Aragorn and Arwen: More than kissing?

[Lush]

Is book Arwen really just a trophy, or is it our modern minds interpreting her to be as such?

First of all, I would object to the idea that modernity is responsible for my dissatisfaction with Arwen's character. I am not a big fan, because compared to other characters in the book, she strikes me as rather incomplete and almost decorative. I do agree that she is shown to have a strong positive influence on Aragorn and his decisions, but for as powerful of a force that she is, I think that her character is ultimately poorly constructed; I believe Tolkien relied on power of suggestion, which is a wonderful literary device when used with razor-sharp precision, but here strikes me as having been dulled for a variety of reasons.

Also, I would argue that it is not modernity that inspires in us the desire to see well-defined instances of female agency. Ultimately, I do not believe that Tolkien was as great in developing his female characters; even Eowyn's arch falls flat for me in the end. I wrote up something about all of this here.

Arwen's film character I actually liked a bit more.