Tolkien - Escape

The second element of Fantasy that Tolkien recognised is escape. He had this to say

"I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?" — J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien views escape, not in the bad sense of the word as it is often applied - that is escapism as though a temporary but foolish escape from reality only to be dumped back in it again some hours later, but escape in the sense that we are temporaily transported to another world to return to the real world refreshed and somehow the better for our experience. It may be a world of knights and dragons, of Cavaliers and Roundheads, of Centurions and Silurans, of White Witches and fauns and lamposts in the snow, of elves and goblins and dwarves. We come back to our own reality refreshed and in some mysterious way strengthened by the experience. One important aspect of Tolkien's thinking is that this world - that is the phyical reality of all about us - is not everything. He was of course a Christian and as such his world view would have included the belief that this world and our life in it is not is not the sum of reality. Christians believe that this world is imperfect through the fallenness of the human race but that this will not always be so. Christian's are described as strangers and sojourners in this world and as those who are looking forward to the restoration of perfection of both this world and themselves (more of this again).
 
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