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Lord of the Rings
July 18th 2005
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Lord of the Rings |
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In J.R.R Tolkien’s trilogy of Lord
of the Rings, there can be seen many situations which would lead the
reader to suggest that the books were made for the advancement, and
the depiction therein of the revolution of the proletariat and
global liberation of the working class. In order for there to be a
revolution of any sort, there must first be an opposition to the
revolutionaries.
The opposition in Lord of the Rings is a “Dark Lord” named Sauron,
and he actually was the one who made the ring named in the title.
This is an obvious representation of the bourgeois class rising out
of the feudal time period of Europe’s history and creating capital
with such immense power, that the individual wealth of the smaller
former bourgeois [due to this, now proletariat] combined do not
match that of the one.
J.R.R was a very learned man, and was most assuredly knowledgeable
of the culture of the feudal ages, since, he in fact knew the
language of the times, and he was also educated at Oxford University
in this subject (en.wikipedia).
The beginning of the story is when
Sauron makes the one ring. Sauron is a dark lord, and the ring is a
perfect gold band that cools when it gets heated up, unless it goes
to the place of it’s original creation, whereby it can be destroyed
(http://www.lordoftherings.net). This is clearly a representing the
origin of the money system by which the working class is enslaved to
wage labour. The origin of money itself is very obscure, and the
awesome power that it exercises over the masses seems as if it has a
mind of it’s own. The bourgeoisie, like Sauron gained power through
absolute control and oppression of the working class, which in Lord
of the Rings is represented by the people of Middle Earth. In the
Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engles it says:
The bourgeoisie has stripped of its
halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with
reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the
priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers.
The bourgeoisie has torn away from
the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation
into a mere money relation.
The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it
came to pass that the brutal display of vigour in the Middle Ages,
which reactionaries so much admire, found its fitting complement in
the most slothful indolence. It has been the first to show what
man's activity can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far
surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic
cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade all
former exoduses of nations and crusades. (Marx, 212)
Sauron is very similar to the
described bourgeoisie in that he also forced everyone to submit to
the power of the one ring, or the monetary system of the oppressive
ruling class. In Sauron’s Middle Earth, there is no more family,
there is no more loyalty, there is no more love (Lord of the Rings:
Return). Sauron’s coming to power is not far from the method which
the bourgeois employed to gain their ruthless hold over the masses.
Sauron used war, and the inherently evil power of the one ring in
order to take over Middle Earth, and his conquest was more complete
than any of the previous empires.
Continued on
Page 2
By
Tony Kaminski
Freelance Writer
Video Games
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