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In short, Frodo knows what Saruman has been through, He knows he failed in exactly the way Saruman did.
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But I don't see that he did. Saruman didn't carry the Ring; he plotted how to get the Ring; he built an army; he spent years scheming. Frodo, on the other hand, entered the Sammath Naur intending to destroy the Ring, and ended up insanely claiming it under demonic pressure. Frodo's demonized "bad attitude" lasted somewhere between a few minutes and an hour, as opposed to Saruman's entire years of subjugating neighbors, imprisoning fellow wizards, spying, breeding armies, and wantonly destroying trees...
Two completely different things.
I think Frodo pitied Saruman because he had learned the value of pity well before the Sammath Naur, mostly in dealing with Gollum. Perhaps he had also considered what would have happened if Gandalf had ever accepted Frodo's offer of the Ring (but it doesn't say that either.)
If one has to go through exactly the same thing in oder to pity another person, then Gandalf would never have pitied Gollum.
<font size=1 color=339966>[ 12:33 PM January 26, 2004: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]