First of all, I have to applaud Daughter of Vana on her posts. I find them very well-written and interesting.
I think it all boils down to the direction one is facing. Using the LOTR characters, and under the belief that no, Tolkien did not use allegory, but yes, the truth as he saw it seeped in anyway:
Frodo was trying to be good, and under severe pressure. He succumbed to it at the climax, when he attempted to keep the ring anyway, but after the madness of desire had passed, he regretted it and kept on moving forwards toward the good as much as he could, the example being Eru, or Iluvatar. He took the ring to Orodruin because he knew that it was the thing to do.
To explain what I'm trying to say (or to try to explain what I'm trying to say...)
In the movie, Saruman says that there are two choices, submitting to Sauron or fighting him and dying anyway. When Gandalf flew away, Saruman commented: "So you have chosen death."
This is not true; it is the reasoning of the deceived. There is a third choice. Although the chances of living through this journey were slight, they were still existent, as was proved later on.
"The last shall be first." Remember when Sam mused aloud to Frodo that the people who might have become heros and turned back out of cowardice were never heard of? Their chance of glory, which is a form of immortality, slipped out of their grasp when they refused it. So they would never have died in the eyes of the people. At least, the people who could get their heads around the thing that they undertook. Hobbits are an example of the kind of people who couldn't do that.
From the Bible, even for those of you don't hold with it much, there is a well-known story about 'Rack, Shack and Benny'. (I have obviously been influenced by VeggieTales.) Their real names were Shadrack, Meshack and Abednigo. I may have the spelling wrong, but anyway...
Nebuchadnezzer of Babylon was so infatuated with himself that he ordered a huge statue of himself to be erected, and all people to bow down and worship it at the opening ceremony. However, those three Hebrew dudes refused. Did I mention that the punishment of anyone who refused was going to be the burning furnace?
These guys said that even if God didn't save them, dying was better than rejecting God. Nebuchadnezzer got so mad with these guys that he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter, and to throw Rack, Shack and Benny in. (Easier to write.) The guards who did that were burnt to death. Nebuchadnezzer's councillors looked in and, seeing the Hebrew dudes walking around in the furnace together with a fourth person, asked how many Nebuchadnezzer had thrown in. The answer was three. In the end, Nebuchadnezzer ordered the three Jews to come out. They did so, not even singed. Their God had saved them.
Anyway, the point is that they faced towards the good, even if the good wasn't going to save them from a horrible death which could have been prevented by bowing down to the statue.
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But if Melkor 'made them' and he made them 'evil', then how could they choose to be something besides what they are? And isn't it true that you can't change who you are?
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Yes, but Melkor didn't 'make' them. I'm afraid I used the wrong word.
Melkor gave wonderful incentive to the captured elves for them to do his will - i.e. he would stop torturing them. But they still made their choice. In the end, their hearts were corrupted by Melkor and they became orcs, thinking evil thoughts and acting on them.
The corrupting of the elves would have continued over several generations, with the elves gradually becoming orcs as they continually saw only the dark ways of Melkor.
I think that is the main difference between them and the elves who went astray and killed so many, including their kinsfolk. That was clean killing. C.S. Lewis says something about this in 'Surprised by Joy'.
Have I been getting off-topic here? I didn't mean to...
Cheers,
~ Elentari II