Faramir and Eowyn: Was Tolkien just pairing off?

[Elenna]

Wow - all of you have gone really deep. I must admit, my first reaction when I read that part of the book was, "Oh good, now everyone is going to live happily ever after."

But now I actually think it could have been symbolic. (Gasp! The word that strikes fear into the heart of lit classes everywhere.) When this is going on, the focus of Middle Earth is shifting from destruction, and definite death in battle, to picking up the pieces and healing the land. I think that Eowyn's change of heart is representing the change of heart that all the races are going through.

Plus, readers everywhere come to care for the desperate, rejected Eowyn. We'd all be sorely disappointed if he let her die in battle, or go along loving Aragorn for the rest of her life, completely unrequited.