The Difference Between Heroines and Damsels
A/N: Just an old essay I found on my computer. Please know that I am a younger person, and that I would appreciate it if profanity is not included in your reviews. Thank you.
My favorite character in LOTR is Eowyn, daughter of Eomund, sister of Eomer, and niece of Theoden. I don't think that either the movies or the books give Eowyn the recognition she deserves. She is brave, strong, independent, but most of all, determined. Yet the books portrayed her as cold and slightly selfish, and though the movies allowed her to retain her strength and determination, they made her meeker and slightly submissive. In the scene in "The Two Towers" where the Rohirrim ride away from Rohan to fight at Helm's Deep, she is wearing a long white gown and crying. She had given up. But in the book, she wore mail and had tried to force them to let her go until the last minute.
Sadly, her love for Aragorn is shown as a self-interested feeling in the books, which stems from her longing for glory and renown. Why can't she love someone simply because she loves him? It is perfectly logical for Aragorn to love Arwen, though she is immortal and therefore most likely unattainable, as Elrond said he would never let her marry a man lesser than the King of Men himself, yet for Eowyn to love Aragorn there must be a negative reasoning. Why must Tolkien make it a sin for a woman to love someone and want to make something of herself? Tolkien described her as cold, and though Aragorn felt her love and was upset because he couldn't return it, he also thought of her feelings as a want of recognition.
She was never permitted to do the one thing she wanted most: to ride into battle. To tell the truth, I am very anti-war, but in today's world women are not downtrodden as they were in the Middle-Ages (the time period that corresponds to LOTR). Eowyn saw battle as her only ticket to glory. So because she wasn't given permission to go with the men, she dressed as one and rode with them. In Pellenor Fields she killed the Witch-King, leader of the Nazgul. Glorfindel the elf had once said that the Witch-King could be slain by no man (yes, I read the Appendices), which Eowyn most definitely is not. She was given the glory due to her and was afterward known as the Lady of the Shield-Arm. Finally Eowyn was given credit.
I still think Eowyn's part in the movies was downsized, and that, once again, some of her spirit had been taken away, but Miranda Otto portrayed her well, and I hope that Eowyn will not be neglected in the future, by readers and watchers of this amazing epic. Because Eowyn was more than just a woman. She did things no man had ever done. She did things no woman had ever done. She was a hero.