[Child of the 7th Age]

Bethberry -- I'm not sure if I see the sharp distinction by role alone that you see, i.e. Sam's role as a servant. I think it is more a difference in personality as well as an extension of Sam's personal feelings for Frodo.

Frodo hasn't explicitly appointed Sam to the role of "doorkeeper" to screen out his contacts or to shield him from the bad things of the world. I would say the servant in Jane Eyre acts out of a sense of duty and her designated responsibiliy in enforcing certain general rules and standards, but Sam operates primarily out of love.

It is Sam who assumes this role of shield because he has come to love Frodo and wants to protect him. I believe Sam's suspicion and desire to protect comes out of his growing friedship with Frodo rather than strictly his role as servant.

Believe me, as a mother, I understand Sam's protective instinct. There are times when I feel obligated to ask questions and check up on things, at the very minimum, in order to protect my children.

So, despite some things that have been said in this thread, about the need to be above suspicion and extend trust, not to adopt the way of thinking of the enemy, there are times in my personal life when my own gut tells me to be careful. It is one thing when I am dealing with my own safety alone. It is another when I am dealing with the safety of younger ones whom I feel have been entrusted to myself and my husband. If I feel that there is any question about a place that my children are going on their own, about its safety or morality, you bet I am going to do some inquiry! If that is adopting a suspicious attitude, then so be it.

To me, the White Council was put in the role of elder advisor and protector for Middle-earth. In my opinion, they should have felt more of that desire to protect. And I truly believe if Sam had been placed in the position of knowing and understanding what the White Council knew, and if Sam felt that Saruman would have threatened Frodo in any way, he would have responded, at least by snooping as he did in the early chapters of the book.

Obviously, Sam did not have this information, and was not in this position. I know I am acting as a gadfly here and overstating my case. But I think there is more than one way that one can legitimately respond.

At the very least, as a member of the White Council, I might have questioned why no meetings had been called for over sixty years when Mount Doom had "relit" and was beginning to belch out flames for the first time in presumably thousands of years.

sharon, the 7th age hobbit and gadfly