View Single Post
Old 03-17-2012, 09:03 PM   #48
Galadriel55
Blossom of Dwimordene
 
Galadriel55's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,299
Galadriel55 is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Galadriel55 is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Galadriel55 is lost in the dark paths of Moria.Galadriel55 is lost in the dark paths of Moria.
General thoughts on suicide

Tolkien held the belief that Men have to be able to give up their life freely. Death was given to Men from Eru as a gift, but Morgoth turned into a curse, and people began to fear it. How wretched does life have to seem for a person to cast it away and seek solace in death? Pretty wretched. So in such a case Tolkien condones suicide, or at least does not condemn it. He makes us pity the character. In some cases, though... I guess I'll have to go over the cases/passages individually.

Miriel - that's not suicide. That's just death, as death is. When you have no strength - physical, emotional, spiritual, etc - to live, then guess what? You die. There's no suicide here.

Fingolfin - in a way you can call that suicide. Causing as much suffering to your foe - knowing logically that you cannot beat him, but fighting anyways - since you know (or think) you're going to die anyways, so might as well bring him down with you or cause as much damage as you can. The Sil says that "a great madness of rage was upon him", so he did not think logically, but man, you have to be completely cracked to think you'll make it alive. It's the causing-as-much-damage case. And it's absolutely condoned, even admired (not in the sense that you should do that, but it is deeply respected).

It's possible to make an analogy to Theoden, when he went into battle at Minas Tirith against overwhelming odds, to do the most while you still can. However, as hopeless as his case was it was not nearly as hopeless as Fingolfin's.

Nienor - she's the perfect case of what I said earlier. She was so horrified and distraught of what has been done to her life (what she has done to her life) that Tolkien makes us pity her. Or at least me, since I know in advance Zil will disagree with me about everything I say regarding that family . But looking at her you cannot say that she was a coward. It takes a good deal of gut to take away your own life. And the manner in which she did it too - to quote COH:
Last of men to look down into its darkness was Brandir son of Handir; and he turned away in horror, for his heart quailed, and though he hated now his life, he could not there take the death that he desired.
Guys, it's the same "crazed" Brandir who killed Dorlas. Sure, Nienor was mad, and madness makes people blind, but madness does only so much.

One could say that Nienor escaped life because she didn't have the courage to fix it and set it right again, but that's not applicable here. Not with her life: it's doomed, and until she lives like Turin she'll cast her curse onto her loved ones. There is not way to set it right. And she can't escape it either (Turin tried that, but the past always caught up with him). ***see Denethor***

Turin - yet another "mad" one. Throughout his life he tried to put aside his past, his name, and his curse, and start life over again. He had a purpose in life for a long time - to take revenge on Morgoth. Hatered drove him on. However, when he came to accept who he is - Turin son of Hurin, a curse onto his kin, etc - and realised he can't just run away and start afresh his fate was much like Nienor's. And even more so, since he realised that by hating Morgoth he was doing what Morgoth planned for him. This was his motivation for living, as well as his family, which he thought was safe and found out was dead. It's like taking out two pillars that hold a building.

There's also another key thing here, forever. Just the thought of forever being Morgoth's puppet, forever bringing harm and destruction to where you tried to bring good, it's frightening.

To summarise, Turin's suicide is condoned. Both by the reader and by later generations.

Hurin - another one who has lost purpose and desire to live. "Bereft of all purpose and desire" - that's what The Sil says. There's no difference between death and life. Nothing matters. He wasn't escaping anything, because he had nothing to escape. Life is worthless. Hurin is honoured, respected, etc.

And since I'm on this family, I'd like to mention Morwen, who, once has achieved her only goal - to find her children - gives way to death. Her purpose drove her on when a more, quote unquote, sane person would have died, and once it was achieved the fire of life went out of her.

Elwing - yes, she's attempted suicide. During the Third Kinslaying she cast herself into the Sea. Thinking about her motivation, I came up with this thought: rather take my life and my dearest posessions myself than let them do it". This is questionable, though, since she left her sons to their own fate. We don't know the exact circumstances of Elwing's attempt, though, so it's possible that she did not willingly abandon Elrond and Elros - maybe they were captured, or they were separated, etc. The topic of lack of motherly protection has been quite popular, so I won't pursue it.

