J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) gained a reputation during the 1960’s and 1970’s as a cult figure among youths disillusioned with war and the technological age. His continuing popularity evidences his ability to evoke the oppressive realities of modern life while drawing audiences into a fantasy world.
John Ronald Reuel was born on the third of January, 1892, at Bloemfontein, South Africa, where his father, Arthur, had taken a position with the Bank of Africa. In 1895 Tolkien’s mother, Mabel Suffield, moved back to England with her children, because Tolkien‘s health was affected by the climate. Arthur Tolkien hoped to return to England soon, but he contracted rheumatic fever the following autumn and died early in 1896. After a few months of living with her parents, Mabel Tolkien rented a cottage on the edge of Birmingham, and from then until her death in 1904, she and here two sons lived in rented houses on the edges of the city. After her death, Mabel Tolkien’s parish priest, Father Francis Morgan, took responsibility for the upbringing and education of her sons.
Tolkien’s only means of escape from a lower-middle-class commercial life was winning an academic scholarship, which, with some difficulty, he did in 1910, gaining entrance to Exeter College, Oxford. In 1908 Tolkien fell in love with Edith Bratt, an orphan like himself. In 1910 Father Morgan forbade him to communicate with her until he was of age, to which Tolkien obeyed. At Oxford he began studying classics but soon concentrated on English language and literature, being awarded first-class honors in his final examination in 1915. He revisited Edith Bratt five days after his twenty-first birthday, and they were formally betrothed in 1914 when, at Tol...
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...t hot desert, to England, rolling grassy hills, seemed to open his mind. One of the main reasons he wrote was to entertain his children. He told them about his world. And only a small majority of his stories got published(Kroeber 521).
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) gained a reputation during the 1960’s and 1970’s as a cult figure among youths disillusioned with war and the technological age. His continuing popularity evidences his ability to evoke the oppressive realities of modern life while drawing audiences into a fantasy world.
Works Cited
Byers, Paula K. Ed. “J.R.R. Tolkien”. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gake Research, 1998. 259-260
Grotta, Daniel. J.R.R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle Earth. Philadelphia: Courage Books, 1992. 123-135.
Kroeber, Karl. “J.R.R. Tolkien”. British Writers. Ed. George Stade, New York: Gale Research, 1980. 519-521
It will be the contention of this paper that much of Tolkien's unique vision was directly shaped by recurring images in the Catholic culture which shaped JRRT, and which are not shared by non-Catholics generally. The expression of these images in Lord of the Rings will then concern us.
There is a thin line between love and hate. Love is having a strong affection for another person, place, or thing and sometimes, it makes people do crazy things. Whether it is a woman chopping off hair due to a bad breakup or placing permanent tattoos on the body for commitment, one will go to major extremities to satisfy their passion for love. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story, “The Birthmark,¨ a psychotic scientist strives for perfection not only leading to the death of his beautiful wife, but overall attempting to have power and control over nature. Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism and foreshadowing to display the thematic complexities of mortality and human imperfection that the birthmark personifies psychologically and symbolically in the
Tolkien, J. R. R., and Alan Lee. The hobbit ; The Lord of the Rings. London: HarperCollins, 2010. Print.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996. Print.
The paper will begin with a look at the life of Tolkien. This will serve the purpose of providing some context for the novel. Looking into the life of Tolkien will also serve to give the reader some insight into the mind that gave birth to such a rich land and why the novel may have some importance for sufferers of mental illness. Next will likely be a short summation of the
Men and women will always strive for perfection whether it is in themselves or in each other. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s allegory “The Birthmark, “ the audience is informed of a young couple, Aylmer and Georgiana. Then soon transpires into a husband's obsession with his wife's flaw, “The birthmark.” The young husband gets too wrapped up in fixing his wife that he forgets to show her attention and love. Incapable of feeling anything but determination to make his wife perfect; he uses a potion to remove the birthmark. The potion successfully begins to fade the birthmark however, the potion also fades his wife's life as well. . Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to give “The Birthmark” a deeper meaning, foreshadowing to build suspense, and third
There are numerous instances of ambiguity in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark”; this essay hopes to explore critics’ comments on that problem within the tale, as well as to analyze it from this reader’s standpoint.
In the short story, “The Birthmark”, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of Aylmer, a man devoted entirely to science, who marries Georgiana, a beautiful young woman with a single imperfection. Georgiana’s imperfection is merely a birthmark on her cheek that bears the resemblance of a tiny crimson hand. Still, this mark becomes the object of Aylmer’s obsession, and he resolves to use his scientific prowess to correct “what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work.” Aylmer succeeds in removing the birthmark; however, he unfortunately causes his wife’s death in the process. Through his skillful use of diction, foreshadowing, symbolism, irony, paradox, allusion, and antithesis, Hawthorne warns of the consequences of man having the desire and power to control and alter nature, and suggests that nothing paradisiacal can exist on this earth; that being imperfect is just part of being human.
In Nathaniel’s Hawthorns short story “The Birthmark”, shows the lust for perfection and the need to create a perfect being. Hawthorne creates this message through the story of a scientist by the name of Aylmer who put down his test tube to pursue love. He meets the love of his life Georgiana, but she has one flaw. Upon her left cheek rests a blush red birthmark resembling that of a small human hand. Aylmer becomes obsessed with removing it and making her perfect, by using his science. Throughout the Reading of “The Birthmark”, Hawthorne uses symbolism to create deep imagery to illustrate the imperfections of being human because that’s what makes us who we are.
Tolkien, J. R. R., and Douglas A. Anderson. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
· Urang, Gunnar. "J. R. R. Tolkien: Fantasy and the Phenomenology of Hope" Religion and Fantasy in the Writing of C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and J. R. R. Tolkien. United Church Press, 1971
J.R.R Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is a peerless fantasy of epic proportions. While eschewing allegory in favor of an historical perspective, Tolkien has imprinted the work with many of his own closely held Catholic beliefs. In a lecture concerning Tolkien’s writing given to students at Villanova University, Dr. Tomas W. Smith put it this way
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit, Or, There and Back Again. New York: Ballantine, 1982. Print
In 1943, the great Shakespearean actor Laurence Olivier was commissioned to direct a film version of Henry V by the British government. The Prime Minister Winston Churchill himself told Olivier that the film should be created in such a way so as to be a piece of war propaganda and to boost morale amongst the British troops fighting abroad and the British at home. The timing for such a patriotic film could not have been more perfect. The Allies were beginning to gain momentum in their fight against Nazi Germany and the invasion of Normandy was being planned as the film was being produced. In fact, the invasion of Normandy actually occurred five months before the film was released, which of course helped the ...
Tolkien, J.R.R.. “Now Read On…” Interview by Dennis Gerrolt. BBC Radio 4. BBC, 1971. Web. 11 Jan. 2014.