[Bill Ferny]

Tar we are finding ourselves in agreement. I’m not opposed to the use of the word addiction in regards to the ring’s power over the bearer. Vice is probably the most addicting thing in the world. However, I’m a bit iffy about using the narcotic/addiction model to explain the ring’s temptation on other’s, and likening the ring’s power to the power of narcotics seems to me to over-simplify the ring’s potency.

So there is definitely an addictive quality manifesting with the ownership of the Ring - quite a different subject than the lure it brings to the non-bearer, as they truly cannot know what it feels like to bear the Ring.

I’m in complete agreement with this. There’s a distinction between the ring’s power over the bearer, and its power to tempt others to take it. Part of the ring’s power over the bearer is indeed addictive, but not addictive in the sense that narcotics are addictive. There’s more here than endorphin release (great phrase, btw). Its more like the addiction the wicked have for vice; the gluttonous man is addicted to over-indulgence, for example. The gifts of the ring are addictive, but like vice, these gifts are also accompanied by evil councils and an unremitting desire to see to the subjection of the bearer to the ring’s true master.

Although I rather like the analogy of the dangerous spouse, I am skeptical of it's application towards Bilbo.

The analogy is a rather loose one, and like all analogies it has obvious limitations. In regards to Bilbo, though, there are some indications from the narrative that his dependency upon the ring is subtly growing year by year as is the ring’s abuse. Bilbo remains a rather “odd fellow” despite the fact that there are other hobbit families known for their eccentricities. It would seem that Bilbo would gravitate toward these less respectable families, but he does not. In fact, he apparently has a tendency toward privacy and isolation. He uses the ring to increase his isolation by avoiding others. He doesn’t take a wife. He parleys only with a single person, Frodo, which can be judged as a rather selfish relationship. These are all hints that the ring’s counsels are having their affect. Given a bit more time (say 500 to 1000 years) Bilbo would have achieved ultimate isolation and privacy by having murdered every hobbit in the Shire. The ring’s intelligence, like a dominating tyrant, inspires the bearer to evil action through a growing relationship of absolute dependence of the bearer on the ring and subtle manipulation. Eventually, the ring would cast off Bilbo when he no longer served the ring’s purpose.

On to hope (or lack of it). This lack cannot be the reason either Bilbo or Frodo ended up with the Ring, it came to them. Perhaps a Smeagol lover will claim otherwise, but I would be hard convinced that he did it for any reasons other than his own selfish ones. In fact, the example of these three draws a very clear line in the sand - who knew beforehand of the power of the Ring? This hope you speak of can only fall into the equation when ones knows what one is taking. Appearing to their eyes as their 'last', 'only' or 'best' hope.

Agreed. Interesting notable: Frodo is the only ring bearer that is not initially tempted to take the ring (and maybe Sam as well). I’m sure that if Bilbo knew what he was getting into, he wouldn’t want the ring either, and perhaps even Smeagol (though something in my gut says he would, anyway). Is that the mysterious resistance that hobbits have? The thread has already covered lack of ambition on the part of hobbits, and hobbit simplicity, humility, etc. There’s a lot merit to those posts.

Haha, here is yet another characteristic of addicts and alcoholics, self-centerdness.

Chicken or egg? What comes first, self-centeredness or substance abuse and addiction?