Power, Domination and Egocentricism in Tolkien and Orwell

Tolkien and Orwell Power, Domination and Egocentricism in Tolkien and Orwell John Flood If the characters of Tolkien’s fiction who do not live Tom’s nonchalance in his handling of the One under totalitarian systems have a degree of free-will, Ring is impressive. However, he is not simply a what can be said about the moral relationship mortal character in the usual sense of the word. between agents and power? The most obvious place Rather, Tom - with his continuous sing-song speech to begin examining this question is with the Ring, the and his watersprite wife - is an Ainur, a sort of nature most manifestly powerful object in the Third Age of spirit, a genius loci if you like. For Tolkien he Middle-earth. represented ‘the spirit of the (vanishing) Oxford and One of the most evident facts about the Ring is Berkshire countryside’ (Tolkien, 1990, p. 26) and as that the Wise of the West (who could wield it to its such the normal rules of human psychology do not fullest potential, unlike for example the Hobbits or apply to him. For this reason he cannot be given the Gollum) shun its use. Both Gandalf and Galadriel Ring as he is so unworldly that ‘he would soon forget reject it when they are offered it by Frodo. Elrond (in it, or most likely throw it away’ (Tolkien, 1966a, p. a passage which is informative in other respects) 279). explains why: Characters with a more usual psyche, though, Alas, no...We cannot use the Ruling Ring. That will either not use the Ring or else, if they do (like we now know too well. It belongs to Sauron and Frodo and Gollum) they seem to succumb to it. Is the was made by him alone, and is altogether evil. moral then simply that of Lord Acton’s ‘Power tends Its strength...is too great for anyone to wield at to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely’ will, save only those who have already a great (Shippey, p. 104)? This appears to be too simplistic power of their own. But for them it holds an an answer. After all do not the forces of the West even deadlier peril. The very desire of it corrupts exercise very obvious power in their defeat of the heart. Consider Saruman. If any of the Wise Saruman and in their vanquishing the armies of should with this Ring overthrow the Lord of Mordor in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields? Gandalf Mordor, using his own arts, he would then set shows his power in the impressive scene he creates in himself on Sauron’s throne, and yet another Meduseld to help free Theoden from the ensnaring Dark Lord would appear (Tolkien, 1966a, p. power of Wormtongue’s crooked counsels. No, 281). power is merely an instrument which may be turned Only Tom Bombadil, the benign protagonist of to various ends: there is nothing in it which inherently miscellaneous adventures in the pages of The Lord of corrupts. the Rings and elsewhere, appears to be as unaffected It is more correct to look on power as something by the Ring as he is by the menaces of Willow-Man, which amplifies natural tendencies already present in Badger and the Barrow-Wights: the human psyche. Free from societal constraints Then suddenly he put it [the Ring] to his eye and ‘Man dejr swa ha by{? |)onne he mot swa he wile’ laughed...Then Tom put the Ring round the end (Shippey, p. 104); he shows his true colours when he of his little finger and held it up to the can do as he wishes. Bilbo then is to be all the more candle-light. For a moment the Hobbits noticed praised for not slaying Gollum in the dark; he refrains nothing strange about this. Then they gasped. from exercising the full power of his invisibility, thus There was no sign of Tom disappearing! showing the basically moral nature of his character. Tom laughed again, and then he spun the Why then cannot the West use the Ring? Well ring in the air - and it vanished with a flash. for one thing, as Elrond pointed out above, it is the Frodo gave a cry - and Tom leaned forward and product of an evil will, forged as it was by the hands handed it back to him with a smile (Tolkien, of Sauron in Orodruin (thus setting it apart from the 1966a, p. 144). Three Rings of the Elves which were forged by 13 Mallom XXXIV Celebrimbor of Eregion and never tainted by contact like Huxley’s Mustapha Mond. with evil). The One Ring is a kind of avatar of The cardinal evil of Middle-earth and Oceania Sauron; part of himself subsists in it. For this reason it then appears to be egocentrism, regard for oneself at is not entirely passive and appears to have an agency the expense of others. Certainly greed is a recurrent of its own. After Isildur cuts it off