The Role Of Women In 'The Lord Of The Rings'?

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien has been given high praise, yet a portion of the novel falls short for critic and that is the women of his world. Some have alleged that he paints an “old-fashioned, misogynistic depiction of women” (Neville 101).When his novel was published this was the accepted view of women. Therefore, are readers holding Tolkien to our moral standers today, not stopping to contemplate what society thought of women when this novel was written? Others have thought that his society shows women as “decorative but ultimately powerless, as pawns in a man’s world” (Neville 101). Much of Tolkien’s world comes from ancient Anglo-Saxon and Norse myth, thus again it would be understand that his women might fit this idea. Yet looking at the women in The Fellowship of the Ring, the idea that these women are powerless, pawns of men does not come to mind. Despite what numerous critics have supposed about the women in Tolkien’s world, they are not powerless pawns of men. Galadriel is one of Tolkien women that distant from a powerless pawn. One point to be made is that she has, “Nenya, the Ring of

Is the problem that readers have come to expect strong, independent female characters in Fiction that if a novel lacks it, any women in the story must be powerless, pawns of men stuck in misogynistic roles? Are Tolkien’s women closer to reality since most women are not this overpowering of strong defiantly independent women? Tolkien women can be seen as strong, brave and independent; he just does not push it as writers today do. Tolkien does not blatantly say that his women are strong and independent, this should not indicate that his women should be condemned to powerless, pawns of men stuck in misogynistic roles. The women of Tolkien’s world in The Lord of the Rings are far-flung from this powerless, misogynistic idea and should not be put down as