendarium. Morgoth is defeated, but Sauron survives. Sauron is defeated twice, but he returns both times. He is defeated a third time, this time utterly, but Saruman survives. Saruman is defeated - but based on this pattern we would be fools to expect that no evil will ever return. As indeed The New Shadow shows.

Still, I think you have a good point. Too often is it said that LotR is a tragedy, or that despite the defeat of Sauron it has a sad ending (and the same mistake is made with the Silmarillion). But surely it does have a happy ending, if not a simple one. The great evil is defeated - as indeed is the lesser evil of Saruman. We are reminded that this does not mean that all evil has been defeated; but that hardly makes the ending tragic. Or, to say it in allegory, if someone suddenly gave me 999,999 dollars I would not say "What a stroke of bad luck! I didn't get a million."

[Boromir88]

I think we have all agreed that Tolkien's message is to show that evil will never be fully defeated. But, as Aiwendil points out, the story of LOTR, is not a tragedy, it does have a good ending. The "evil" in the story is defeated, but evil in general is not defeated. Even Sam states:

"I shant call i the end, till we've cleared up the mess," said Sam gloomily. "And that'll take a lot of time and work."

I think this is Tolkien showing us life after a war. The destruction of the ring wasn't the end of the "War." The Battle of Bywater was, but even after the war you have the effects of war. And indeed it will take a lot of time and work, and maybe will never look as it did before. With that being said, I don't classify this as a tragedy.

Throughout the story we still get the reoccuring theme that evil will never be gone. After the Battle of Helm's Deep is won, there is still work that needs to be done. After the Siege of Minas Tirith there still work that needs to be done. Even after the destruction of the Ring, work needs to be done. And even after the end of Saruman. It's like a cycle, time and time again we see evil defeated, there is always more that needs to be defeated.

After reading LOTR I get the feeling that I think a lot of people get after war. It's great, we were victorious, but it won't last forever. But that to me doesn't classify it as a tragedy, it classifies it as the fact of life. A tragedy is a noble hero (or heroes) defeated by overwhelming odds beyond their control. The heroes in this story were not defeated, they just didn't defeat evil.

A true classification of tragedy is what we see at the end of FOTR (well actually beginning of TTT) the death of Boromir. A noble hero that was overpowered by odds he couldn't control.

[Mister Underhill]

Following on the heels of davem, Aiwendil, and Boromir88, I don't need to belabor the point. The Scouring and its aftermath, far from being an anti-climactic, long-winded ending or a mere tieing up of loose strings, serves an important structural and thematic purpose -- arguably as important as the destruction of the Ring itself. Here we have the qualifiers of victory: evil, so lately defeated, rising up again where it is least expected; the warrior who cannot heal; the stained homeland -- stained not only by the depredations of an enemy, but by the shame of collaborators and cowards; the bitter loss of dear friends.

‘This is worse than Mordor!’ said Sam. ‘Much worse in a way. It comes home to you, as they say; because it is home, and you remember it before it was all ruined.’

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Mr. Underhill, I await your erudition in regard to Milieu or not.

I'm not sure what you mean, lmp. I continue to be puzzled by the concept of a story that is principally driven by milieu and am hard pressed to think of anything even approaching an example outside the works of Michener. In any case, I can't see much value in artificially separating such intertwined elements as character, plot, concept, and milieu, and then deeming one or the other as ascendant over the others. Sorry, but I think Card is all wet on this one.

[mark12_30]

So this leaves me, I realise, with having to contend what function or place the Scouring does hold in the overall structure.

Sam & his helpers (including, indirectly, Galadriel) create a hobbitish earthly paradise with an air of elvishness wafting around the tree branches. The best ale in decades is flowing freely, young hobbits are bathing in strawberries and cream, and prosperity is **everywhere** you look...

Except in the heart of Frodo Baggins. There it has no hold. Frodo is too broken to enjoy it, and must leave Middle-Earth. That he leaves in the midst of this astounding bounty makes Frodo's departure all the more wrenching.