Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
The Decay of Civilization
The world that the members of the Fellowship glimpse on
their wanderings through Rohan, Isengard, Entwash, and Mordor is
not a happy one. Everywhere the Fellowship goes, it finds evidence
of how the civilized world has fallen from a peaceful and noble
earlier state into a present degradation threatened by warlords
and general bleakness. Isengard and Gondor are both described as
formerly beautiful realms, once full of orchards and blossoming
gardens, that have deteriorated into desolate and barren places
that smell terrible and are littered with poison pits. It is not
merely the landscape, however, that has disintegrated. Moral and
noble ideals have fallen away as well. Earlier norms of hospitality
toward strangers have been abandoned because of the new dangers
of the modern age, as Éomer notes when he refers to the “dark times”
as an explanation for why he cannot treat the hobbits with customary
courtesy. Stopping the onslaught of Sauron is, therefore, much more
than merely thwarting an enemy: it is also saving an entire civilization
from a slow slide into chaos.
The Value of Fellowship
Fellowship is mentioned often in The Lord of the
Rings, not merely because the group of freedom fighters
struggling to destroy the Ring calls itself the Fellowship of the
Ring. The Fellowship, in a sense, is the collective protagonist
of Tolkien’s novel, a group representing all the free races and
realms of Middle-earth in the struggle against the evil of Mordor.
Fellowship is an important ideal for these characters, standing
for a sense of camaraderie that depends on mutual support, cooperation,
and solidarity in which no single member is considered more essential
than any other. Even Gandalf, though the unofficial leader of the
Fellowship, does not order around or act superior to the others.
He is clearly far more powerful than any of the others, but still
he needs them, and therefore treats them all with respect—referring
even to low-rankers like Merry and Pippin by their full honorific
names. There is also a mutual kindness that unites the members of
the Fellowship, as we see when Pippin gives Gimli his precious pipe
simply out of a desire to make the dwarf happy. It is this sensitivity
toward others that the villains of the novel—all of them egomaniacs—noticeably
lack.
Duty
When Aragorn and his group finally reach Isengard and
penetrate Saruman’s stronghold of Orthanc, they are surprised to
find Merry and Pippin casually lying by the gates, smoking and chatting.
From this memorable scene, we get an impression of the hobbits as
easygoing and fun-loving creatures who do not thrive on the hardship and
struggle that the mission of Ring-bearing entails. They would clearly
prefer to be sitting on a hillside, quietly passing the time.
But this does not make the hobbits appear inferior to
the task assigned them, nor does it diminish our respect for them
in the novel. On the contrary, it heightens our respect, as it reminds
us how deeply they have resisted their natural tendencies in taking
on the weighty mission entrusted to them. Sometimes Frodo needs
to pause in the journey—as on the endless steps of Cirith Ungol—but
only because he is exhausted, never because he simply wishes to
dawdle. His urgent desire to reach his goal becomes stronger as
he nears the destination. When Gollum tells Frodo there is no way
into Mordor, Frodo insists bluntly that he must enter the kingdom,
and his intensity is impressive. However easygoing the hobbits may
be naturally, the quest to return the Ring brings out a self-disciplined
and unwavering determination in them, and we never once see them
question the necessity of fulfilling their duty.
