[Bêthberry]

As always, late to this debate, but what garden is ever complete and never in need of more tending, eh?

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Looking objectively at Denethor and forgetting for a moment how much we all love Faramir, his behaviour shows him to have been a great leader who has slowly been worn down by the threat of war.

I'm not so sure it is our love for Faramir which colours our reading of Denethor, but the cumulative effects of our reading the story. I think Lhunardawen's initial stance as a reader is closer to what the narrative offers.

As I reread this chapter, I was struck by how much our interpretation of the Steward depends upon our remembering the fall and passing of Boromir and the Council of Elrond. And of how well we have attended to Sam and Frodo's story and the effect of the Ring there.

There is, first of all, Pippin's rather bizarre image of Denethor:

There Denethor sat in a grey gloom, like an old patient spider, Pippin thought; he did not seem to have moved since the day before.

Is it simply happenstance that Tolkien gives to Pippin the spider image or are we to recall the malevolent creature whose personal self-indulgences have led to so terrible a state for Sam and Frodo? Shelob of course left others immobile in her webs, but this spider-Denethor seems to be trapped within a web of his own making. However we recall--or not--Shelob, Pippin's image is hardly one of grandeur and, indeed, implies a self-imposed imprisonment. The suggestion is that Denethor is trapped by his own making and is not a leader who is reacting to events, but is frozen. At least, this would appear to be Pippin's interpretation.

Then there is the meeting in Denethor's private chambers, where Faramir is to report to his Lord upon his ten days' errand. How Tolkien handles this scene is interesting, for we have not one word from Denethor to Faramir about strategic details. Yes, he bows his head as if he knows all, and we come to understand why he should be so unquestioning about events, but Tolkien gives to Gandalf the role of military strategist, having the wizard ask pointedly about time, days, distances travelled. Denethor is moved to involvement, to reply, only when he is displeased by the personality of his younger son. Despite his criticism that Faramir fails to demonstrate the appropriate miliatary judgement, Denethor himself does not display such judgement and instead reacts not to the military questions at hand, but to something personal and intimate between him and his son; Denethor also allows himself the luxury of jealousy with Gandalf rather than remaining above questions of personality.

Then too, we have Denethor discussing the use of the Ring in terms which recall those Boromir used at the Council of Elrond, the pride and arrogance of an old family who believes itself personally entitled to rule (and, within Tolkien's values of Middle-earth, without the blood of kings to vouchsafe that belief). Denethor never once asks Gandalf to report on the Council of Elrond; he never inquires about Elrond's reasoning. It is true that Gandalf does not offer it, but once again, Denthor fails to ask a military strategist's questions.

How ironic are his words: "He would have brought me a mighty gift." At this point in the story, readers have enough knowledge to understand that Gandalf here is in the right when he says,

"He [Boromir] would have stretched out his hand to this thing, and taking it he would have fallen. He would have kept it for his own, and when he returned you would not have known your son. . . . And now hearing you speak I trust you less, no more than Boromir. Nay, stay your wrath. I do not trust myself with this, and I refused this thing, even as a freely given gift."

Surely also as Denethor speaks of what he would do with the Ring readers remember Galadriel's refusing of it.

My point is less to attack Denethor than to consider how the chapter leads readers to make certain interpretations about its events. The chapter is slippery as befits a depiction of a man who is in the final stages of madness. How much so, readers will learn in the next chapter when Denethor decides to place the still living Faramir on a burning pyre with himself. But for now, we have a complex character who has many sympathetic and positive traits but who has fallen by a technology as powerful as the Ring. Denethor is unknowingly the traitor within and this chapter gives readers the chance to balance the Steward's point of view with that of Gandalf. We might wish that Gandald had been more patient and persuasive with Denethor, but all of the wizard's statements are points which we as readers have already seen are the 'right' interpretation.

In other words, Denethor is fated to not understand because the author wished his character not to understand, and provided evidence in the text for readers to see how his understanding failed.