Themes of The Lord of the Rings This is, according to Shippey, a very modern, 20th-century theme, since in earlier, medieval times, power was considered to "reveal character", not alter it. Shippey mentions Lord Acton's famous statement in 1887, that ""Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men..."" He then goes on to point out authors that were dealing in the same themes of power and corruption at around the same time as Tolkien wrote his work. These authors include George Orwell with "Animal Farm" (1945), William Golding with "Lord of the Flies" (1954), and T. H. White with
William Lord Wright William Lord Wright William Lord Wright (November 14, 1879 Bellefontaine, Ohio – April 21, 1947 Hollywood, California) was an American screenwriter and film producer. Wright was a newspaper reporter in his hometown of Bellefontaine, Ohio, before going to Hollywood in 1917 where he wrote film scripts for Selig Studios for many years. He then went to work for Pathé Exchange as chief story editor. Later he went to work for Universal Studios as head of the scenario department. He wrote the book "Photoplay Writing" (1922), published by Falk Publishing Co., New York which was used by the New York Institute