Psychological depth in Tolkien's characters

[mark12_30]

that reveal her as Feanor's equal

rank

Rank is only one part of it. Tolkien clearly loved Feanor despite all his faults, and even Gandalf held him in high regard; If she is Feanor's equal, or even close, then she is fiery, creative, ambitious and capable of leading a large group of elves off into war and destruction. And I think a careful consideration of Galadriel shows that that is so.

We may guess at that from her "All shall love me and despair" speech during her Ring-temptation, but everybody tempted by the Ring including Sam had grandiose ideas. Comparing her to Feanor makes her temptation truly awesome. Can we imagine Feanor with The One Ring? Galadriel would have been little different.

I think Galadriel's background adds tremendous depth.

Edit: Davem, very good point. I wonder how that extends to the elves; we seem to meet at least one token elf from each culture except Mithlond... Should we compare Haldir vs Legolas vs Glorfindel, or would the Rivendell equivalent be Lindir (who always annoyed me)? I'll vote for Glorfindel to represent Rivendell since we get to know him a little better. This is worth returning to; more later...

[ November 17, 2003: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]