User blog:Quipp/Tolkien's Middle-Earth

For English Extension I got to choose any novel in the world to write an essay on it. For reasons unknown, I chose LotR. Anyway, enjoy.

by Daniel (Quipp) Pedruzzi
In letters written in his later life, Tolkien referred to his major work as his ‘tree’. His works, including The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were considered by Tolkien to be an alternative history and myth, in the absence an unpolluted Celtic mythology, which England could claim as its own. Although authorial intent might give an indicator of true meaning, this analysis will focus on the ‘text’ by applying Marxist and eco-theoretical frames to explore meaning. In this, one must consider the author’s ideological or discursive stance, and most importantly the way ideology and discursive power is utilised by the text’s society to sustain power. With that in mind, The Lord of the Rings is considered ‘real’ rather than an ideological or discursive manifestation of Tolkien’s ‘world’.

The world-centred approach’s key idea is “whose interests are served by representations of the world in text?” (QCAA). Marxism as a literary theory looks at the “economic and class systems that structure a society” (Tyson, p53) which allows the critical reader to scrutinise the effect an art piece has on oppressing or freeing the lower classes. Eco-criticism looks at the relationships between not only the reader and the environment, but also the author and his environmental beliefs. By comparing a text through both lenses, Tolkien’s ‘world’ can be unravelled and links can be made between the two.

Marxism
While many believe that Marxist theory would have little to do with the concept of art and literature, the theory is becoming an increasingly accurate tool for demonstrating the economic beliefs naturalised in many chapters in the text. By using this theory to examine the Lord of the Rings, many central, hidden, ideas and beliefs arise.

Peter Barry describes Gramsci’s theory of hegemony to be the, “internalised form of social control which makes certain views seems natural.”(Barry, p164) In this case, The Return of the King presents a medieval form of hegemonic control ‘seem natural’ and associated with order and goodness. To the reader, because of the didactic external narration of Tolkien, it is naturalised and praised. Numerous references are made of the class system and the obvious moral superiority given to the Tolkien’s privileges peoples such as ancient folk of northerly lands. However, this internalisation goes beyond even hegemonic control and can be seen to cause oppression of the lower classes. Tolkien’s work is considered by Tyson to be ‘classist’ as all of aristocratic characters speak in a genteel fashion, show mercy and speak thoughtfully before making rash statements. This is the opposite of the lower class characters who, epitomised in Samwise, are less educated, rash and easily angered.

Not only is classism clearly visible, it is deterministic classism. According to Marxists, classism in cultural productions such as novels is “an ideology that equates one’s value as a human being with the social class to which one belongs: the higher one’s class, … the [one’s] quality because ‘it is in the blood’” (Tyson, p59) This essentialism of caste is also shown in The Two Towers, with Samwise, Frodo’s loyal and comic servant. He is muddle-headed. Samwise thinks to himself “Don’t trust your head, Samwise, it is not the best part of you.” (The Two Towers, p. 234). This is what Freire considers a ‘Culture of Silence’. Freire believes that the oppressed ‘become so powerless that even their oppression is forgotten’ (Freire in Young 2004, p13). Injustices are not mentioned by the oppressed and, after many generations, they forget that they are in fact beset. This deeper level of silencing occurs through what Marx called ‘indoctrination’. Indoctrination is a stage of oppression when the proletariat believe that they are ‘naturally inferior’ to the ruling class. According to Freire, one of the main means of indoctrinating the oppressed is to give them a “negative image of themselves. The oppressed are dehumanised and taught to believe the negative perceptions as fact.” (Young on Freire 2004, p14). Young even goes as far as to say that “the most dangerous part of this process of indoctrination is when the negative perceptions are internalised” (Young 2004, p14), which is exactly what we see Samwise doing during the course of The Lord of the Rings. Because of this internalisation of biological superiority by the character most empathised with by readers, the Lord of the Rings effectively helps this belief to exist, even in today’s society.

