LotR -- Book 4 - Chapter 10 - The Choices of Master Samwise - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

davem · 05-14-2005, 11:24 AM

Well, yeah, but as Freud is supposed to have said, 'Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.'...

One could see phallic symbolism in Sam using a sword to pierce Shelob, but in that world what other kind of weapon would he use? A spear, an arrow? In other words, there are very few ways that Sam could have seen off Shelob that couldn't be interpreted 'sexually'. I suppose he could have tried setting her on fire...

Shelob is a force of evil & as Rosebury has pointed out it is necessary that evil be shown to carry the seeds of its own destruction - it is not an equal & opposite force to good, but rather a perversion of it without the power to sustain itself.

Perhaps Freud has gotten us all seeing things which aren't always there.

Or to put it another way, sometimes stabbing a giant spider is just stabbing a giant spider...

05-14-2005, 11:24 AM	#10
davem Illustrious Ulair Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties Posts: 4,240	Well, yeah, but as Freud is supposed to have said, 'Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.'... One could see phallic symbolism in Sam using a sword to pierce Shelob, but in that world what other kind of weapon would he use? A spear, an arrow? In other words, there are very few ways that Sam could have seen off Shelob that couldn't be interpreted 'sexually'. I suppose he could have tried setting her on fire... Shelob is a force of evil & as Rosebury has pointed out it is necessary that evil be shown to carry the seeds of its own destruction - it is not an equal & opposite force to good, but rather a perversion of it without the power to sustain itself. Perhaps Freud has gotten us all seeing things which aren't always there. Or to put it another way, sometimes stabbing a giant spider is just stabbing a giant spider... __________________ “Everything was an object. If you killed a dwarf you could use it as a weapon – it was no different to other large heavy objects."