Tolkien's moral dilemma

J. R. R. Tolkien, a devout Roman Catholic,^{[T 1]} created what he came to feel was a moral dilemma for himself with his supposedly evil Middle-earth peoples like Orcs, when he made them able to speak.^[1][2] This identified them as sentient and sapient; indeed, he portrayed them talking about right and wrong. This meant, he believed, that they were open to morality, like Men.^[1] In Tolkien's Christian framework, that in turn meant they must have souls, so killing them would be wrong without very good reason.^[1] Orcs serve as the principal forces of the enemy in The Lord of the Rings, where they are slaughtered in large numbers in the battles of Helm's Deep and the Pelennor Fields in particular.^{[T 2][T 3]}

If Tolkien wanted killing Orcs not to be such a problem, then they would have to be without any moral sense, like ordinary animals.^[3][4][5] Both Tolkien and other scholars have been aware of the contradiction implied by this position: if Orcs were essentially "beasts", then they should not have had a moral sense; if they were corrupted Elves, then treating them as "other" to be slaughtered was straightforward racism.^[2][6] Tolkien made repeated attempts to resolve the dilemma, trying different approaches but not arriving at what he felt was a satisfactory solution.^{[T 4][T 5][T 6]}

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