Celebrian's Misfortunes

[davem]

Originally Posted by Gorthaur the Cruel

Then she really was raped if not seemingly.

We'll never know, so its all speculation - you might as well toss a coin. The only thing we can know is the effect of the Orcs' 'torment' on her. I suspect that Tolkien chose not to tell us exactly what happened because he didn't feel that it was relevant.

Basically, the alternatives are: a)unknown/unknowable 'torment' in the dark at the hands of the Orcs, or b) specific, known torment (rape or otherwise).

a) is more disturbing & from a literary point of view more effective, because all we need to know is that what Celebrian went through was enough to break her spirit & make it impossible for her to remain in Middle earth. As soon as the 'torment' is precisely defined - whatever it was - there will be some readers who respond 'Well, that wasn't all that bad - fancy being broken by something like that!'. To know the effect on Celebrian engenders sympathy/empathy, because the reader will think of the worst 'torment' they can imagine for themselves - which might not be rape at all, whereas to know the cause, may produce the opposite effect & cause her to be percieved as 'weak'. The unseen monster is always scariest (as PJ should have realised re the Balrog!)