Being and Unbeing

Abstract

In this chapter, Coutras examines Tolkien’s treatment of good and evil in relation to being, supplementing existing scholarship with a distinctly aesthetic approach. Realms of evil are sustained by horror, suggesting an ordering ontological “law” as a perversion of reality. For Tolkien, evil corrodes the light of being; with the corrosion of being, identity also diminishes. Those who are most evil in Tolkien’s work have nearly faded out of existence. In keeping with a theology of beauty, Coutras argues that the relationship of heroic courage to the light of being is central to Tolkien’s understanding of good and evil, as seen in contrasting images of Frodo and Gollum.