its master’s hand theme in Tolkien. One of the strongest manifestations after his defeat in the Battle of Dagorlad it ‘was still of this theme is to be seen in the long and fraught laden with Sauron’s evil will and called to all his history of the Silmarils. The Silmarils are of servants for their aid’ (Tolkien, 1984, p. 273). themselves ‘holy’ jewels, capturing as they do the Similarly, in The Lord of the Rings it appears to call blended light of the Trees of the Blessed Realm, to the Ringwraiths, particularly if it is put on (as Telperion and Laurelin. However, the enchantment of Frodo learns to his cost on Amon-Sul). ‘A Ring of beauty, even that of the Silmarils ‘has two faces, the Power looks after itself,’ Gandalf informs Frodo, ‘It two responses to beauty: love and lust’ (Helms, p. was not Gollum, Frodo, but the Ring itself that 50). Morgoth’s lust after and theft of the Silmarils decided things. The Ring left him’ (Tolkien, 1966a, ultimately gives rise to his being pursued by Feanor pp. 65). and his allies. Thus begins a tale of woe that The message here appears to be one which was commences with the Kinslaying at Alqualonde, noted by Old Major in Animal Farm: ‘remember also ultimately winding its way through the catastrophe of that in fighting against Man [the Enemy], we must Nimaeth Amoediad and the personal tragedies of not come to resemble him’ (Orwell, 1987a, p. 6). Beren and Luthien. Gandalf recognises this danger when offered the One of the recurring symbols in Tolkien’s life’s Ring: ‘Do not tempt me! For I do not wish to become work is the figure of the dragon, a beast traditionally like the Dark Lord himself’ (Tolkien, 1966a, p. 71). celebrated for its greed and its jealous guarding of its Using the methods of the Party in Nineteen hoard. Ancalagon the Black, Glaurung, Smaug and Eighty-Four against Sauron would - perhaps - give Chrysophylax Dives (whose very name gives away Winston, or the forces of the West ‘victory but no his self-centred character) all spring - to one degree honour’ (Tolkien, 1983a, pp. 25-6). Anyone living in or another - from the same mould. ‘A dragon is no Oceania who is prepared to commit murder...acts of idle fancy,’ Tolkien tells us, he ‘is richer in sabotage...to cheat, to forge, to blackmail, to corrupt significance than his barrow is in gold’ (Tolkien, the minds of children, to distribute habit-forming 1983a, p. 16). It is interesting to note then that one of drugs, to encourage prostitution, to disseminate the other things the dragon symbolises is ‘something venereal diseases...to throw sulphuric acid in a child’s terrible that must be overcome’, and the slaying or face...to commit suicide (Orwell, 1987b, pp. 179-80) taming of the dragon, the primordial enemy, will hardly manage to overcome the Party, as to represents the sublimation of personal wickedness attempt to do so is to work from within the already (Cirlot, pp. 85-7). Read in this manner, the tales of existing structures. Bilbo and Farmer Giles take on a more universal For the great enemy of both Nineteen anthropological significance. Their quest was to set Eighty-Four and The Lord of the Rings is domination, out to defeat the dragon of possessiveness, the great not Sauron or Big Brother. That is why the Free challenge to all people. Peoples are ranged against the totalitarian might of Zipes - who reads the dragon as ‘the picture Mordor. That is why we sympathise with Winston image of the capitalist exploiter’ - tells us that ‘there Smith in his struggle against the Party. Gandalf as are unusual similarities between orthodox Catholics Ring-Lord would not have been “corrupted” by and orthodox Marxists (Zipes, p. 152). It should not power; it is not as simple as that, rather surprise us then to learn that Orwell too was very He would have remained ‘righteous’, but concerned with questions of selfishness. As a self-righteous. He would have continued to rule committed socialist he identified greed as the cause and order things for ‘good’, and the benefit of of many of his country’s ills (Orwell, 1969, v. 3, p. subjects according to his wisdom (which was 208) and his concern with poverty and social issues is and would have remained great) (Tolkien, 1990, blatantly manifest in works such as Down and Out in p. 333). Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier. From this one can imagine a Gandalf who believed in Egocentrism is the constant subject of his censure, happiness and stability presiding over a Middle-earth even when it is to be seen in characters who are 14 Tolkien and Orwell purely fictional (Orwell, 1969, v.

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