Quote:
Originally Posted by Fordim
His suffering is not what makes him heroic (there's nothing ennobling about agony) his perseverance does.
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I'd even go another step and say his perseverance
and his willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of others are what make him heroic.
Frodo is hardly a passive victim in this reading. He drove himself into a situation in which the only foreseeable outcome was the breaking of his mind under the influence of the Ring. He sacrificed himself, as surely as if he had thrown himself on a grenade. In so doing, he produced a situation which led to the destruction of the Ring.
Frodo isn't a saint. But neither is he a turncoat. What he himself fails to understand is that his tale (and all true acts of heroism, I think) is not about the triumph of the will or the triumph of power, it's about the triumph of sacrifice -- the triumph of love, really, of which sacrifice is perhaps the most perfect expression.
Footnote: Some of these sentiments were expressed earlier in an old thread titled
"What caused Frodo to finally give in to the power of the Ring and claim it?", which may interest students of ancient Downs lore.