Quote:
Originally Posted by Mnemosyne
The only canon-based theory that comes to mind right now is the idea of personal recognition: Frodo despairs at Minas Morgul because he's been too late and everyone is going to be killed before he has a chance to do anything. How he masters himself is by then reminding himself that he has to do it anyway, even if no one will know. Similarly (from the same time that he talks about the Shire being a spiritual comfort) he mentions about how dull everyone there is, which when coupled with the note in Letters about how there was still probably after all this time some part of him that wanted to be recognized back home for his deeds (Frodo seems to be pretty uncomfortable with praise abroad) I think that this could have been one flaw for the Ring to exploit (if indeed we are going with that theory about the Ring's nature).
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Nice to see you posting here,
Mnemi! And I think you're on the right track with this.
Let's not forget that, apart from his few younger friends, Frodo was pretty much an outsider in the Shire, just like Bilbo before him. The other hobbits thought them both eccentric, to say the least, if not worse. Some even suspected Frodo of conspiring with Gandalf to do away with Bilbo and get at his money!
Couldn't Frodo's deepest desire - his one 'flaw', if that's not too strong a word - have been something as simple and human as the wish to be accepted and respected by the community he lived in? To come home and be able to tell all those narrow-minded, self-complacent Grubbs, Chubbs, Proudfeet and Burrowses that they would all be dead or enslaved if the Mad Bagginses hadn't saved them? To make them see and admit how wrong they'd been all the time - not only about him and Bilbo, but also about Elves and Dragons and the world in general?
Understandable as this desire was, it was something the Ring could exploit, twist and distort. 'Just claim me, Frodo, and once we've overcome the Dark Lord, they'll have to acknowledge you as their saviour. We'll
make them love you and give you the honour you deserve. We'll teach 'em, yes we will, my precious...'