Is Isengard meant to be a social commentary against technology

[herlig9]

Interms of how much trees they cut down to fuel the warmachine and machinery advancement

 

[Deimos]

I don't think Tolkien ever thought he was engaging in "social commentary".
It's usually, if not always, a mistake to attribute present day sensibilities to personages of the past.
Tolkien lamented and criticized the spoiling and destruction of the countryside and the loss of rural life.
His descriptions of both the razing of the forest surrounding Orthanc and the wanton laying waste and vandalism of the Shire are expressions of his opprobrium.

 

[Muskrat]

Yes it is.

 

[Ent]

I have 'liked' both answers above, though they are quite contradictory.
why?
because both are essentially 'correct'.
Many say it goes as far as the 'machinery' Saruman had built in his tyranny, represented Tolkien's expression of the increasing 'machinery' of warfare, which he saw in his own time. Ever increasing to greater destruction.

The only one who didn't say anything about whether it was a 'social commentary' was Tolkien Himself (that I can find.)

Note too, the difference in government between Isengard and the Shire, (early medieval), Gondor, Rohan, and other places,

Saruman represents tyranny.
Sauron represents tyranny in the extreme.

But again... like his inclusion of 'religious and moral elements - but not overtly' - Tolkien himself doesn't specifically include these 'social statement' type things overtly.

He just writes them into his work, and lets inductive thinking take its course.

 

[Muskrat]

True, but the comments like “Saruman has a mind of metal and wheels,” the one in The Hobbit about the old days having “less noise and more green,” and the Orcs’ love of machinery are suggestive. Orcs, Saruman, and Sauron like machinery. Elves and hobbits do not. It is very clear to me, at least, the Tolkien was very uncomfortable with technology.

 

[Eljorahir]

Maybe a little off-topic since it's not about Isengard, but...

There's a section in The Hobbit (just before Bilbo meets the Great Goblin) where the narrator scoffs mostly at the technology of modern warfare, but also just a bit at the idea of technology in general:

The narrator is telling us about goblins...
"...It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help; but in those days and those wild parts they had not advanced (as it is called) so far..."

The "(as it is called)" to me strongly implies that the narrator believes inventing machines to avoid working with your hands is really not necessarily an advancement for humanity.

 

[Olorgando]

The description of Isengard - on a larger scale Mordor, on a smaller scale the new mill in the shire - centers very much on pollution, by industrial processes. There has been massive pollution in JRRT's time: Birmingham in his youth, Leeds during his fist university post. Later, in letters, he commented more on an aspect that does not appear in Middle-earth, the pollution by what he called the infernal combustion engine - air and noise pollution. I suppose everyone who remembers the exhaust stink in traffic jams before pollution control equipment for vehicles became ubiquitous will agree that pollution control equipment is a good thing. I don't even want to imagine today's even more congested traffic conditions with those old stinkers - which included my first three cars between 1978 and 1987. JRRT didn't live long enough to see the spread of pollution control equipment, though I'd guess he'd still be not amused by the increase in traffic.

Cutting down trees certainly was something he didn't approve of. But then the UK turned to coal quite early because of early massive deforestation. Not that this switch helped the air pollution problem, quite the contrary. Had to do the the UK's early industrialization, too. And I'd guess those pits in Isengard also were for another, much older pollution problem: mining. Hardly anything is as environmentally destructive as that, especially the huge open-pit variant used to go after low-yield sources.

There is one inconsistency in Middle-earth, in metal-working. Oh, where the Orcs are, there are also huge slag heaps. Where are they around Erebor, or Moria? How did the Noldor fashion their swords, where did they get the raw materials from? Were there slag heaps in Valinor?

 

[Muskrat]

My thinking exactly! JRRT did not like the industrial age. How DID the Dwarves do all that mining without damaging the land? I am a romantic like JRRT, but I must admit that there are inconsistancies…

 

[The Witch-king Of Angmar]

I always thought the idea of the Dwarves digging "too deep" under Moria and thus awakening the Balrog was an analogy for too much greed and 'hurting' nature too much as well. Maybe that's just me and my thoughts tho. 😅

 

[herlig9]

Meanwhile Tolkien

 

[Ent]

I believe Tolkien well explains his feeling about allegory, and why some have problems with seeing it as he sees it (if we ponder it a bitsy.) from Letter 31 of July 1947:

In Entish terms, to put it simply, Tolkien writes realistically. Because it's realistic, people love to infuse it with allegory. Why? Because it "can be." Real life is real life and will always be real life...therefore things look very much the same everywhere and in every time. "Infuse what allegory you wish. You will just be comparing one reality with another."

 

[Muskrat]

But allegory is not symbolism. In allegory a thing or act stands for something else categorically. Faerie Queen or Pilgrim’s Progress. A symbol may have many meanings or suggest or reall many things. It also participates in the “meanings.” The Phial of Galadriel can symbolize many things-the light of the Two Trees, Galadriel herself, the virtues of honor and perseverance, hope, etc. that doee not mean it stops being a light.