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Beware That Baker in the Kitchen! - Page 7

© Michael Martinez

As villains go, Lotho really doesn't accomplish much. By the time the reader even learns about what he has done to the Shire, betraying it into the hands of Saruman, he is already dead. He is even extended the excuse of being recognized as a fool who got in over his head. In some ways, Grima Wormtongue is also excused. His evil is more readily diagnosed by Gandalf. Grima wants Eowyn. But he also hopes to share in Saruman's power. And when Saruman is brought down so, too, is Grima, who scurries along like a faithful dog, but a bitter one. There is an entire hierarchy of bad guys who each prey upon the lesser ranks in some ways. Sauron stands at the top, powerful and vain, immutable. Beneath him stand various lieutenants such as Saruman and the Lord of the Nazgul, powerful in their own right, but too weak to prevail over Men. Beneath Saruman stand servants like Grima and Lotho, petty but ambitious creatures with little real power. And yet both cause great harm to their people. And beneath Lotho are ruffians like Bill Ferny, brutal thugs with no real ambition except to be mean and petty. There are many faces of evil in The Lord of the Rings, and degrees of evil and pettiness. There is little true redemption. Boromir could have been much worse than Lotho and Grima. He could have rivalled Saruman, perhaps, for he was already a prince of a great nation. But nearly everyone who falls stays fallen. Even wise old Denethor, who almost stumbles back from the brink in the end, suffers the fate his madness has decreed for him. He gives in to despair. The only character whom Tolkien really excuses completely is Frodo himself. Frodo gives in to the Ring at last, but it has taken months of demonic torment to drive Frodo to claim the Ring for his own. The claim is not born of pride and arrogance, nor of ambition to become a great and powerful lord. It's essentially an act of insanity, an insanity brought about by the breaking of his mind. Frodo is in many ways reduced to the stature of an Orc. Not a mean, petty, vicious, murderous Orc. But rather an Orc who has had his free will stripped from him, his choices denied him. He is no better than the Orc slaves who first succumbed to Melkor's and Sauron's wills.

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