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Originally Posted by Fordim
What's more, this pattern would seem to relegate women to the rather limited role of domestic "fulfillers" (to coin a new phrase). The purpose of the women is to be paired up with the appropriate male hero at the conclusion of the journey? I don't think there's anyone here who'd be terribly comfortable with this idea (or is there?).
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I think this could only be applied to Rosie, & even then I'm not too sure it works. The partnerships 'complete' both partners in every case. And if Tolkien's 'ideal' is a settled family life with children, then what goes before - even in the case of Aragorn - is a preliminary to the ultimate goal, which seems to be the establishing of a maturity in the individual which will make possible the true goal. Eowyn's achievement is not slaying the Witch King, it is finding love with Faramir & ceasing to be a shieldmaiden. Both she & Faramir have to grow through their experiences, till they can find their true purpose, symbolised in that moment, standing on Minas Tirith, their hair streaming out & mingling together as they kiss, not caring who saw them (one of Tolkien's most symbolically 'erotic' moments - as pointed out in the essay).
Yes, the women 'complete' the men, but that's as it should be, Tolkien would have said, because the men would be incomplete without them. The heroic journey is, as I said, prelude to the real, valuable thing.
The culmination is not simply being in love, which Sam was with Rosie, & Aragorn with Arwen before they began their heroic escapades, it is a fullfilled sexual relationship within a marriage, which produces children.
The true pairings are man/woman ones, the others are comparisons rather than pairings - yet for Tolkien as a Catholic these pairings result in the two becoming one flesh - which is what Tolkien gets into in Laws & Customs among the Eldar, & is the reason for the Valar's debate about whether it is possible for the eldar to 'divorce'.