Character Charisma

[Farael]

I think that to say that all characters portrayed in the books are highly exceptional and charismatic is to forget what I percieve to be one of the main themes of LoTR. Even the most ordinary people, finding themselves in the most extraordinary circumstances (and way over their heads, I'd say) can change the world.

While Frodo was an extraordinary Hobbit, neither Sam nor Merry nor Pippin were all that unusual. Perhaps their love for Frodo led them to go out of their "comfort zone" and on to the unknown, where they found those "latent" attributes that helped them rise higher than any hobbit had before, but at the beginning of the tale, none of them were "great" and I wouldn't say they were too charismatic either.

Now, most other important characters are very charismatic... but they are also seasoned military leaders. It goes with the job description that you need some sort of charisma to lead others. Whether it be under the guise of wisdom (Gandalf) military prowess itself (Boromir) or just that "something" that some people have (Aragorn I'd say), they are all great leaders and very charismatic. Same goes to Theoden, and we could guess that even Denethor was like that, before his fall.

Yet I think that one of the underlying themes of the story is that ordinary people can do exceptional deeds. We have Bergerond as an example, the hobbits as mentioned before, perhaps Hama although we don't get much information about him...

Now the stories themselves are all extraordinary... and some of the characters are as well. But there are some important characters that are just very much ordinary, and we should not forget that.