Lord Of The Ring Taps A Gay Archetype Summary

The purpose of Roger Kaufman’s essay, “Lord of the Ring Taps a Gay Archetype,” is to argue how archetypes of the human psyche, discovered by C. G. Jung, can explain the significance of the same-sex relationships between Frodo and Sam, and Frodo and Gollum. By focusing on the two relationships, Kaufman analyzes the text and the movies to compare and contrast J. R. R. Tolkien’s work to Peter Jackson’s film adaptations. Since Kaufman believes Jackson left out the homoerotic relationship between Frodo and Sam which causes the gay community the need to imagine the homosexual relationship between the two characters which they can clearly identify in Tolkien’s novel. Kaufman aims to pick apart the same-sex relationships and prove their existence

Kaufman cites specific examples from Tolkien’s text to provide a foundation, which then leads to the introduction to his point, that the relationships between Frodo and Sam is more than just masculine friendship. As Kaufman continues to defend his argument, he cites a Tolkien Biography where Tolkien states that his character, Samwise Gamgee is based off of English soldiers he encountered in World War I and then implies that Tolkien may have developed homoerotic feelings for his fellow soldiers. After explaining the importance of this, Kaufman begins to incorporate Jung’s terminology such as: “hero’s journey,” “individualization,” “soul figure,” and also includes Mitch Walker’s “Double, and also includes Mitch Walker’s Double.” Kaufman is able to link these specific terms to the relationships between Frodo and Sam, along with Frodo and Gollum. Although Jung’s terms seem to be heterosexual, Kaufman chooses to utilize and describe them as gay archetypes. Kaufman focuses on Gollum’s character development; how his behavior and treatment of Frodo is similar to how gay’s may feel when trying to express themselves. Therefore, Kaufman discusses Frodo’s and Sam’s relationship in terms of a gay couple whereas Gollum is the individual