Loss in Fairy Tales: The Ethic of Struggle of Tolkien's Middle - Earth Narratives

This article examines J. R. R. Tolkien's attitudes to ethics in his Middle-earth narratives, mainly The Lord of the Rings. This paper departs from previous studies on loss in Tolkien's writings by reconsidering Tolkien's fiction in the light of Lacan's theory on loss (with additional support from Tolkien's letters and academic writings), so as to compare the moral choices of different fictional characters who undergo a loss of some sort. The discussion demonstrated how a constant struggle can be an ethical choice for Tolkien against the subject's loss and how this ethic is incorporated into his narrative. While studies on Tolkien's loss is no longer a new topic, this one tries to give loss a new ethical dimension with a psychoanalytic insight while still holding a dialogue with the past scholarly endeavours.