Gandalf: the Unilateral Coalition Builder

[Lalwendë]

Thinking of how the Istari are described in Unfinished Tales, before they are sent to ME, and then looking at the outcome of what they did or did not achieve, it is clear each had a strong personality of his own. Gandalf seems to have been fully aware of the notion of 'service', while Saruman sought to use his own reasoning to think around the problem he was sent to 'solve'. In Saruman's behaviour we can see that he was incredibly clever, that he also had a huge thirst for knowledge and learning. He went beyond his mission by trying to find his own solutions, almost as though he had his own agenda which he carried to ME with him.

Gandalf on the other hand seems keenly aware of his duty and folows this as closely as he can. His duty is not to any of the people in ME, it is to those who sent him there; part of that duty is to guide but not to push. Yet sometimes it does seem he 'pushed' people. I've said before that Gandalf has something of the spin doctor about him, and while he has none of the more sinister manipulative qualities of our modern day spin doctors, he is fully aware of how to use diplomacy, how to point people in the right direction. He acts as a mentor to Aragorn, and to do this he is not didactic but says the correct words to make Aragorn stop and think, to consider his actions.

I'd say that Gandalf is persuasive rather than manipulative. He acts as an expert, on hand to help the people of ME, but not to take their decisions for them. Keeping his purpose in mind, he sees the longer term view, you could say he takes the strategic viewpoint, while Saruman allows himself to become bogged down in the detail and hence cannot see where he is ultimately going wrong.