Thursday, April 7, 2011

Frodo and Sam as a same-sex couple?



Somewhere in the internet wilderness I read something that referred to Frodo and Sam of the Lord of the Rings as a same-sex couple. (In spite of the fact that Sam got married to a girl at the end.) But I guess when you are looking for a hint of 'people-like-me' you tend to stretch a point.

Frodo and Sam do care very much for one another. But if you want to see them as a same-sex couple, you pretty much have to view them as a chaste same-sex couple. In that they can be models for us, in that you can care exceedingly deeply for a person, go through hell with them, and not let Certain Temptations spoil the whole thing.

But I don't really attach the 'same-sex couple' tag to Sam and Frodo, and here's why: Sam is Frodo's servant. There relationship is not couplehood, but the relationship of a servant to his master and a master to his loyal servant. The class difference would make a 'couple' relationship between the two of them kind of creepy, as if Frodo were taking advantage of his higher class status to coerce Sam into a relationship.

But I suppose there are some folks who might want to ignore that and consider the pair a couple. (But remember, a chaste couple!) And I'm sure there are some folks who'll say such speculation would ruin the whole trilogy for them, too.

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