Strong women

[Diamond18]

The only problem with the Victorian treatment of women, as well as Tolkien's portrayal of them is the fact that the above ideal of an angel on a pedestal is about as real as the Tooth Fairy.

*gasp* The Tooth Fairy isn't real????

Okay, seriously. Yes, I know that view is fairy tale stuff (and I was joking about wanting it to be real!). What I mean is that back then it was not viewed as degrading for a woman to be left at home.

Tolkien doesn't adhere totally to the Victorian standard, of course. Yes, his females are a bit...too perfect, and take a back seat most of the time. But though in his books you have the stay-at-homes like Arwen you also have Éowyn, Haleth, and Luthien who were not always docile.

Tolkien, actually, knew that the Victorian view (angel on pedistal) was erroneous. He said so in a letter to Micheal Tolkien. (Letter 43)

There is in our Western culture the romantic chivalric tradition still strong....It idealizes 'love' — and as far as it goes can be very good, since it takes in far more than physical pleasure, and enjoins if not purity, at least fidelity, and so self-denial, 'service', courtesy, honour, and courage. Its weakness is, of course, that it began as an artificial courtly game....It's centre was not God, but imaginary Deities, Love and the Lady. It still tends to make the Lady a kind of guiding star or divinity — of the old-fashioned 'his divinity' = the woman he loves — the object or reason of noble conduct. This is, of course, false and at best make-believe. The woman is another fallen human-being with a soul in peril.

I did a little editing to get around to the point faster (the elipses) and bolded the point. But I don't believed I changed Tolkien's intent by doing so.