Penn State Deluge - Vol. 2 No. 1 - Spring 2004

Criticism on The Lord of the Rings focuses overmuch on "extraliterary aspects of the trilogy" (Shippey, "Creation from Philology in The Lord of the Rings" 298-299). It does so at the expense of a focused analysis of the text itself. Consequently, it ignores the significance of the text's final chapters that occur after the quest ends in victory. Critics thereby miss a key episode in the text in which the narrative is exposed not just as a mere adventure story, but as an exploration of the impact of evil on the identity, and of the influence on the identity of place and the memory of place.

Throughout the quest, the hobbits depend on their memories of the Shire to bolster their identity, suffering from the travails of the quest. However, their longing for the Shire only ensures personal strife when they finally return to home. Both the Shire and their identity have changed in a year's time, and the final chapters explore the conflict that their reintegration incites.

Although most readers assume that the quest itself is the narrative's chief element, these last chapters reveal that Tolkien has something else in mind entirely. He uses these final chapters to assert that the quest merely initiates this final conflict of identity. Tolkien communicates the primacy of this struggle by using narration to marginalize the quest itself: characters and narrator alike begin to refer to the quest with less and less familiarity, forcing the reader to heed the significance of the hobbits' homecoming.

Tolkien's exploration of the personal consequences of his romance in the final chapters sets The Lord of the Rings apart from more formulaic works of fantasy that only focus on action. It also asserts that the narrative itself deserves greater scholarly attention, and has much to offer the student of literature.

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