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Originally Posted by Eruanna
Saruman, on the other hand does not use his power to advise or help, but uses it to dominate others. He is ruthless in achieving his own desires, in direct conflict with 'the mission'.
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This is clearly the case by the end, but I can't help wondering whether it wasn't the sense of 'mission' that drove him to seek power & control in the frst place. Perhaps he was simply too single minded, too obsessed with achieving his goal, so that the longer the struggle took, the more desperate things became, the more he sought the power he felt he needed to carry out his mission. Soon though, winning out over Sauron became so important in his mind that he started thinking that the end justified the means - as long as it brought about the defeat of Sauron
anything was justified.
In other words I think he forgot
whyhe was fighting - that it wasn't just about defeating Sauron, it was about liberating the people of Middle earth. He never forgot that he was there to defeat Sauron, he just forgot
why Sauron had to be defeated, & so became like Sauron.
Gandalf seems to have always kept in mind the reason for defeating Sauron. This made his job difficult. Gandalf always had to keep in mind that the end doesn't justify the means - it is determined by the means: ie, the means you employ will determine the end. If you use Sauron's methods to defeat Sauron you just end up replacing him. This is why Gandalf had to be so careful - he had to avoid the methods of Sauron while finding an effective way to defeat him.
Luckily, it seems that by following their destinies the people of Middle earth naturally worked against Sauron. They just had to be honest with themselves & do what they knew was right. Gandalf's job was to enable them to do that.
If that makes sense.
Saruman's way seemed to him (at least at first) the only way to defeat Sauron - yet Gandalf's way was the only one that could bring about Sauron's defeat without producing a replacement. Gandalf walks a very fine line all through through the story.