Ideology is central to how false consciousness is used as a method of control by power. Ideology is a set of “ideas, beliefs, practices, and representations which operate in the interest of an identifiable social class or cultural group” (Luke in King 1994, p7). In essence, it distorts reality; the true relations between the dominant and oppressed classes. As King states: “ideology mystifies true knowledge so that dominated groups do not have access to it” (King 1994, p7). Valentin Voloshinov further notes that ideology is present in language and has semiotic value. He views everything ideological as having meaning; it signifies something other than itself, making it a sign. Without signs, ideology cannot exist. And, without institutions to enforce the ideological signification, power cannot be maintained. This ideological control manifests in many different forms. Althusser describes these as ‘Ideological State Apparatus’ (ISA). ISAs project the dominant ideology of the ruling class elite to the point where it becomes ‘natural’ and ‘common sense’ for the oppressed class (Felluga 2002, p94). The World State utilises ISAs to maintain hegemony. Some examples of ISAs in the text include song, lore and tale. These deliver a unified ideological message that things ancient are glorious, pure and somehow divine, whereas all things new are corruptions of the old. From the moment citizens appear in Middle Earth’ be they elven or otherwise, they are conditioned through a variety of different forms to conform to what the state requires of them. As all citizens have a predetermined role in feudal society, maintaining the status quo. through the conditioning during childhood and beyond, they learn to live an honourable life indeterminate of their social class.

Throughout The Lord of the Rings, the novel can be seen to look down on those who expel vast quantities of labour to sustain capital and wealth. When Saruman betrays the forces of good and joins Sauron, his empire is created from nothing in a very short amount of time due to the labour of thousands. These labourers, the Uruk-hai, are very much treated as being of a lower standard when compared to their master Saruman. However, the Dwarves use similar measures of labour in their mines, but theirs seems to be a system where the labourer is almost at equal standing with the upper class as they all are motivated by a common greed.

This, as described by Hilton, is a fundamental aspect of a feudalistic society when it comes to a Marxist perspective. He describes feudalism as

...the exploitative relationship between landowners and subordinated peasants, in which the surplus beyond subsistence of the latter, whether in direct labour or in rent in kind or in money, is transferred under coercive sanction to the former. (Hilton, p30)

The Lord of the Rings naturalises, and thus, hides, the exploitative relationship that is inherent within a feudal society. While the world as Tolkien represents it shows little to no suffering of the poor, in any real feudal environment disease and poverty would be abundant. The complete silencing of this part of society shows that Tolkien’s position in the world did not allow him to see the hardships of the lower classes (being of upper-class birth himself). Trotsky hoped for the masses to produce great works of art of their own without the interference of the aristocracy wresting their free time and imagination from them. In 1938 Trotsky wrote than “art is an expression of man’s need for an harmonious and complete life, that is to say, his need for those major benefits of which a society of classes has deprived him” (Trotsky, 1938). However, Tolkien’s fiction draws a medievalism full of chivalric, courtly and romantic traditions, something far flung from the gritty realities.

The actual Middle Ages were plagued with disease, famine, lack of knowledge, and countless other compounding problems that made life expectancy short and life in general miserable for the proletariat at the time. However, none of these ugly realities exist in Middle-Earth. There is no suffering, and no poverty portrayed by Tolkien in any of his novels or indeed any of his letters. People in Arda are classified into their social rank at birth, but they then live happily within their place. The medieval environment of Middle-Earth, despite its class-based society, is many magnitudes more pure and noble then the "dirty modern world of factories, pollution, profit, money grubbing, vulgar commercial interest, shoddy goods, advertising, and extreme alienation." (Molyneux, p32). The Shire is portrayed as a bourgeoisie rural English county, filled with simple folk more interested in the smoking of pipe weed than the world further afield. Tolkien work offers an escape or retreat from capitalism and mechanisation. It is not revolutionary. Tolkien wrote.

