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Originally Posted by Lhunardawen
. . . . There is no question about Aragorn's faithfulness to Arwen despite the distance between them; in The Passing of the Grey Company we have witnessed a bitter exchange between Aragorn and Éowyn that left us without a doubt that Aragorn cannot and will not reciprocate Éowyn's feelings for him, no matter how much it hurt him to see her love him hopelessly. There is also that subtle reference to Arwen in Rivendell which Éowyn did not catch. After all, his primary motivation for doing all that he does is his love for Arwen.
But in the conversation preceding Éowyn's healing we see that Aragorn is not completely oblivious to the effects he had on Éowyn. (Nor is Éomer, although there is no mention of him in relevance to the issue previously.) It is touching that Aragorn, despite his seemingly harsh manner towards Éowyn in the aforementioned chapter, shows that he actually cares a lot about her. I can almost see the guilt solidify in his mind (or maybe it's just me), but Éomer was quick to reassure him that he does not hold him responsible for whatever has befallen his sister. And the statement I quoted above reveals a slight regret on his part for not being able to love Éowyn back. (Dare we think that if Arwen were not in the picture, Éowyn would be Queen of Gondor?  )
Indeed what a different world we would have if all men would think along those lines in such circumstances as Aragorn and Éowyn were in. 
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Lhunda, are you suggesting that one of the main purposes or functions of Eowyn as a character is to provide an opportunity for Tolkien to explore Aragorn's temptation? Aragorn foregoes using his power over someone, a trait which most (if not all
) men lack? The desire to use a talent, a skill, an ability is, Tolkien says in "On Fairey Stories" a dominant characteristic of mankind--he even says it is a god-like attribute when he describes it as the urge to subcreate. Yet here Tolkien has Aragorn walk away from his "Ring".
This would suggest that Tolkien was less interested in exploring female psyche--something which makes Eowyn very different from Arwen and Galadriel after all and is anomylous in the tale--but was simply looking for a way to dramatise Aragorn's self discipline and special heroism.