Tolkien's Characters 1-Dimensional?

[Eonwë]

This week at the meeting, the Tolkien topic was:

"Some critics said the characters were too black and white in the evil and good sense. I would like to have us mention some of these main characters and show that they were more complex than those critics claim."

I thought I'd bring it to the forum with the above title, because it's essentially the same argument, I have a comment to make on it, and I thought you all might as well :}

I've seen several posts on other forums, Blizzard's official WoW forums in particular, that criticize Tolkien's Elves, among other characters as being too 1-Dimensional and "perfect." They usually
then go on about characters who are "more fleshed out" in other books/stories, usually by mentioning their flaws are shown. The implication, of course, is that showing the flaws/mistakes/weaknesses of a character makes them "more real."

These people of course forget to mention the fact that the first THREE Ages of the Sun in Arda are spent cleaning up the messes the Noldor (these so-called "perfect" Elves) have made. Power and physical beauty/handsomeness does not make one perfect. The Elves, and most certainly the Noldor, whom we get to see because they have a direct impact on the history of Arda, are as morally flawed as any human being, and it doesn't take much reading of Tolkien to see the mistakes they've made.

The reason we do not see the Noldor making so many mistakes in Lord of the Rings is first of all, because there aren't as many left in Middle-Earth and more are leaving regularly, and second, after 6,000+ years you tend to learn from your mistakes, especially the big ones.

The emnity between the Dwarves and the Elves of Mirkwood certainly shows that the Elves of Mirkwood are not perfect. A quick reading of the Hobbit, or even just the interactions between Legolas and Gimli, can show these flaws.

I will leave it there for now and give you all a chance to add more :}

[Maedhros(V)]

I think some of the characters are very black-and-white, but I also think that's perfectly fine because some real people are, as well. But none of them are perfect in any sense. Frodo is quite nasty to Gollum at first; Aragorn spends much of the transition between Fellowship and Two Towers whining about what a crappy day he's having. Legolas and Gimli are famously pregnant dogy at each other. The list goes on.

The stories of Middle-earth aren't navel-gazing exercises, that's certainly true. The drowning of Frodo's parents doesn't turn him into a hydrophobe; Sam doesn't go around feeling like he has to struggle against the bourgeoisé.

In the end, the heroes of the story are still heroes, and they have to be to get through everything they do. And there are plenty of real people out there in the world who are cut from the same cloth.

-The Gneech