I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which ‘Escape’ is now so often used. . . In using Escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the prisoner with the Flight of the deserter (1988, p55-56).

If Tolkien was right, he offers an alternative world, if not an ideal England in the Shire and even an idealised medieval world. Given that Tolkien told his son Christopher than he was “lean[ing] more and more to Anarchy” with age, the fantasy itself fails to expose social ills suffered by the proletariat both then and now.

Eco-Critical
The task of eco-criticism, it could be stated, is to formulate an ideological foundation for the analysis “of the relationship between literature and the physical environment” (Glofelty 1996, p18). This is done with the inevitable purpose of questioning human meaning, value and language in relation to the natural world and therefore the conclusion of the developing of an ecological consciousness that humans need to attain if they are to read a text eco-critically. As such, literature can be seen as a “means of moral instruction” (Birkerts 1996, p119) as, when carefully analysed through an ecological ‘lens’, destructive and exploitative practices become more easily identifiable and are condemned, while ecologically friendly practices are praised. Ecocriticism, in this sense, advocates a rethinking of our commonly held perceptions, and our conventional versions of nature, and urges us to create a “consciousness of the essential unity of all life” (Eisler 1990, p26).

The very definition of nature is, in essence, subjective by nature. Sopher suggests that nature is “that which is not human, and is isolated from all human intervention.” (Sopher in Hutchings 2005, p94). However this definition seems problematic as, in our modern world, the amount of natural places and objects left ‘untouched’ by human intervention has vastly dwindled and can be argued to be non-existent. Tolkien’s world, however, provides a clearer view of this definition. There are many places within Middle-Earth that are not under the dominion of man or indeed any of the man-like races of Arda. When using a world-centred approach, it can help to use aspects of the author-centred approach. It is a well-documented fact that Tolkien “held a special fondness of nature and the non-mechanised past.” (Jonathan 2007). Tolkien admitted that,

I am a Hobbit (in all but size). I like gardens, trees and unmechanized farmlands; I smoke a pipe, and like good plain food (unrefrigerated); I am fond of mushrooms (out of a field); I go to bed late and get up later (when possible). I do not travel much. (Tolkien in Carpenter, p153)

Tolkien’s love of nature and a natural life is exemplified in the Hobbits of the Shire. The Shirelings seems to hold all of Tolkien’s values highly; opposing the industrialised views of ‘the enemy’.

Environmental factors play a large part in the positioning of readers for characters within the novel. The Goblins of the White Mountains have been described by Tolkien as ‘cruel, wicked and bad-hearted’, with a love of mechanical ends. “Wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them” (Tolkien, p60). However, it is not only the characters that Tolkien had a gift for describing. It could be said that Tolkien describes place and landscape with more care than the characters. According to Evernden, “[the] establishment of self is impossible without the context of place.” (Evernden, p60). Tolkien’s descriptions of places certainly seem to supersede the feelings and emotions generated by the reader. Before introducing a character, a lengthy description of the surroundings is included, clearly positioning the reader on their feelings for the character before they have even been introduced. The ‘warm air and trickling waterfalls’ show the beauty of Rivendell and indeed its inhabitants, just as the ‘twisting and crossed and most horribly stuffy’ tunnels of the Goblins supersede their introduction as villains.

Eco-criticism is known to contest the idea or ‘site’ of nature. Nature in Tolkien is more than superficial trees and animals, it is deeply associated with the great chain of being. The ‘great chain of being’ was medieval idea that God ordered a pyramidal world with a king at the apex, lords at his feet, the lesser beings below them, and so on. This idea is summed up in the children’s hymn by C.F. Alexander, “All Things Bright and Beautiful.” It contains the lines:

The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate; He made them high and lowly And ordered their estate. (Barry, p253) It is clear that social inequality is being disguised as simply ‘nature’ here. In much the same way, Tolkien presents medieval hierarchies among the eagles and horses in The Lord of the Rings. Both species have an internalised hierarchy. For Shadowfax, the “chief of the Mearas horses”, the refusal of the beast to be ridden by an unworthy rider shows the hierarchical stance the text takes. However, Shadowfax is not a free creature. He himself is restricted by this ‘great chain of being’. Gandalf, one of few wizards who inhabit Middle-Earth is described as having “taken and tamed” (Tolkien, p505) Shadowfax, further crediting the tiering of lives as ‘nature’ within The Lord of the Rings. Thus, nature is “…nothing more than an anthropomorphic construct” (Coupe in Barry, p253) created by Tolkien to foist idealised medieval concepts on animals as well as people.

