Excellent post, Child.
Sam learning from Frodo:
Quote:
'Now!' said Sam. 'At last I can deal with you!' He leaped forward with drawn blade ready for battle. But Gollum did not spring. He fell flat upon the ground whimpering.
'Don't kill us,' he wept. 'Don't hurt us with nassty cruel steel! Let us live, yes, live just a little longer. Lost lost! We're lost. And when Precious goes we'll die, yes, die into the dust.' He clawed up the ashes of the path with his long fleshless [italics mine] fingers. 'Dusst!' he hissed.
Sam's hand wavered. His mind was hot with wrath and the memory of evil. It would be just to slay this treacherous, murderous creature, just and many times deserved; and also it seemed the only safe thing to do. But deep in his heart there was something that restrained him: he could not strike this thing lying in the dust, forlorn, ruinous, utterly wretched. He himself, though only for a little while, had borne the Ring, and now dimly he guessed the agony of Golllum's shriveled mind and body, enslaved to that Ring, unable to find peace or relief ever in life again. But Sam had no words to express what he felt.
'Oh, curse you, you stinking thing!' he said. 'Go away! Be off! I don't trust you, not as far as I could kick you; but be off. Or I shall hurt you, yes, with nasty cruel steel.'
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It would be more accurate to say that Sam learned
this lesson from experience wearing the Ring, reminiscent as it is of Gandalf's and Frodo's words as to what Gollum deserved and ought to receive. So Sam learned pity and mercy in the degree to which he was capable.
Frodo & Gollum & Sam as a triad:
Child, I think you're descriptions of Frodo and Sam as representations of two different archetypes are insightful and useful.
I think there's an additional approach, regarding F & S and Gollum as a triad. In TTT the pov is increasingly that of Sam, especially in regard to Gollum. I quote:
Quote:
For a moment it appeared to Sam that his master had grown and Gollum had shrunk: a tall stern shadow, a mighty lord who hid his brightness in grey cloud, and at his feet a little whining dog. Yet the two were in some way akin and not alien: they could reach one another's minds. Gollum raised himself and began pawing at Frodo, fawning at his knees.
'Down! down!' said Frodo. 'Now speak your promise!'
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We see the other two through Sam's eyes. He is our awareness. Gollum is the chaotic, enslaved, repugnant one. Frodo is the latent nobility, the unearthly power. And the Ring is inextricably woven into the character of each, especially after Sam has worn it. It is a negative force that reveals three different aspects of, perhaps, one hero, one lonely triadic protagonist which betrays itself sometimes, works together rather well sometimes, allows the repugnant part to lead through the most treacherous and difficult areas at times, and is forced to gain what strength it can from the light of Galadriel when no other helps avail. It's most interesting to me how Sam as the simple one, practical, is forced to take onto himself the character of the elflord, borrowed in a sense from Frodo AND Galadriel's light; ever at odds with the repugnant shadowy Gollum, who himself has two sides! Complexity upon complexity!
[ May 10, 2002: Message edited by: littlemanpoet ]