Comparing Evil In The Silmarillion And The Lord Of The Rings

Evil in The Silmarillion is a more powerful and more pro-genitive force than good. It spreads itself very quickly in a shape of darkness and corrupts everything around. Hope and good luck turn into despair and sadness and even good intentions almost always turn out badly. In order to understand the contradiction between Tolkien’s own beliefs about evil and the image of evil in The Silmarillion, which is necessary to examine Tolkien’s views of evil and compare them with the position of Tolkien’s critics on his views of good and evil. And then, the role of evil in the creation of the world will be considered and its part in the shaping of Middle-Earth. Darkness of Melkor and their servants represent evil in Tolkien’s fiction therefore it is important

Darkness is like ‘Being’; the reader has the impression that is alive and almost touchable. It is spreads quickly infecting everything around. Here, the evil is turning even good intentions to evil outcomes. For instance, Feanor created Silmarils with the intention of preserving the light of the Trees of Valinor but his possessiveness and obsession caused the fall of his family and division among tribes of Elves. Unlike in The Silmarillion, in The Lord of the Rings evil deeds turned often into good ends. The greedy possessiveness of the Ring is leading to good, for example Gollum’s addiction to the Ring is so strong that he tracks Frodo to Mount Doom and when he sees him with it, shouting: “The Ring is mine!” (ROTK p 945) he loses control and in his madness he falls with the Ring into the Fire of Doom, thereby fullfiling Frodo’s duty. Shadows in Lord of the Rings are represented by characters and the Ring, they are perceived as part of them but not as a separate and independent force. Shadow is just greyness where darkness is blackness; evil in the Lord of the Rings is powerful but not horrifying and omnipresent as in The