Part Two — What I Think of Eowyn

As feminists, we find in the character of Eowyn a flawed, one-dimensional person, but there are aspects of her story and personality to which even a modern woman can relate. We take from a story what we bring to it. The following is what I bring to Eowyn's story.

Since Eowyn is seen and interpreted through a male perspective, we can assume that their interpretation of her motives and thoughts is at best half correct. After all, men don't know everything that goes on in a woman's mind, do they?

Eowyn is raised to rule and taught to fight in a society that values the prowess and deeds of its warriors. Yet she finds herself little better than a servant, waiting on an aging King, pursued by the villainous Wormtongue, while her talents as a leader and a fighter are wasted. Theoden does not protect her from Wormtongue. Eomer cannot. She is forced to remain in this untenable situation while she watches the men ride off to war, honor, and death.

Eowyn's "coldness" conceals her frustration and anger, powerful emotions for which she has no outlet. When she sees Aragorn, a handsome, powerful man, destined to be King, she sees a way out of her situation, and gain power in her own right. She believes that Aragorn can remove her from a situation which has long been unbearable. Thus, what the male characters perceive to be love for Aragorn is more likely the exhilaration a captive feels when they believe they see a means of escape.

She fears "to stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire." (p.767) She has been caged by duty, by the plots of Wormtongue, and by her role as a woman. She has watched Theoden as he is undermined by Wormtongue until the King is a feeble old man, unable to fight. She has seen Theoden cast off Wormtongue and ride away to battle and glory, while she is ordered to remain behind in her cage.

The scene in Dunharrow bothers feminists. In it, she falls to her knees and begs Aragorn to take her with him, and he refuses, blind to the desperation behind her request. Why would a woman of her strength beg? Not out of love, certainly, but out of something more powerful: an overwhelming desire to escape her cage. Aragorn denies her this way out, and she has humiliated herself for nothing.

Angry and desperate to escape, she makes a speech which any feminist might make: "All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honor, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more." (p.767) She has seen the hypocrisy of a social order which forces women to wait on men, but does not allow them to take an active role in their own defense. She was trained to fight, then barred from battle. She has seen the freedom that men enjoy, then been told she cannot be free because of her gender.

The doors of her cage are locked tight, and the only escape route she sees now is death in battle. It is important to note how often she speaks of peril and death, but not of suicide. Nor does she choose to run away. With war on every front, where would she go?

It is Merry, who is not a soldier, who sees the truth: "it came suddenly to [Merry] that it was the face of one without hope, who goes in search of death." (p.785) Here at last Eowyn, in her disguise as Dernhelm, has revealed what lies behind her stern, cold mask.

Eowyn's battle with the Lord of the Nazgul reveals her strength and resolution. How many of us, with a broken arm, would be able to take advantage when our enemy stumbles, and deal him a fatal blow? She emerges from battle a hero, but a misunderstood one.

Her deeds are acknowledged by the men, but none of them seems to understand the source of Eowyn's despair. They pity her as they would any creature caged against its will, but for them battle is not a means of suicide. They accept that they may be killed in battle, but their goals are to fight with honor, to defeat the enemy, and to survive. Thus, they offer her pity, which only deepens her anger and her desire to escape.

Gandalf's analysis tells us that he, at least, understands the origin of her feelings: "she, born in the body of a maid, had a spirit and courage at least the match of yours . . . Who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her." (p.849)

Eowyn soon chafes at what she sees as a new cage in the Houses of Healing. She is out of bed and eager for action long before the Healers are willing to release her. In frustration, she says to the Warder: "it is not always good to be healed in body. Nor is it always evil to die in battle . . . I would choose the latter." (p.937)

But why death? Aragorn's rejection alone does not provide sufficient motive, and to think so weakens Eowyn's story. Here is what I see: time and again, she has been forced to remain in a cage. She believes (rightly) that this will be her lot wherever she goes. Aragorn, whom she saw as a means of escape, pushes her back into her cage. And so, in anger and frustration, she chooses the only route left open to her: to die in battle, and gain honor and fame.

Having survived the battle, she must now cope with a future she did not expect to have. She tries to convince the Warden and Faramir that they should let her follow the army, certain death with her broken arm. When this is thwarted, she is forced to face the future, and the reasons for her death-wish.

Faramir and Eowyn meet every day in the garden of the Houses of Healing, and walk and talk. They speak of the war in the East. Faramir is the first man to accept her as a warrior. Eowyn and Faramir share common ground. Both have fought the Lord of the Nazgul, and been harmed by him. Faramir's brother and father die. Eowyn's uncle dies. Both had families who did not understand them.

Then we come to the other passage which bothers feminists. In it, Faramir tells Eowyn that she desired Aragorn's love "because he was high and puissant, and you wished to have renown and glory and to be lifted far above the mean things . . . But when he gave you only understanding and pity, then you desired to have nothing, unless a brave death in battle." (p.943)

Immediately after, Eowyn agrees to marry Faramir. The speed and completeness of her transformation ring false, and this scene unravels all the strength she exhibited earlier in the book. In the space of a few pages, she goes from being a warrior intent on dying in battle to: "I will be a shieldmaiden no longer." (p.943)

Are we to believe Faramir when he says that Aragorn's rejection was her motivation for going to battle? That is a male interpretation. She sought death, not because she was jilted, but because she had come to the end of her endurance. She could not see another way out of her cage. And in battle, she could prove herself and gain honor.

My rationalization of this scene runs thus: Faramir's words, as far off the mark as they are, perhaps helped her at last to understand her despair. When one hears a half-truth, one is forced to think: why is that not quite right? The growing sympathy she feels for Faramir, and the realization that she will not escape her cage by dying, lead her to choose life with Faramir over death.

Faramir offers her respect. He acknowledges her deeds and her strength. He does not command her: "if [you] will, then let us cross the River in happier days and let us dwell in fair Ithilien." (p.943) She is offered a union of equals, and she accepts it.

The feminist argument is that she is offered marriage to Faramir as compensation for her great deeds, rather than a career in an area where she has demonstrated talent: that of a leader and warrior. So here is another rationalization: Tolkien fought in WWI. He came home with his fellow soldiers, some of whom did great deeds and won honor. Most retired from the service, with honor, and went home to get married and have children. In Tolkien's experience, when the battle is won, the soldiers go home, marry and begin new lives, and she is a soldier. We can look at Eowyn's marriage to Faramir as equal treatment, if we choose.

Is Eowyn a real woman? No. Her romantic interest in Aragorn is not believable, and her transformation from a warrior determined to die in battle to bride-to-be is too rapid, and too un-motivated, to ring true. Rationalizations aside, the ending to Eowyn's story is a cop-out. It denies the strength and independence she shows earlier in the book. It's a pity Tolkien chose this ending.

Is Eowyn' story acceptable from a feminist point of view? I think it depends on the agenda the reader brings to it. I submit that we can choose to find a strong woman and potential role model, who in the end chooses the gentler cage of marriage to Faramir over an ongoing struggle to escape the cage she grew up in, or we can find a wimp. Which is more fun? Which teaches us a lesson about how women have been treated, and continue to be treated?

Think about it.

Did I just argue both sides of my case? Definitely. I'm a real woman. I can do that.

Text Copyright © 2002 M. J. Kramer