Lord of Angmar,
Ok, we've met Aragorn, but we haven't met any Gondorians. We don't know what they're really like. We need to see one who lives up to the ideal that everyone is talking about. Aragorn doesn't show the reality of Gondor as it is. He shows what it should/could be. Up to meeting Faramir the only Gondorian we get to know is Boromir. Faramir is necessary, because through him we gain an understanding of Gondor before we get there. Beregond, Bergil & even Imrahil, are very much secondary characters, who we barely get to know, & I think that without their being 'illuminated' by the light Faramir has shed on Gondor for us, we wouldn't feel as impressed with them as we do.
I think Faramir's struggle is not Boromir's - 'Do I take & use the Ring or not?' but rather 'How do I find the strength to do what I know is right, & let it go?' Boromir doesn't know what the right thing to do in regard to the Ring is, Faramir does. Boromir can only see the physical conflict. The War is a matter of who beats who. Good guys versus bad guys. Faramir realises it is good against evil. Faramir sees that there is a spiritual conflict going on as well as a physical one, & they are to be fought in different ways. He realises that the spiritual war is a war of moral victories & moral defeats, & that a physical victory can also be a moral defeat. Boromir doesn't see any difference - until, perhaps, the end - & even then it takes Aragorn to tell him that he has conquered in order for him to get it. Only at his death does Boromir realise what Faramir knows - Moral victories are what are truly important, & are the only victories we can really hope to achieve in life. The Ring offers the opposite - physical victories, overwhelming & unstoppable - but brings only moral defeat. So, it takes away the possibility of achieving the only victory, moral victory, which truly matters.
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