[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by davem

If Tolkien is correct in saying that at the end Frodo feels like a broken failure that must affect his expectations of the outcome of his journey West.
...
I am struck by his responses in this chapter to his wounding, because he expresses the extremes of both defiance & despair, hope & hopelessness. ... He is dogmatic, judgemental & condemnatory - towards himself most of all.

This seems unnatural? Really? Everyone doesn't live like this on a daily basis???

Originally Posted by davem

Once he is able to rest & make a decision he accepts the task of taking the Ring to the fire - but does he make that choice out of defiance or despair? Is there a point when he simply resigns himself to do the task at hand, because he believes it has been ordained that he will do it, &/or die in the attempt, but that either way he has no real say in the matter? .

Again-- yes to both. Why does that surprise? To me it seems like a daily occurence. For instance, today. And yesterday. And the day before that.


To quote another INFP. : I think Frodo is "Very I, very N, very F and very P..." Introvert, Intuitive, Feeler, Perceiver. At least, that's my guess.

Originally Posted by Aiwendil

I would say neither; rather: he knew that accepting the task was the morally right thing to do, unequivocally, regardless of how he felt about it. I don't know whether he felt despair or defiance or hope or all three; but I think that his decision was made without respect to these things. Later, when he effectively makes the same decision at Amon Hen, Sam correctly analyzes his predicament: he is not trying to make up his mind at all; he knows exactly what he ought to do - he is only working up his courage to actually do it.

"Called, Appointed, Annointed." Three different, but related things. In Frodo's case, the calling was when he inherited It (or before); the appointment was at the Council; and the annointing-- I would say, numerous cumulative, illuminative events, dreams, and encounters along the way.