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Boromir was the captain of the White Tower, proud and strong, and a born leader and champion. He had a strong sense of duty, and his main duty, as he understood it, was to protect Minas Tirith and serve his father. And much thanks to him, Gondor had been able to fend off the attacks from the east so far. He had great faith in his people's ability to defend themselves, but the enemies of Gondor always seemed to come in greater numbers and strenght, while the list of allies was ever shortening. Where were the elves? Nowhere to be seen. What about other men? They were either fighting for Sauron or busy defending themselves. The Dwarves? You got to be kidding! From his perspective Gondor stood alone. And he knew very well that they eventually would fall unless they recieved aid. Sauron was just too strong, he knew this. He was desperate, or else he wouldn't have left Gondor and made the long and perilous journey to Rivendell begging for help.

Here in Rivendell he learns that the One has been found and is in the hands of the wise. He is told that Sauron's victory would be complete the very moment the ring is back on his finger, and that he desperately seeks to win it back. He's also told that Sauron's greatest fear is that the ring will be used against him which would seriously threaten his plans for world domination.

Then, to his amazement, Galdalf and Elrond suggest that the midget uhm hobbit Frodo should go to Mordor and throw the ring into the Crack of Doom (that name always cracks me up hehe). A fool's hope Gandalf calls it. Yet Galdalf is a Maia who was present at the Great Music, and he has a profound understanding of the designs of Eru. Gandalf knows this is their best hope. But for Boromir this hope is indeed a fool's hope. He has spent his life within sight of the mountains of Mordor and knows that no one can have any hope of getting within sight of Mount Doom , let alone reaching the Crack of Doom. From his point of view, they are just going to hand the ring over to the enemy. And from his point of view of course, this is utter madness. Maybe they can't use the ring, he can accept this, but why throw it away? At the very least they should take it to the vaults of Minas Tirith - then at least they would have a fighting chance.

When the counsel decides that Frodo must seek to destroy the ring, he accompanies them, partly because he wants to do what he can to help, partly because his home lies south, but mostly because he hopes to convince the party to come with him to Minas Tirith. At Parth Galen, where a decision must be made, he must have been torn apart inside. One the one hand he has sworn to protect Frodo, his companion, and it would be completely against his principles to use force and take the ring from him. On the other hand he believes that his father would have wanted him to take the ring to him, by any means possible, and he also firmly believes that Frodo is doomed to fail if if tries to destroy the ring. Thus, he makes a desperate attempt to convince Frodo to come with him, but when that doesn't work he's finally overcome by the temptation of the ring. When Frodo escapes, he finally understands the full truth behind the warnings from Gandalf, Elrond and Aragorn; he understands that he did wrong because of the ring, and that the same thing would happen to anyone who tried to wield it. In his life he was a great man, and he died with his honour intact.

So put yourself in his shoes. Would you have acted any differently? Boromir certainly wasn't an evil man. Perhaps he was too proud, but he always did what he thought was right and what he deemed to be in the best interest of his home country Gondor.