Lord of the Rings Themes

Lord of the Rings Themes

In the book, "The Fellowship of the Ring", by J.R.R Tolkien, there are several themes. Some themes are more evident than others but each one has their own value and importance towards the story. It is to popular belief that the two most important themes in this book are Corruption of Power and Friendship. Each of which are expressed through characters and the events in which they were in.

The first theme that This analyst will discuss is the Corruption of Power. Many years ago, the dark lord Sauron secured much of his power in the "One Ring". Whoever controls and rules this one ring, will have some access to this power. The full extent of the ring's power never becomes entirely apparent to us, however, there is the symbolic feeling that the ring symbolizes an unlimited power, which proves to be entirely corrupting and demoralizing to whoever possesses it.

The corruption of the ring has taken its toll on such characters as Sauron, Gollum, Bilbo, and now Frodo. Regardless of Frodo's immense efforts, he cannot resist the temptation of using the ring and even though Frodo's intentions are good, the ring's power is slowly starting to turn him to evil. Frodo not only from this novel but from the whole trilogy is a dynamic character. The ring slowly changes his character to a person that the reader does not recognize. He begins to not eat, sleep, nor interact with his companions. This shows the ring's addictive and corruptive powers over Frodo . His speech becomes more selfish, more indicative of an addict. Also he begins to act out of instinct of protection for the ring; also named "precious" causing him to lash out at his companions vigorously.

Boromir, was a very mysterious character to begin with. He was a warrior; a man heir to the seat of Gondor. A proud man who was at heart brave, bold, and strong, and yet weaker than his companions. The willpower this man held was insignificant compared to that of Frodo. The ring had given Boromir a false hope for his dying city. He began to believe it could be a weapon against the enemy. This prompted the action of his to try and take the ring for himself. Ultimately causing his downfall.

Tolken always did an excellent job of describing the surroundings. His in depth description of the constant fog and cloudy days and other natural occurrences that played a role in hindering our heroes was always exquisite. He purposely made the road to purification difficult so that our heroes would have to be constantly bashed by the corruption of the ring. There was never a silver lining to things which made the corruption almost certain. The power of the ring offered an escape from the impending doom.

The use of the time period was also rather interesting. It was a time period of good and evil and no grey area. This meant that the writing style could only lead to one or the other. The corruption of the ring proved to be the binding piece to every person. Making all but the high elves evil by nature but defying themselves. The middle earth of the third age is the time period which equates to early crusade eras. Supporting the theme of corruption by power.

A major event to happen in this novel was the act of Frodo becoming angry with his companions in the forest on the way to mount doom. This was a direct example of his greed and protection of the ring. Boromir and the rest of the company sat by a fire and ate while Frodo decided to go off by himself into the woods. He did this because of his frustration with the group not knowing the burden he caries. He became angry with everyone especially Boromir who he knew had a fixation on his ring. He was so angry he cursed them in his mind and wanted to escape it all and put on the ring. This was the power hungry affected Frodo, which later becomes even more sinister.

There in that same forest Boromir followed Frodo deviously. As he tracked where he moved, he plotted to at first trick Frodo into giving him the ring. When this failed he began to physically motion towards Frodo and tried to take it from him. Frodo in this fights back and runs away from Boromir. The ring drove Boromir mad and he in turn caused his own demise at the end.