The Two Towers Themes

In The Two Towers, the second volume in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series, characters travel through ruined monuments, barren lands, vast gravesites, and failing kingdoms. The threat Middle-earth faces is not only from Sauron, who intends to conquer everything and destroy the world as the protagonists know it, but also from the corruption and failure found in the civilizations of men, leaving them more vulnerable to Sauron’s influence. As Aragorn, Legolas…

The Lord of the Rings series, beginning with The Fellowship of the Ring, initially presents the traditional epic trope of the struggle between good and evil as relatively simple and straightforward. Sauron, who appears only as a watchful and malevolent gaze, is uncomplicated and purely evil in his desire to enslave Middle-earth. Likewise, characters such as Aragorn, the true king of Gondor, are similarly presented as purely righteous. However, the second volume…

As the opposing forces of good and evil battle in The Two Towers, so too do the opposing forces of joy and despair. Saruman and Sauron seek to empower themselves and dominate Middle-earth not only through the force of their armies, but also through a campaign of fear and intimidation, leading many characters such as Faramir and Théoden to despair, believing that they will live to witness the fall of their kingdoms. Despite their…

In The Two Towers, Sauron’s ongoing struggle for dominion over Middle-earth results in the beginning of an outright war for power between the armies of Mordor and the men of the West, aided by elves, dwarves, and hobbits. However, the war is not only about who has power, but also the idea of power: how it should be used and what purpose it serves. Sauron perceives power as a dominating force, used to…

In The Two Towers, characters frequently compare their own experiences to stories of heroic deeds and wonder whether their actions will be recorded or bring them fame. To encourage Legolas and Gimli, Aragorn predicts that their hunt for the orcs will be “accounted a marvel” among the stories of Middle-earth. Merry, while praising Pippin’s resourcefulness in freeing them from capture, tells him that he’ll get a chapter in Bilbo’s book. Frodo…