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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Power In The Lord Of The Rings, Alexis Levitin
Power In The Lord Of The Rings, Alexis Levitin
Tolkien Journal
Analyzes Power and its tendency to corruption in The Lord of the Rings, with a discussion of the weaknesses of Evil, and the function of the Ring as a temptation to Power and Pride.
The Good Guys & The Bad Guys, Gracia Fay Ellwood
The Good Guys & The Bad Guys, Gracia Fay Ellwood
Tolkien Journal
Considers the popularity of The Lord of the Rings, with its unfashionably clear division of good and evil, as in part due to its appeal to the deep human need for stories embodying archetypes. Applies Jungian analysis and the theories of Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade to the story.
Good And Evil In The Lord Of The Rings, W. H. Auden
Good And Evil In The Lord Of The Rings, W. H. Auden
Tolkien Journal
Explores the interplay of good and evil in the story through the actions and motivations of species “capable of speech and therefore of moral reasoning,” and praises Tolkien for creating characters with a realistic moral balance. Makes the important observation that good characters can imagine being evil while evil characters cannot imagine being good. (Note that this piece is pre-Silmarillion and Auden’s assessment of the Elves is based only on LotR.) Reprinted in Critical Quarterly 10 (1968):138–42.