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Faramir knows what's right, morally, ethically, & he will do it - or die trying, because that's actually more important than achieving 'victory' in this world.
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Doing the right thing regardless of the consequences IS victory, real victory, lasting victory that transcends time. But don't we all wish it was easier? And is that which makes us resent Faramir when we are weak and easily swayed?
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The struggle appears to be drawn in Faramir's desire to please his father
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A devastatingly effective temptation, and I think a personally applicable concept for many readers.
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Tolkien shows us that knowing the right thing to do is only the start - doing it is the struggle. This is Frodo's story, in essence - he knows he must destroy the Ring, his struggle is to do it.
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Another personally applicable concept, as several threads in this forum have shown; when Frodo "fails" to destroy the thing of his own volition, our reaction to his failure is very telling.
To quote an old friend (lmp), this thread is deep, deep...
To rephrase several folks here, Tolkien "shows" us the character, rather than "telling" us the character (as lmp would say); actions rather than thoughts. To a modern reader I think this is often easier to swallow, especially when demonstrating virtue. I love good preaching, but few writers seem to pull it off in storytelling these days (George MacDonald had that gift, but it's rare, I think.) Modern authors who try to preach within a story only seem to annoy me even when I completely agree with what they are preaching about. But show me a character who shows me the truth via his actions, and I'm hooked. (And that does explain why I've been so hooked on so many of Tolkien's characters over the past thirty years!)
[ November 19, 2003: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]