The "Main Character" Author: Steuard Jensen Email: sjensen -aaatt- hmc -daht- edu Date: 1997/12/02 Forums: alt.fan.tolkien, rec.arts.books.tolkien ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lars Marius Garshol <<>> wrote: > * P. Schmitz > | If it weren't for Frodo, Aragorn would have surely perished, along > | with the entire Middle Earth. If that doesn't make Frodo the main > | character I don't know what does. > > Being main focus of the book is what makes a character the main > character of a book. Both Frodo and Aragorn (and probably some others) > can be argued to be the main character as there really isn't a clear > candidate for the position. I agree with the idea that the "main character" of a book is in some sense the one on whom the story focuses. The fascinating thing about the Lord of the Rings (well, one of many) is that the "main character," from whose perspective we most directly see the action, changes from part to part. In fact, it seems to me that Tolkien takes great pains to make sure that the main character at any point is one whom his readers can identify with. That is why, for example, an elf is never the focus of the tale: we mere mortals could never understand their perspective. I have tried my hand at making a detailed list below, but a few general trends are apparent. First of all, if there are hobbits present, one of them is inevitably the focus of the story. In fact, anytime after he first speaks up at the Council of Elrond, that hobbit is Sam (when he is there). Any time there are no hobbits present, the focus of the story is harder to determine; it is often Gimli, and only very rarely do we see scenes in which only "great" characters are present. All together, I would be willing to say that Sam is the nearest thing that the story has to a single main character, but that's a far cry from saying that he _is_ the main character. To the best of my ability, the main character "flows" as follows: "A Long-Expected Party" - "The Council of Elrond" -- Frodo End of "Council" - "The Breaking of the Fellowship" -- Sam "Departure of Boromir" - "The Riders of Rohan" -- tricky... Gimli? "The Uruk-hai" - "Treebeard" -- Pippin "The White Rider" - "Helm's Deep" -- again tricky; Aragorn or Gimli? "The Road to Isengard"-- nonspecific and various (Gimli occasionally) "Flotsam and Jetsam" -- Pippin as much as anyone "The Voice of Saruman" -- frequently just the crowd, Gimli, Pippin "The Palantir" -- Pippin "The Taming of Smeagol" - "The Choices of Master Samwise" - Sam "Minas Tirith" -- Pippin "The Passing of the Grey Company" -- Merry, then Gimli "The Muster of Rohan" -- Merry "The Siege of Gondor" -- Pippin "The Ride of the Rohirrim" -"The Battle of the Pelennor Fields" -- primarily Merry, but Eomer once Merry leaves the battle "The Pyre of Denethor" - "The Houses of Healing" -- Pippin, mostly "The Last Debate" -- Gimli as storyteller, then nonspecific "The Black Gate Opens" -- Pippin "The Tower of Cirith Ungol" - "The Field of Cormallen" -- Sam "The Steward and the King" -- Faramir, then briefly Aragorn "Many Partings" -- mixed; Sam, when he is present "Homeward Bound" - "The Grey Havens" -- mostly Sam This list isn't perfect, and several of my choices are very much open to debate (many chapters are rather complicated), but all in all it seems right to me. I have left out a fair number of short sections when other characters are central (Fatty Bolger when the Black Riders attack Crickhollow, for example). Again, the point that stands out most in my mind is that (after Frodo's centrality in Book I) Sam is at the center of our perspective on events whenever he is involved. However, the complexity of the tale prevents any simple choice of who the main character actually is. Steuard Jensen