What did you learn????? I’m shook just imagining
Ok this is a very late answer but it is fundamentally this- Faramir’s almost sole purpose in LOTR is to be a foil to Eowyn. He is specifically her foil and not the other way around because their sources of conflict are different. Faramir’s source of conflict is external (he needs to find a family), Eowyn’s source of conflict is internal (she needs to renounce her own deluded dreams of dying honourably in order to escape her cage and instead find inner peace). Throughout the book, Faramir remains static, but Eowyn undergoes an enormous character change. Because Eowyn is the one with “character development”, Faramir serves as her foil so her change is high lighted and made clear.
But why is Faramir her foil? How did I get to that conclusion? Simply this: their lives almost perfectly parallel eachother.
Eowyn is born the second child to the “second” royal family, meanwhile Faramir is the second son of the steward line.
Both have older brothers that they are close to growing up.
At a young age, Faramir loses his mother, and Eowyn loses both her parents.
By the time LOTR properly starts, Faramir loses his brother Boromir, and Eowyn loses her cousin Theodred.
Theoden is delusional and Grima is abusive, whereas Denethor is both delusional and abusive.
Faramir and Eowyn then go on to both form close relationships with Merry and Pippin.
Faramir and Eowyn then ride out to battle, and subsequently get injured, both with the same disease.
Faramir and Eowyn then lose their father figures, Denethor and Theoden.
Aragorn comes to heal them both.
Finally, they both end up in the Houses of Healing and meet, fall in love and get engaged. Don’t quote me, but I’m relatively sure that from this point on in the story they don’t leave eachother.
So how does Faramir as foil work? First, their interactions highlight how different Eowyn is to Faramir emotionally. While Faramir is quiet and contemplative, Eowyn is actually quite sporadic and also very sullen and sad. Once Eowyn makes the personal choice to accept peace and life, she matches Faramir in temperament and ideology. Faramir is a sort of indicator to prove that Eowyn has resolved her internal conflict. But secondly, because Faramir is so like her he is in the unique position where he completely understands her. Throughout the chapter, Faramir often makes assumptions about Eowyn that are 100% correct. This allows him to bond with her, talk to her, help her feel understood and be an agent of change that eventually allows her to heal.
But what about Faramir’s external conflict? If you accept that Faramir is Eowyn’s foil, it’s incredibly clear that his entire life had been leading up to finding her. In LOTR, he falls in love with her instantly. And what comes of this? He marries her, and they have a family together. Because he is her foil, he is uniquely perfect for her, and that exactly is what ends up making her fall in love with him and start a family with him.
In the strangest way, they both help the other complete their character arcs.
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