1. Critical Analytical ResponseStephany Grant3/24/2010<br />Sometimes the right thing to do is the hardest thing to do; it is a lesson that has been driven into our minds since preschool. Teachers can preach all they want about how doing the right thing is best, but no one really knows how hard it can be until it actually comes down to it. In Lord of the Rings, there are two characters in particular that find out how hard it really is to do what they consider to be the right thing. By choosing the right thing, they lose certainty in themselves and in things around them, but in turn gain honour from their actions. Arwen and Aragorn both struggle with competing demands in order to restore honour and certainty. In order to restore their honour they must give up their sense of certainty. <br />Arwen is the beautiful elf princess who is madly in love with Aragorn. Because of her elvish decent, she is immortal and gets to leave to middle earth to a land of bliss. In the movie, she makes a choice to give up the certainty she had in her immortal afterlife, and stay on middle earth so she can be with her love. When she was ready to give up her immortality she also signed away her certainty with it. She questioned as to whether or not he was going to make it out alive or if she would ever see Aragorn again, but that was the certainty she lost and a chance she was willing to take. That in itself was an honored thing to do, literally giving her life for the one she loved. Peter Jackson makes a point to establish how difficult her decision was. He wants us to see what other things she has to consider as well. In giving up her immortal life her father would have to watch his own daughter die, knowing that she could have stayed alive had she kept her immortality. Her response to these demands what to do what she felt was right thereby letting go of her certainty in her immortal life, and embracing the honour she had by staying with her love.<br />Aragorn is the descendent of the king of Gondor, although he never acted upon his kingly duties until Return of the King. It takes him a while to come to terms with it because it is such a large task. When deciding to become king, he would have done a fair amount of thinking. He had to make a decision on whether or not he was able to take on such a task as this, and whether or not he was able to do the right thing. Aragorn knew that in becoming king, he would lose the comfort he had within his last life, and move into the unknown zone of power and royalty. He also had the pressure of becoming the leader and king Gondor so desperately. Aragorn decided to comply with the external demands and accentuate to voice inside of him telling him to do the right thing. Also, the possibility of death was even that much more profound now that he was a king which was the exact opposite of what Arwen wanted to know. He surrendered the certainty of what he knew being a normal ranger, to become the king. This newly acquired kingdom gave him honour he had never had before. He had to leave the certainty of his old ways behind in order to undercover the honour that was living within him. In doing so, he helped save middle earth, and in turn got to finally be with his love Arwen.<br />The overall idea portrayed in Peter Jackson’s film is that sacrificing certainty ultimately leads to honour. We see that in Arwens case, she leaves her immortality to be with the love of her life Aragorn, and in turn, gaining honour she hadn’t found before. Aragorn becomes a king with power he has never had before. He decides to forget being normal, and forget what life he had before and start fresh being a king and developing more honour that previously had. Both characters go through the similar struggles and finally end with similar results. They both find the light at the end of the tunnel, and both end up with honour. Once you give up your certainty, you are able to gain honour. <br />