2. Plot, Meaning and Structure of the Text
2.1 Literary Devices to Develop a Plot
The Ring
The Ring is the key item to the plot, for what happens to it defines the development of the story. If it is kept, it is a source for trouble, for whatever the use given to it, whether good or bad, the Ring is an instrument of power and dominion, and turns everything to evil. If it is destroyed, it means the end to a certain impersonation of evil and the absolute extinction of the elves, but this is its expected outcome as readers are biased to choose the good side. Obviously, if the Ring had been kept or used against Sauron, the struggle would have ended immediately.
One of the most paradoxical questions concerning the plot/story is that Tolkien gives us only past examples of the effects of the Ring, and we feel that we didn't have the chance at all to prove if the Ring was really corruptive or a strong will could have used and dominated it. Gollum is completely ruined when we first meet him, even in The Hobbit. Sauron is an evil spirit turned into an eye of fire. Saruman was already perverted by the thought of possessing the Ring. Of course Frodo carries it almost during the whole book/story, and at the end he 'changes' and tragically claims the jewel. That scene arises another unclear point: does Frodo claim the Ring because it has possessed him, or because he considers it is the right price for his struggle? It seems quite a naive question, because whatever the case it would all always depend on the seductive power of the Ring, but more than one reader may have agreed with Frodo's final stand.
Thus, if we talk about obscure corruptive powers, we have the classical story of good versus evil. On the evil side, we have a demon who wants to keep evil alive, a wise but selfish wizard who earns for absolute power, and a creature which has used and abused the Ring so long that he has become an addicted. On the good side we have another wizard sent by the gods to secure the destruction of the Ring, an exiled king running from his fate but about to come back, and four little creatures whose only dream is to come back to their quiet homes safe, one of whom carries the fate of every living creature.
Tolkien's narrative success lies on the continuous twists of fate he applies to the story. His famous 'eucatastrophe' is nothing but a restoration of 'natural' order. Of course there is a sacrifice of people (death) and things (destruction), and at the end a bitter feeling of loss remains, but nothing is casual. The end is not fair in case The Lord of the Rings is considered a fairy-tale only, because traditional fairy-tales have a ultimate sense of gaining something (eternal happiness, wealth, love) whereas Tolkien pictures an entire civilization in decay with a continuously threatening feeling of total extinction. The loss is unavoidable.
© 1996-2006, Universitat de València Press
© Ignacio Pascual Mondéjar, 2006
© a.r.e.a. & Dr.Vicente Forés