The Lord of The Rings Universe

Dark, imposing, devious, powerful beyond measure, Sauron is evil personified in the Lord of the Rings universe. He is the be all and end all when it comes to villiany in the Lord of the Rings tale. He is a major reason that the Lord of the Rings is regarded as a pinnacle of epic fantasy story telling. But he is not an overly complex villain, with morally gray motivations that some may say are required if an evil character, especially the central one, is to be regarded as important and beneficial to the plot. But the genius of Sauron's villaint is his absence of complex reasoning or motives that could be seen as not entirely evil. His one goal is to destroy the world of men. He can't be reasoned with or sympathized with, and this is what the this insatiable, all powerful, purely destructive nature of his villainy so vital to the Lord of the Rings. Sauron and his purely diabolical nature are the constant that every protagonist is leaned against and tested upon, and the podium on which Tolkien showcases the character growth of the many protagonists in this novel from the beginning of the story until the end.

Everything Tolkien uses to describe Sauron defines him as this massive, untouchable power that there is little chance to overcome, if any at all. It is no mistake that the story begins in the innocent, lush Shire, where innocent hobbits frolick without a care in the world, while Sauron is in Mordor, nearly all the way across the world. This immediately defines him in the readers head as an almost God-like entity, in an untouchable place. Thus, when Gandalf informs Frodo of just exactly what the Ring is Uncle Bilbo has given him is, that it is "the Master-ring, the One Ring to rule them all' and who it belongs to, the n...

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...n his hands, and a light was about him."

Aragorn is just one example of a protagonist who changes from the beginning of the story to the end, and each one improves in their own way. Whether it is Legolas and Gimli's friendship that blossoms even though one is an elf while the other is a dwarf, or Faramir's ability to accept himself, depsite his fathers approval of Boromir over him, there are dozens of characters that change. When your villain is one-dimensional, it provides a base for you to change your other characters effectively and efficiently. If it were not for Sauron's danger to the entire world, and evil that spans across many different people and places, affecting them all, Tolkien would not have been able to create such character depth in so many characters in such an organic in natural way, and that is what makes his nature vital to the story overall.