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Originally Posted by Galadriel55
Boro, I can't rep you again yet, but this post sure deserves one (or two or three...  ). It's something very interesting that I haven't heard or thought of before - Saruman the Scientist and Ring-Unmaker. And I think ths is exactly how it began. 
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A well-done post indeed.
I wonder though, if Saruman's jealousy of Gandalf isn't underestimated as a factor in the former's Ring-lust.
Consider that the envy apparently had its origins in Valinor. At the barely outlined council of the Valar in which they decided who their emissaries contesting Sauron would be, it was said that Manwë ordered Gandalf to go as the "third" (the first two being Curumo (Saruman) and Alatar), though he was afraid.
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But at that Varda looked up and said: "Not as the third;" and Curumo remembered it.
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UT The Istari
So the seed was there: Saruman had that gnawing him before he ever set foot at the Grey Havens.
In the
UT section
The Hunt For the Ring, Saruman's motives for emulating Gandalf's interest in the Shire are ascribed to that same jealousy.
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Saruman soon became jealous of Gandalf, and this rivalry turned at last to a hatred, the deeper for being concealed, and the more bitter in that Saruman knew in his heart that the Grey Wanderer had the greater strength, and the greater influence upon the dwellers in Middle-earth, even though he hid his power and desired neither fear nor reverence.
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Envy is certainly a trait that would lead one to a desire for power beyond one's native means, and Saruman's inner knowledge that Gandalf was both more favoured and more powerful would have been a tremendous boost to that.