LotR Book 5, Chapters 5-10; Solzhenitsyn, Part V, Chapters 1-4
In both the Gulag Archipelago and The Lord of the Rings many characters choose to be bystanders during conflicts where they could intervene and help others, but due to their own fear of totalitarian power they do nothing. In the Lord of the Rings book 5 chapter 10, Gandalf and the other characters are faced with a battle against Sauron’s army. Denethor is seen as a power hungry character throughout the books, constantly looking for ways to gain more power over others any way he can. But, during the battle, when Denethor realizes Sauron’s soldiers may be more powerful and they may ultimately lose the one ring, he locks himself away and hides from the greater power. Pippin yells to Gandor, “‘Denethor has gone to the Tombs,’ said Pippin, ‘and he has taken Faramir, and he says we are all to burn, and he will not wait, and they are to make a pyre and burn him on it, and Faramir as well. And he has sent men to fetch wood and oil. And I have told Beregond, but I’m afraid he won’t dare the return of the king to leave his post: he is on guard. And what can he do any- way?’” (1114) During a battle Denethor complicates things by attempting to sacrifice him and Faramir’s life. Denethnor selfishly kills himself instead of staying to help fight because he used a palantír to see the unfortunate events that lie ahead in the future. Although the characters in The Gulag Archipelago did not have a magical stone that allowed them to see into the future, the citizens were also selfish with their actions. Part 5 describes the reaction of the prisoners’ imprisonment and how they were viewed. Solzhenitsyn states, “ Without that (public opinion) behind us we can protest as much as we like and they will laugh in our faces!… Escape, then? History has preserved for us accounts of some major escapes from Tsarist prisons. All of them, let us note, were engineered and directed from outside” (352). Solzhenitsyn makes the point that without the help of sympathizers on the outside, the prisoners’ revolts are pointless, they have no power or advantage like outsiders do. But, due to the pressures of the totalitarian regime, outsiders did not dare try and help prisoners escape. Just like Denethor, the public feared those with power and believed they would fail and get themselves killed. In both scenarios Denethor and the public act in the interest of themselves and worry only about their survival because of the fear instilled by those in power.