[davem]

Of course, we have to be careful not to lay all the 'sin' at Galadriel's door. Tolkien states that this is an Elvish failing, not simply a 'Galadrien' one. Her ambition was higher than her compatriots, so she became greater, but consequently her 'sin' was greater. Its interesting that she 'passes' the test & is allowed to return into the West not because of her efforts in the battle against Sauron, not because of her struggles & sacrifices in the war, but because in the end she repents & chooses humility. It is only when she is prepared to 'diminish' (ie to let go of her dreams of power & become simply herself once more) that she is allowed to go home.

This is in sharp contrast to Frodo for whom there is 'no real going back'. The Shire will not be the same for him because he is not the same Hobbit he was. Galadriel can let go of everything she had been & return to her original state - Frodo cannot. Why?

Perhaps because the persona Galadriel had created for herself was, in the end, a false one, while for Frodo the changes that happened to him were not self imposed falsehoods but were a true transformation. The Galadriel we meet in LotR is not the true Galadriel - only after the offer & rejection of the Ring do we see the real Elf-Woman :

She lifted up her hand and from the ring that she wore there issued a great light that illumined her alone and left all else dark. She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful. Then she let her hand fall, and the light faded, and suddenly she laughed again, and lo! she was shrunken: a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad.

I wonder what this tells us about Tolkien's philosophy, about the 'laws' of Middle-earth?
In this passage we see first of all the false persona: 'She stood before Frodo seeming now tall beyond measurement, and beautiful beyond enduring, terrible and worshipful.' Then we see the real woman:'a slender elf-woman, clad in simple white, whose gentle voice was soft and sad..

Galadriel changes herself, effectivly makes herself into a work of Art (yet can we call it 'Art' in the Tolkienien sense when it is achieved through magic, the powers of Elessar & Elven Ring? Frodo, on the other hand, is transformed through his experiences. Galadriel can go home merely by letting go of the false persona she has built up, Frodo cannot go home because he has actually become a different person. Galadriel has been playing a game with power, she is like a child playing at grown-ups (this is true for all the good she achieves). In the end she 'merely' has to put away her toys (much though she may have loved those toys, much though she may have achieved with them). Frodo hasn't been playing at all. In the end, though, it is Frodo who achieves the great victory, not Galadriel. So, it is Frodo who loses all not Galadriel.

Yet both have learned a lesson & 'grown' (ironically, the consequence of Galadriel's 'growth is to become 'shrunken' - though actually she only 'shrinks' to her true 'size'. Frodo actually 'grows' morally & spiritually). Galadriel comes to the realisation that she is too 'small' for her fantasy, Frodo that he is too 'big' for his old reality. Galadriel goes home, Frodo goes into exile. I don't know who gets the better of the deal: We can't say that in her return to the Undying Lands Galadriel is being rewarded - she's only going back to what she had before. Frodo, on the other hand, is said to be being 'rewarded' by being allowed to pass into the West. Yet we have to ask whether the 'reward' is worth the suffering he had to go through - we're never actually told whether he felt it was all worth it: he merely tells Sam that sometimes it must be so - that someone has to lose the things they love so that others may keep them. He cannot just let his hand fall, laugh, & become a simple Hobbit again.

Of course, she, at the test, was able to reject the Ring. He was not.