I agree that Tolkien and Owen are telling inverted or ironic versions of the Abraham story, but perhaps the inversion and the irony are precisely what make them modern versions of that story. I guess they're also both about loss of faith. Tolkien portrays this as a fault in Denethor; in Owen's poem, the loss of faith is in the leaders like Denethor. Traditional forms of authority have broken down: I think Tolkien's solution is to try to restore that faith (by means of a 'true' king, Aragorn); there isn't a solution in Owen's version, just a sense of betrayal. Either way, I think both retellings suggest that the Abraham story is no longer quite sufficient, after the trenches.
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2004-11-18 04:28 am (UTC)I agree that Tolkien and Owen are telling inverted or ironic versions of the Abraham story, but perhaps the inversion and the irony are precisely what make them modern versions of that story. I guess they're also both about loss of faith. Tolkien portrays this as a fault in Denethor; in Owen's poem, the loss of faith is in the leaders like Denethor. Traditional forms of authority have broken down: I think Tolkien's solution is to try to restore that faith (by means of a 'true' king, Aragorn); there isn't a solution in Owen's version, just a sense of betrayal. Either way, I think both retellings suggest that the Abraham story is no longer quite sufficient, after the trenches.