Saving Gollum

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

What I am sort of getting at is, is the amount of pity Frodo develops for Gollum over the journey great enough (plus his common compassion for what was once a fellow hobbit) that he would attempt to save him (Frodo does tell Sam not to think harshly of Gollum for biting off his finger). It's probably a hopeless effort (if nothing else, the fact that Gollum is basically bound to the One Ring almost as tightly as a Nazgul is to one of the nine, and the simple fact that Gollum has lived WAAY longer than a hobbit's natural lifespan means that, with the ring destroyed, Gollum probably did not have any meaningfully measurable lifespan left in any case) But, given the opportunity, would Frodo have tried?

I think Frodo would indeed have made the attempt, and probably with Gandalf's blessing.
Remember though, that Gollum himself thought his life would be over if the Ring were to be destroyed.

'And when Precious goes we'll die, yes, die into the dust.'

ROTK Mount Doom

As you note, the Ring's conquest of Gollum's being was nearly total. Frodo, having been a Ring-bearer for a much shorter period of time, and having had the advantage of knowing the Ring's powers and purpose, wasn't caught by it as easily. Nevertheless, he was in thrall to it enough that its absence left a gaping void in his life, and that was one of the reasons Frodo was compelled to go into the West before his own natural death. In essence, Frodo "died" when the Ring was gone, in that he left the mortal plane.

With Gollum, having the Ring lost forever would have left him with no reason to live, and unfortunately, no motive to try and return to some semblance of the old Sméagol that had been before he encountered it.