The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker [229]
Halfway through the journey, the Company is divided - and from now on the book itself splits, rather unmanageably, into two almost separate stories. One of these centres on Frodo the Ring-Bearer himself, with his faithful Sam, as they battle on alone across increasingly wild and menacing country towards the dark mountains which surround Mordor.3 Here, in the pattern of the Quest, they face their worst ordeals on the edge of the goal. They confront the fearful monster Shelob in a labyrinth of caves. Frodo is taken prisoner by the horrible Ores, and is only released by Sam with the aid of `magic weapons, the sword Sting and the ring itself which, among its other powers, can confer invisibility on its wearer, like Perseus's helmet. Through all this second part of the journey they have been shadowed by the treacherous,`inferior' little monster Gollum, the weak and pathetic `dark masculine' having to act through the sly, pleading, self-pitiful manner of the `dark feminine', in his obsessive desire to get hold of the ring. The third and last of their final ordeals comes when Frodo and Sam finally drag themselves up the slopes of the volcano to the Cracks of Doom. Gollum launches a last crazed assault, biting the ring off Frodo's finger but immediately plunging with it to his death in the bottomless pit. The goal has been achieved. As Gandalf puts it `the Ring-bearer has fulfilled his Quest'.
But The Lord of the Rings is not just a Quest story. It is also an immense version of the Overcoming the Monster plot. Although the story teems with monsters and `dark figures' of every description, Black Riders, the Barrowight, the Balrog, the dark wizard Saruman with his Ores, Shelob and many others, they are all in the end agents of the supreme monster at the heart of it all: Sauron the Dark Lord of Mordor (his name, contrary to its pronunciation in the film-version, echoing `Saurian, lizard-like, the ultimate prehistoric monster). He is portrayed as the ultimate source of everything that is menacing and deadly. Although we never see him directly, except as a great watching eye, he lies behind all the terrible things which happen in the story, all the threats, all the conspiracies. He is a supreme evocation of Evil. Seated in his Dark Tower, he is more than anything conjured up in imagery of darkness. Everything about him is dark, shadowy and powerful. He is Death. And the whole purpose of Frodo's Quest is to overthrow his power.
The nearer Frodo gets to Mordor, the more he feels himself being drawn under Sauron's spell through the ring, which is somehow intimately connected with Sauron. The `Dark Lord's' powers are on the move, threatening the whole world with destruction. It is into Sauron's power that Frodo is falling when, as he feels himself being lulled and pulled from his purpose by the ring, he allows himself to be captured by the Ores. But finally, when the ring disappears with Gollum into the Cracks of Doom, an incredible upheaval takes place throughout the world. It is clear that a cosmic victory has been won. The shadows recede. The black clouds lift. The forces of darkness are overthrown in all directions. Again, as Gandalf puts it, `the realm of Sauron is ended'. The monster has been overcome.
In this respect, however, we can also look on The Lord of the Rings as a mighty Rebirth story. The impression given throughout the story is of a world slipping further and further into the eternal winter of some deadly imprisonment. By his victory, Frodo has redeemed it. Spring returns. Life has been renewed. As they sing in Gondor at the news, `the tree that was withered shall be renewed, and he shall plant it in the high places, and the City shall be blessed. Sing all ye people!'
It is also a Voyage and Return story. We see Frodo and Sam, in a state of limited consciousness, setting out from their familiar little world into a much vaster, completely unfamiliar `other world' which they do not really begin to understand. Although