Frodo at Sammath Naur

[davem]

Of course Frodo shows both mercy & compassion towards Gollum, but at the end he says, 'If you touch me again you will be cast into the Fire of Doom'. That is a threat. Gollum does touch Frodo again & he is cast into the Fire, which is either a result of Frodo's threat being carried out - the Ring's power of command in service of its current master, Frodo, brings about its own destruction - how's that for irony! Or Gollum's fall is 'engineered' by Illuvatar in order to bring about the destruction of the Ring, or its all just pure fluke.

But none of that is relevant to this thread, which is about what Frodo actually decides, the choice he makes. Frodo does show great mercy to Gollum, which he hasn't done anything to deserve, & his motivation is pity & compassion, but at the end he calls him a 'creeping thing' & threatens him with death if he touches him again. You could say that Frodo's mind has been warped, so that he is seeing the world & those around him through Sauron's eyes, without compassion, love, pity or mercy, & the question remains, does that vision come upon Frodo so slowly that he doesn't realise its happening, or is there a moment of choice for him, as on Amon Hen when he is trapped in a battle of wills between Gandalf & Sauron? When he threatens Gollum with death & goes on to claim the Ring, has he 'sinned' (again in William's sense) or not?