Maedhros - yet another one without a purpose. The loss of the right to the Silmarili this time. Maglor, on the other hand, always seemed to me as the less ambitious one, a more accepting personality. And he took solace in music.

Eowyn - somewhat similar to Fingolfin. But her's isn't a case of taking down as many foes as you can. She's such a case that I have a hard time explaining or putting down in words. I put special emphasis on the desire for death in battle. She was at the same time trying to take the last desperate step to her dream, and proving herself to Aragorn, and committing suicide. But I'm still missing the point I want to make. *sigh*

Denethor - utter, utter despair. His suicide can be sort of divided into two parts: before Gandalf's arrival and after. Before, we think his despair was caused by Faramir's near-death state. And that is, even in my opinion (), no legitimate reason to throw in the towel. But then we find out that this is only the breaking straw for Denethor - his despair goes much deeper beyond that, through the Palantir. And no, I can't anymore condemn him. He should have seen some light at the end of the tunnel, but you can't force a person to see it. Gandalf tried, unsuccessfully. In other words, I am taking the blame off Denethor. He's yet another character who the reader pities. And also one who is half mad.

His case is different from Nienor's because he actually had a real chance to find hope, start over, recover, you name it.

The Later Numenorians - they did not want to accept death when it came, and they tried to prolong their life. They clung onto their lives past their limits. In a way, they became thralls to life:
Fed only to keep alive, kept alive only to toil, toiling only for the fear of pain or death. (Sador in COH)
As mortals who are not completely broken by fate as the people above, they love life - who doesn't? But you have to give it away eventually. "One who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters."

Aragorn - like the Numenorians during the earlier SA, Aragorn gives up his life on his own free will. He caught the right moment. You don't throw away your life just because you'll die eventually anyways, but you don't cling to it either. You just, well, hand it over when the moment comes.

This reminds me uncannily of the Tale of the Three Brothers (or some such - I forgot what it's really called) from Harry Potter 7. You know, the one about Death. Only the person who lived his life wisely and when time came embraced death died honourably.


But here comes this contradictory piece:
"Authority is not given to you, Stewart of Gondor, to order the hour of your death. And only the heathen kings, under the domination of the Dark Power, did thus, slaying themselves in pride and despair, murdering their kin to ease their own death." (Gandalf to Denethor, ROTK)
The first part, about the authority, probably means that the right moment didn't come yet - according to Gandalf's judgement. The part about the suicidal kings condemns suicide for the sake of suicide - and murder, to make it less emotionally painful.


Generally speaking (which I wanted to do in the beginning, but ended up writing this for 2 hours), I tend to condone suicide. It's not to be idealised or encouraged, but I don't have it in me to call any person who deliberately parts with their life a coward. It's no simple thing to do. I've had many arguments about various suicidal characters with different people, and I always say that even if suicide is an escape from the obstacles of life, or the consequences, or etc, it's not like walking out the front door. It's not that you're just escaping your current conditions, you're escaping through something that generally living creatures fear to death (bad pun, I know). Instead, I ask to look at suicide from a different perspective: how dreadful or worthless can life be, if death seems better? Going back to the quote about Brandir, his life was also in shatters, but it wasn't bad enough for him to take his life himself. He didn't fear death in the end, but giving up your life and talking it yourself are in a way different things. Brandir did not have the despair to jump into Cabed Naeramarth, or perhaps the courage - which is not to call him a coward at all.

Ok, now I'm going off topic again, so I'm going to stop.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zil
Tolkien almost seems to imply Saruman should have done himself in.
Maybe not exactly done himself in, but loved life a tad less, if you get my meaning. He became a thrall of life.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Zil
On an unrelated note, I've wondered if Gollum's "slip" wasn't really a suicide, conscious or not.
I don't believe that an accident can be called a suicide. The slip was accidental on Gollums part; you can argue that it was meant so by fate, but fate doesn't always give you your preference. I don't see a reason for Gollum to want to die. The Smeagol inside of him was dead a long time ago. His affection for Frodo disappeared. The only thing he had left was his hunger for his preciouss. In a sense, Gollum also falls into the category of people who upon their death have no purpose - either because it is unachievable, or because it has been achieved.



This might be the longest post I've written so far. Sorry for the novel.
__________________
You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera
Galadriel55 is offline   Reply With Quote