[Imladris]

I would not have had the imagination to think that Gollum/Smeagol would have thrown himself into Mount Doom to satisfy both the Ring and Frodo...I think I got that from one of Tolkien's letters. I don't know which one because I haven't read them all and I just happened to come across it when I was flipping through the book...of course, I could be misremembering (I have a terrible memory)...

Yes, Sam was meant to treat Gollum the way he did. It is difficult to say what would have happened if Sam had treated Gollum differently: maybe it would have remained the same. Maybe it would have delayed the inevitable. (The way we are writing, it sounds as if this actually happened. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] )
I guess I have an appeal for Smeagol and I resent the way Sam treated him and I cannot help but wonder if it would have been different. My heart aches for that poor miserable creature. Besides being destroyed by the Ring, I think he was also destroyed by guilt. I love tragedy, but not that sort of tragedy.

Great insight.