The capture of Frodo - according to Rankin-Bass in 1980 (yet, sadly, not how I imagined it)
Over at the Notion Club Papers, and using an example from The Lord of the Rings, I discuss how no situation is ever hopeless, and no situation ever justifies despair - for one who inhabits the divinely created world of a good God.
And, on the other hand, it is despair itself that cuts us off from valid grounds for hope.
4 comments:
Read this at the right time. Confirmed how I feel with life quite frequently and yesterday, and pointing how I need to go forward. Somehow I translate a feeling of being defeated in to a defeatist attitude. But I sense I need to go forward without both. How to achieve this is something I need to work on. I don't have the answer yet. Thanks
@Luke - Thanks. I don't think there are many of us who don't need frequent reminders of this kind - I certainly do!
I disagree.
My interpretation of the sin of despair is that the loss of hope leads to either actively helping the enemy, in order to be on the winning side, or inadvertently helping the enemy by failing to take opportunities to fight him. There are many examples of both of these in both the Silmarillien and the Lord of the Rings.
The experience of Frodo in Cirith Ungol is better termed agony, similar to what Christ experienced on the cross. Yes, Frodo thinks that Sauron has taken the Ring and has won. Nothing he does actually helps Sauron, if only because his position really is hopeless, and he can do nothing but wait anyway. Frodo can’t even give up the information that Sam has the Ring under torture, since he doesn’t know that Sam has the Ring!
On the other hand Sam, believing Frodo to be dead, attempts to take the Ring to Mount Doom by himself, and is almost immediately tempted to claim it and use it to defeat Sauron. At the time, he thinks no one else is going to be able to do that.
@Ed - OK, maybe, within the assumptions you set-up.
But I would regard your definition of despair: "actively helping the enemy, in order to be on the winning side, or inadvertently helping the enemy by failing to take opportunities to fight him" - as wrong, and rather strangely wrong.
I can't see how such an understanding of the nature of despair would coherently arise from Christian usage.
Frodo doesn't "help the enemy" in any material sense (as does Denethor). The problem is "help".
To despair is not about helping the enemy, but more like (one way of) *believing* the enemy, when "the enemy" is Satan (= Morgoth; or, presumably, one of his servants): i.e despair is believing the enemy by regarding the situation as ultimately hopeless.
Post a Comment