Essay Questions

Explain the three important and interconnected concepts of recovery, escape, and consolation as they relate to fairy-stories.

In the latter half of the essay, Tolkien devotes quite a bit of time to discussing three particularly important elements of a fantastic fairy-story: recovery, escape, and consolation. Recovery is the quality of a fairy-story that gives the reader a new and strange perspective on the nature of the Primary World by altering aspects in the Secondary World; for example, if a fairy-story convincingly portrays a world in which the grass is blue, the reader will suddenly discover that the grass in his own world is green, and that this is a fact worth marveling about. Recovery is sort of an intellectual palate-cleanser, making a reader again sensible to the wonder and strangeness of the world in the manner of a child.

Escape is another important quality of good fairy-stories; since this Primary World is broken and fallen, it is justifiable and even desirable to leave it from time to time, escaping the confines of the primary reality and entering into a Secondary World, a beautiful yet dangerous realm in which everything is strange and wonderful. Some critics of fantasy call it "escapist" in a derogatory way, meaning that it's an irresponsible abandonment of this world for a selfish delusion. Tolkien, however, responds by saying that this escapism is not "the flight of the deserter," but "the escape of the prisoner," meaning that a prisoner has a right to imagine what's beyond the confines of his cell.

The final element, consolation, is primarily concerned with the ending of fairy-stories. Consolation consists of the ecstasy received from a eucatastrophe, the "sudden joyous turn" in the plot that results in the triumph of good over evil. Dyscatastrophe, the triumph of evil, must seem a distinct possibility, and perhaps even the most likely one, before a sudden and exhilarating reversal in which goodness prevails over the powers of evil. This phenomenon is sometimes called "the joy of the happy ending," and Tolkien argues that no fairy-story is complete without it.

Explain Tolkien's abstract distinction between the various different elements that make up a work of Fantasy.

In the section of the essay devoted to an exploration of the nature of Fantasy, Tolkien gives a brief yet somewhat confusing description of the terminology he decides to use when speaking about Fantasy. He contends that Imagination is the faculty of the human mind used to create images, as well as the desire to do so. "Sub-Creation" is the final, finished product of the artistic process, the manifestation of the Imagination in physical form. There must be some operative link between the two, however, the medium through which Imagination is embodied into Sub-Creation, and Tolkien calls this element Art. Rounding out the process, Tolkien argues that Fantasy is therefore the word "which shall embrace both the Sub-creative Art in itself and a quality of strangeness and wonder in the Expression, derived from the Image: a quality essential to fairy-story." Fantasy, therefore, is a quality that both summarizes and characterizes the Sub-creative process that results in a work of the imagination. This definition, albeit a bit abstract, is a useful one for understanding Tolkien's perspective on literary creation, especially in the genre of fantasy.