Critical Analytical Response

Stephany Grant

3/24/2010

Stephany Grant March 24, 2010

Sometimes the right thing to do is the hardest thing to do; it is a lesson that has been

driven into our minds since preschool. Teachers can preach all they want about how doing the

right thing is best, but no one really knows how hard it can be until it actually comes down to it.

In Lord of the Rings, there are two characters in particular that find out how hard it really is to

do what they consider to be the right thing. By choosing the right thing, they lose certainty in

themselves and in things around them, but in turn gain honour from their actions. Arwen and

Aragorn both struggle with competing demands in order to restore honour and certainty. In

order to restore their honour they must give up their sense of certainty.

Arwen is the beautiful elf princess who is madly in love with Aragorn. Because of her

elvish decent, she is immortal and gets to leave to middle earth to a land of bliss. In the movie,

she makes a choice to give up the certainty she had in her immortal afterlife, and stay on

middle earth so she can be with her love. When she was ready to give up her immortality she

also signed away her certainty with it. She questioned as to whether or not he was going to

make it out alive or if she would ever see Aragorn again, but that was the certainty she lost and

a chance she was willing to take. That in itself was an honored thing to do, literally giving her

life for the one she loved. Peter Jackson makes a point to establish how difficult her decision

was. He wants us to see what other things she has to consider as well. In giving up her immortal

life her father would have to watch his own daughter die, knowing that she could have stayed

alive had she kept her immortality. Her response to these demands what to do what she felt

Stephany Grant March 24, 2010

was right thereby letting go of her certainty in her immortal life, and embracing the honour she

had by staying with her love.

Aragorn is the descendent of the king of Gondor, although he never acted upon his

kingly duties until Return of the King. It takes him a while to come to terms with it because it is

such a large task. When deciding to become king, he would have done a fair amount of

thinking. He had to make a decision on whether or not he was able to take on such a task as

this, and whether or not he was able to do the right thing. Aragorn knew that in becoming king,

he would lose the comfort he had within his last life, and move into the unknown zone of

power and royalty. He also had the pressure of becoming the leader and king Gondor so

desperately. Aragorn decided to comply with the external demands and accentuate to voice

inside of him telling him to do the right thing. Also, the possibility of death was even that much

more profound now that he was a king which was the exact opposite of what Arwen wanted to

know. He surrendered the certainty of what he knew being a normal ranger, to become the

king. This newly acquired kingdom gave him honour he had never had before. He had to leave

the certainty of his old ways behind in order to undercover the honour that was living within

him. In doing so, he helped save middle earth, and in turn got to finally be with his love Arwen.

The overall idea portrayed in Peter Jackson’s film is that sacrificing certainty ultimately

leads to honour. We see that in Arwens case, she leaves her immortality to be with the love of

her life Aragorn, and in turn, gaining honour she hadn’t found before. Aragorn becomes a king

with power he has never had before. He decides to forget being normal, and forget what life he

Stephany Grant March 24, 2010

had before and start fresh being a king and developing more honour that previously had. Both

characters go through the similar struggles and finally end with similar results. They both find

the light at the end of the tunnel, and both end up with honour. Once you give up your

certainty, you are able to gain honour.