Ethics In Fiction

The standards we keep for fictional heroes are kept quite separate from the standards we hold for real people. For example, in The Two Towers, Gandalf refers to Grima as “Wormtongue,” even though “Wormtongue” is an abusive nickname assigned to Grima by all the people in Theoden’s court. While most Christian readers take deep satisfaction in the scene wherein Gandalf finally puts down Wormtongue and delivers Theoden from his evil influence, there’s no escaping the fact that Gandalf has no interest in conciliating words, his confrontation of Grima doesn’t satisfy Matthew 18 standards, and he speaks to Grima in a disrespectful and accusatory manner–because Grima’s actions warrant such treatment.

I’m not sure the modern Christian has a framework for defending Gandalf’s approach to conflict resolution.