Contrast
The Lord of the Rings can be seen through both ecological and Marxist eyes, and the two approaches, while world-centred and concerned with the ideological and political purposes of the art form, both recognise that the destruction of nature comes directly out of capitalism. However, Tolkien’s novel cannot be considered directly oppositional to capitalism (or modernity as Tolkien called it). It can, however, be considered a ‘consolation’ to social decay and the destruction of pastoral lands as a direct result of capitalism. Critically, The Lord of the Rings is nostalgic rather than critical of capitalism and the industry that follows it. The novels and letters that provide an insight into Middle-Earth offer readers an escape to a pastoral idyll.

Through a Marxist lens, the hegemonic tiering of the citizens of Middle-Earth creates separation and reinforces the class system. The text naturalises this biological essentialism and works against a capitalist society. Conversely, when eco-criticism is used to look at this ‘great chain of being’, Tolkien attempts to pass this class distinction of as merely a ‘natural’ occurrence. While these two approaches immediately work in opposition with one another, one classes class distinction as ‘bad’ and the other as ‘natural’, they both provide the same point of view when applied directly to current understandings of the text. Both views show that Tolkien’s idealistic feudal society uses social control to naturalise these class distinctions. For humans, the naturalised belief in inherent biological essentialism helps protect the social classes. In the same way, the animals of The Lord of the Rings have their own class system, wherein lies Lords and Chiefs epitomised in Shadowfax’s refusal to be ridden by those ‘unworthy’. Both these views, hidden within the ideology of the text, promote the same conditions in the readers today.

Tolkien shows clearly throughout his works of his love of all things ancient and pure. Ecologically and economically, these beliefs work hand in hand. The Lord of the Rings places value on the untouched lands of Middle-Earth. Something that has, in recent times (Arda timeline wise) been scourged and destroyed by industrialised machinery. Tolkien loathes this intervention and indeed makes it one of the worst enemies of the good, ‘free’ people within his works. This, while obviously empowering ecological views in the reader, also works against capitalism. Capitalism is born out of the industrial ways of the feudalistic society shown in Middle-Earth. Because of the negative stance Tolkien takes towards commerce, it can be argued that the novels do not serve the dominate in our current, capitalist, society as it shows them to be immoral and corrupting the pureness of the world.

While both critical concepts appear to be showing a clear opposition to the social decay and destruction of pastoral lands that capitalism brings along, Tolkien’s world cannot be seen to be utterly against capitalism. As such the text does not wholly support a reading of “whose interests are served by representations of the world in text?” (QCAA), as, contrary to initial beliefs, the text does not clearly serve anyone by its representations of the world. Arda does, however, provide a nostalgic view of a life before capitalism and industry. A life that Tolkien himself clearly thought the ideal.

“I spent the day out of doors, well wrapped up in old rags, hewing old brambles and making a fire the smoke of which rose in a still unmoving column straight up into the fog-roof. The rime was yesterday even thicker and more fantastic. When a gleam of sun shot through it was breathtakingly beautiful: trees like motionless fountains of white branching spray against a golden light and, high overhead, a pale translucent blue. It did not melt. About 11 p.m. the fog cleared and a high round moon lit the whole scene with a deadly white light: a vision of some other world of time. It was so still that I stood in the garden hatless and uncloaked without a shiver, though there must have been many degrees of frost…” -Tolkien, Letters #94