So many different, valid and fascinating points have been brought up regarding this immense topic (which is surely the heart of the whole story) that I feel my head isn't large enough to hold them all! Like Bilbo's old papers, it will take years to sort them out, and I don't know if I have the patience or tenacity of Frodo to do so.
Lyta has brought up a very interesting point, about the (possible) temporary disappearance of Frodo's free will, somewhere along the road to Mount Doom (was it nestled inside the smaller of Sam's pans?!). I wanted to point out the (obvious?) similarity with Frodo's plight on the appropriately named Hill of the Eye, Amon Hen. For a moment, Frodo is balanced perfectly between the good (benevolent and helpful) will of Gandalf and the evil (searching, hunting with the desire to wrest, take or claim) will of Sauron. He is given a split second to make
his own decision, which ultimately determines whether he will fail and yield up the Ring and the Quest (with all its burdens) to the Dark Lord, or continue the fight and the journey. His motives could be called into question (i.e. did he simply desire to withhold the Ring from Sauron), but this may not be the place for discussing that particular incident.
Once the final leg of the trip to Mount Doom starts, and presumably on into the Sammath Naur, Frodo appears to have lost the ability to decide (at least consciously). Much as Samwise is turned into a creature of stone or steel, Frodo forces himself similarly into a trance-like state that enables him to exert a superhuman effort. Without water, without (proper) rest, without respite from temptation, he marches on with help only from Sam and from the
lembas of the elves.
The question that
Lyta has made me ponder is, is that Frodo's will pushing him on,
or has he committed himself so fully to reaching the Sammath Naur that he no longer requires a conscious decision to go forward
or has Frodo completely become the vessel of the powers of good (Galadriel, Gandalf, even Ilúvatar if you like)?
It is possible that on Mount Doom, Frodo finds himself once again poised between the Voice and the Eye. But with a difference: the inability to exercise his free will. He then becomes a metaphor. A living incarnation of the eternal struggle between the forces of good and evil in the world. The virtues and strength he has exhibited over the last miles to Mount Doom are suddenly confronted by the malevolence and greed of the Ring on its own ground.
Frodo's failure is an indication of a belief (i.e. not an irrefutable fact) that we cannot ever hope to succeed against evil. That all the virtue, effort, suffering or even sacrifice that we can ever offer is not enough. The ultimate evil can seemingly be overcome only by one of two ways. Either evil defeats itself (Sméagol) or The Writer of the Story (not Tolkien [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] ) intervenes (Númenor, the return of Gandalf).
What caused Frodo to finally give in to the power of the Ring and claim it? Based on my limited understanding (most of which has come from other venerable Barrowdowners) it is
the nature of the metaphysical universe, at least as it appears in
The Lord of the Rings.
Frodo at the Sammath Naur