LotR -- Book 6 - Chapter 3 - Mount Doom

[davem]

What we're talking about is not Frodo's suffering & sacrifice throughout the Quest but what he does at the end, & why he does it. At the end he claims the Ring. Yes, anyone would have done the same in his position, & so everyone would have 'failed', succumbed, & said 'Yes' to the Ring & everything it symbolised.

If you remove him from being an actor in the drama at that point, you reduce him to nothing at the most important point in the story. He is not nothing. He carries the weight of the Ring & the fate of Middle-earth on his shoulders & at the end he surrenders.

My feeling (& I may be wrong here I admit) is that some people can't handle the idea that Frodo is weak, frightened, tired, & just gives in. Understandable, but a moral failure. He wills his action. There's too much emphasis on semantics: 'I will not do this thing' being interpreted as 'I have no will in this act', etc. But if we read his statement:

'I have come,' he said. 'But I do not choose now to do what I came to do. I will not do this deed. The Ring is mine!'

'I', 'I', 'I', 'mine'. Frodo is there. Tolkien deliberately changed the original draft wording:

’I have come’ he said. ‘But I cannot do what I have come to do. I will not do it. The Ring is mine.’

If he had said that - that he could not do what he came to do - I could accept what is being argued - that he had no control in the matter. But Tolkien changed the original words & he did that for a reason. And that reason is theological.

If Frodo was simply beaten into submission, then in theory if he had been stronger he could have destroyed the Ring. Frodo could have saved the world. But from the Christian viewpoint no man (being part of the creation) can save the world because Man (& by extension the creation itself) is fallen. Frodo succumbs not because he is weak but because he is a fallen being in a fallen world. Only an intervention from outside, beyond the Circles of the World, can save it. That's the only interpretation of the story that makes it fully understandable, brings out its full depth & meaning.

Frodo surrenders, says 'Yes' to the Ring, because he is human.

it's about the triumph of sacrifice -- the triumph of love, really, of which sacrifice is perhaps the most perfect expression.

It is about that, but its mostly about forgiveness of sins, about mercy unearned & undeserved - Frodo forgives Gollum not because he deserves it, or has turned over a new leaf, but simply as an act of mercy. Frodo also receives forgiveness & mercy for the same reason. Frodo's problem later on is that he cannot accept that forgiveness because he believes he hasn't earned it, doesn't deserve it. But that's the point - he doesn't, & neither do we.

'Consciously so in the revision' Tolkien said, & I think a perfect example of that 'revision' is that change in Frodo's words, from 'But I cannot do what I have come to do.' to 'But I do not choose now to do what I came to do.'