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Originally Posted by mark12_30
Loyalty is an attitude of the heart. Fetching water, etc, is a deed that flows from that loyalty, and might be affected by weariness, weakness, distractions... Perfect service is not a faultless indicator of a perfect heart, nor is imperfect service a faultless indicator of an imperfect heart; but in general, they give us a pretty good idea.
If Sam's deeds had measured more or less than they do, we would still measure him by the greatness of his heart. His deeds provide ample evidence of that greatness.
"The greatest among you shall be a servant of all." Frodo served all, and Sam served Frodo. Both show greatness of heart.
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Okay I see that my rushed example went a bit awry. It's not a question of his heart it's a question of varying degrees of loyalty or disloyalty. Remember I said in my example that Sam was able to get the water but didn't feel like it. He was not as loyal, in this instance, to Frodo as he is in the text. Therefore, I would still view Sam as a loyal companion to Frodo but to a bit lesser degree.
Disloyalty may illustrate my point a bit more clearly. It was stated that Sam could either be loyal or disloyal and those were his only two choices. Now couldn't he simply have been neurtral from the beginning. Neither wanting to help or hinder Frodo? Many people did that and they weren't considered disloyal. Sam, had he chosen to be disloyal to Frodo could have done many things, turn him into the Nazgul, kill him, go with him grudginly whinning the whole time and refusing to help. Obviously each is being disloyal but a different degree of disloyalty is associated with each choice.
Does this make any sense? I sometimes have difficulty expressing what I think.