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I suppose what I'm asking is 'Did Frodo desire the Ring for himself in any way.
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Yes, of course he did, viscerally, even though he knew theoretically that it was not his to posess. He didn't want to destroy the Ring even in Bag End, in his own fireplace. He desired it even then. And he had to fight that desire every step of the way. That is what makes him a hero.
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Was there any 'will' on Frodo's part to claim the Ring? Did some tiny part of him say 'Yes' to that 'sin', & is that the seed from which his later feelings of guilt & failure spring?
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From the time he knew it had to be destroyed in Bag End and couldn't make himself do it even then, he desired it. But he knew he had to try and destroy it. I think that's why despair caught up with Frodo so often along the way.
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Or was he merely so broken by that point that he had no control, & was almost like an outside observer, watching his body refuse to let the Ring go?
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As he entered the Sammath Naur, I would say, Yes. I think that is consistent with Tolkien's letters:
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But we can at least judge them by the will and intentions with which they entered the Sammath Naur; and not demand impossible feats of will, which could only happen in stories unconcerned with real moral and mental probability.
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<font size=1 color=339966>[ 4:31 PM January 15, 2004: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]