Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Two Towers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Decline and Decay
Good and Evil
Duty
Joy and Optimism vs. Despair
Power
Heroism, Honor, and Glory
Summary
Analysis
Tracking Frodo’s footprints, Aragorn climbs to the top of Amon Hen and sees a large eagle circling above him. The world looks dark and remote. Suddenly, Aragorn hears the voices of orcs and an echoing blast from the horn of Boromir. Realizing Boromir is in need, Aragorn rushes down the path and notices that Sam is no longer behind him. As Aragorn runs towards the battle crying “Elendil!” the horn sounds fainter and more desperately before it stops blowing and the sounds of battle also fade away. Aragorn finds Boromir propped against a tree, shot with many arrows and surrounded by the corpses of orcs he killed while defending the hobbits. His sword and horn are both broken on the ground. As Aragorn kneels beside him, Boromir weakly confesses that he tried to take the Ring from Frodo and that the orcs have taken the hobbits.
Boromir refers to the end of The Fellowship of the Ring when, tempted by the Ring’s influence, he tried to take the Ring from Frodo to use in battle to protect Gondor and bring himself glory. Boromir recognizes that his actions were a betrayal of the Fellowship—whose goal is to destroy the Ring—and everything it stands for. Still, his efforts to defend the hobbits, as well as his own regret, reveal that he hasn’t been wholly corrupted by the Ring. He isn’t motivated by the promise of glory in protecting Merry and Pippin, but rather by simple necessity and generosity. Boromir complicates the relatively straightforward morality of Middle-earth, in which the forces of good join together to oppose the forces of evil. Neither wholly good nor wholly evil, Boromir’s flaws and mistakes reveal the moral conflict that occurs within individuals.
Themes
Boromir says goodbye to Aragorn and begs him to save Gondor in the wake of his failure. Aragorn assures Boromir that he has won a victory and that Gondor will be safe. Boromir dies with a smile on his face before he can tell Aragorn which way the orcs have taken the hobbits and whether Frodo was among them.
Boromir’s moral failings reflect a general decline in morality from previous eras in Middle-earth. The nation of Gondor suffers from that decline, leaving it particularly vulnerable to Sauron’s influence, corruption, and domination. Aragorn, who works to heal Middle-earth from its decline, takes up the responsibility of Gondor’s future, passed on to him by Boromir. As the realms of men can be healed and redeemed from their corruption, so, too, is Boromir’s honor redeemed by defending the hobbits.
Themes
Aragorn, torn between going to Gondor and searching for the hobbits, mourns the collapse of the Fellowship and weeps over Boromir’s body. Legolas and Gimli find him there, also summoned—too late—by the sound of Boromir’s horn. The three companions plan to give Boromir a burial on the river before deciding where to go next. They don’t know where Frodo is or if he was captured by the orcs, but they find two of the hobbits’ knives among the possessions of the dead orcs. Some of the fallen figures are not orcs at all, but goblin-soldiers wearing the white S, the mark of Saruman. Aragorn guesses that, as Gandalf feared, Saruman has learned of their journey and likely also knows about Gandalf’s death.
Aragorn’s duty of leading the Fellowship after Gandalf’s death now forces him to make a difficult choice in a time of crisis. His many responsibilities have begun to conflict, leaving him unsure of his priorities. His grief and frustration over Boromir’s death and the separation of the Fellowship, too, render a clear decision difficult. The discovery of Saruman’s goblin-soldiers, meanwhile, bodes ominously for the Fellowship.
Themes
Fashioning a bier made of branches and their cloaks, the three companions carry Boromir’s body to the river with some difficulty, since he was tall and strong. There they discover that one of the boats is missing. They arrange Boromir’s body in his elven cloak and golden belt, then place his weapons and the weapons of his enemies around him in a boat. He looks peaceful upon the water. They send the funeral boat away into the river and watch it until it vanishes. In the later days of Gondor, it is believed that the boat bore him all the way to the Great Sea. Aragorn and Legolas sing a lament for Boromir, asking the West, South, and North Winds for news of him. Gimli declines to sing a final verse about the East Wind, to which Aragorn agrees that the people of Gondor only “endure” the East Wind and don’t ask it for news.
Through the funeral and song, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli honor Boromir’s life and death, hailing him as a hero. Their song implies that Gondor will miss and search for Boromir, until even the winds of Middle-earth know his name and his deeds. With this funeral, the narrator reveals, they give Boromir the glory he wanted and (by defending the hobbits to the point of death and proving his heroism) deserved. In the following years, Boromir will become a legend in Gondor, confirming that his honorable actions outweigh his attempt to seize the Ring.
Themes
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From the evidence on the shore—a missing boat, two missing packs, and a set of hobbit footprints—Aragorn determines that Frodo must have left by boat while the rest of the Fellowship was away and that Sam, who guessed Frodo’s intentions, followed and departed with him. He notes that Frodo would find it hard to leave Sam behind even if he intended to leave alone. Gimli thinks it’s strange that Frodo would leave without the rest of the Company, but Aragorn calls it brave. Frodo didn’t want to lead his friends to their deaths and decided that he must take the Ring to Mount Doom himself. Legolas wonders if it was the orcs that led him to flee so quickly, but Aragorn disagrees. He doesn’t tell Legolas and Gimli that it was Boromir who provoked Frodo’s quick departure by trying to take the Ring.
Aragorn, who understands the burden of duty, quickly recognizes what Frodo has done in departing on his own for Mordor and what Sam has done in following him. Though their path is difficult, Frodo and Sam have done what their respective duties demand of them. Their choice to leave alone was necessary, but it took true courage to carry out. Aragorn’s decision not to tell anyone about Boromir’s betrayal of Frodo is an effort to preserve Boromir’s memory as the person he was before the corrupting influence of the Ring: flawed, yet overwhelmingly selfless and unquestionably heroic.
Themes
Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli must now decide whether to follow Frodo and Sam across the river or rescue Merry and Pippin from the orcs. They have lost several hours arranging Boromir’s funeral, and it will be difficult now to catch up with either pair of hobbits. Aragorn, though he wishes to follow Frodo to the very end of his quest, feels that Frodo’s fate is now out of his control. To go after Frodo and Sam means abandoning the other two hobbits to a violent death. He decides that they will track the orcs to rescue Merry and Pippin.
For the time being, Aragorn must set aside his promise to Boromir and his duty to Gondor. Aragorn’s pressing duty to the Fellowship demands that he support Frodo and accompany him into Mordor, but to do so is to leave Merry and Pippin to die. As the leader of the Fellowship, Aragorn is forced to reevaluate his duties to the quest and choose his actions accordingly. With Frodo’s departure, the Fellowship is broken, and its original responsibilities are nullified. Frodo is no longer under Aragorn’s care, and Aragorn recognizes that he has the greatest responsibility to those who have the most need of him.
Themes
Abandoning all the supplies they can spare to increase their speed, they pick up the orcs’ trail from the glade where Boromir died. The orcs are quick and tireless, trampling down anything in their way. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli must follow them on foot. They resolve to press on through the day and into the night. They conceive of themselves as taking part in a legendary chase and call themselves the Three Hunters.
Aragorn urges Legolas and Gimli not to seek fame itself, but to achieve a feat worthy of fame in hunting down the orc company and rescuing the hobbits. The mention of legendary deeds is only the three friends’ wish for success against all odds. Their true motivation is Merry and Pippin’s safety and their own adherence to their duty to their friends, not their own glory.
Themes
