Quote:
Originally Posted by Bêthberry
Tolkien had a particular aesthetic about beauty. I think there's a letter where he even discusses the nature of beauty and evil and that in certain aesthetics, the two are never mixed. (I could be wrong about this, been awhile.) His beautiful characters (in LotR) are those who are not perfect but who are morally correct. Book Boromir is a character who has a clear moral failing--his pride, his ambition (for Gondor as well as for himself), his hubris. This is not to deny that he wins redemption. He clearly does. Nor is this to say he is a villain. Tolkien is too subtle for that.
Yet the subtly of Tolkien's vision is such that he does not want his readers to find those who clearly do have a moral failing too attractive. This is in sharp contrast to modern tastes, where beauty can be very twisted and where moral culpability tends to glamorised and treated with great compassion.
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What about the whole "fair and foul" thing?
Does that mean that Aragorn was not morally correct?
edit: woops.
MatthewM already said that.