The Misery of Orcs

An essay to tie in with a homework I set, the COMC one on magical creatures from films and books

The Misery of Orcs

This essay is going to look at the orcs from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. From the mind of John Ronald Reul Tolkien, the orcs are the ‘baddies’ of the book and film, thousands of them making up the army that fight against the fellowship.

In terms of description, orcs are generally ugly creatures. Short in stature and dark in colour, they tend to have no hair and look rather disgusting. Stooped and squat, they are most unpleasant. In terms of disposition, it is probably very fair to say that orcs are foul. Bad mouthed and crude, they care not for others feelings, they think only of themselves and how they can further their career in the ranks of their army.

The orcs in Middle Earth are split into two groups, both fighting for the dark side: Sauron’s orcs and Saruman’s orcs. Saruman’s feature mainly at Isengard, they are responsible for the creation of the Uruk-Hai (sort of a super orc), and they are the ones who aid in the capture of Merry and Pippin after the battle on the banks of the River Anduin.

The other group, Sauron’s orcs feature heavily in the battle of Pellinor Fields, in the third book/film, the battle at the gates of Mordor and those who find Frodo’s ‘dead’ body in Shelob’s lair.

Of course, as it is in all battles of good versus evil, the orcs and their leaders don’t triumph, they are killed, wiped out even, when the One Ring is destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom.

But with good presiding over evil, but does the fact that the light side, led by Gandalf and the fellowship killed the orcs, mean that they have been reduced to the orcs level? What was the daily life of an orc like? They were once men and elves, turned into evil beings for the sole purpose of an army for Saruman and Sauron. They spent their lives serving their evil leader, at Isengard they destroyed the outer parts of Fangorn forest, they fought the fellowship, and ended up dead.

Did they want this? One could argue that if they didn’t want to kill, to fight, they would have stopped – but then what would have been the alternative? To be killed by their superiors? Perhaps they simply fought to prolong their miserable lives?

I will not attempt to delve further into the psyche of an orc, but perhaps this essay has given you food for thought – were the orcs evil because they wanted to be, or because they had no other choice?

50 points.