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Originally Posted by davem
So, how much of what we see in these examples is the ‘real’ Frodo, & how much is the Ring working through him? If its the Ring, then Frodo cannot be held accountable. Nor can he be held accountable for his final act at the Sammath Naur - which would not be a surrender to his own desires, but ‘merely’ a breaking of his spirit - as if he himself was not really ‘there’ & it was the Ring finally taking control of his mmind & will as well as his body.
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I think I may have mentioned somewhere else that the effects of the Ring upon Gollum seem to have eroded his 'ego' and exposed his 'id'. And before I say any more, I am no expert in this Freudian terminology.
Gollum's 'ego' seems to have been eroded to the point where we do not see any more what he might wish the outside world to see of him; any urge to create an impression barely exists any longer. Gollum has become pure impulse, all his inner urges and thoughts exposed for the world to see. We know exactly what he is afraid of and all his desires and baser instincts are 'out there'. Has Frodo become a little like that through carrying the Ring?
He seems to have been made more keenly aware of his darker side, and at times he almost gives in to his impulses. Perhaps when Frodo is repelled by Bilbo's hunger for the Ring he is seeing a reflection of himself? And of course when he sees Gollum he must be even more deeply repelled.
Whether that darkness was already within Frodo I could not say for sure. I would say that of course it was there, but then perhaps I would be putting the values from this world onto the values of Middle Earth, and I may be wrong. But maybe the voice of Gandalf reminding Frodo of the need for pity hints that even in Middle Earth people are like us and have a hidden darkness. I've said before that Gandalf's morals seem to be more relative than absolute, and maybe if they are, then it is also possible that Frodo already had the potential for darkness within himself.
Frodo's eventual feelings of failure were probably down to the huge weight of things he had to bear. He had mental and physical injuries, the Shire had suffered, he had failed to cast the Ring into the fire,
and he had seen deeply into his own soul and perhaps found it to be less than perfect. I think feelings of desperation and failure would only be expected after such trauma.