[Boromir88]

Forgive me for only skimming through this thread (at least I don't have my old signature up anymore). Some points I wanted to remark upon...

I think Lal speaks quite well for me, the bad guys are just far more fascinating. Saruman is the 2nd most fascinating character in Lord of the Rings to me...can anyone guess the first? (And no it's not Gothmog )

As a huge Sean Bean fanguy; he remarks that the good roles get a little boring and he prefers to play the rough 'n tough, conflicted, or downright evil character. As he said about his concerned father role in Silent Hill...it just got too boring and he loves playing characters with far more depth and even a touch of 'evil.'

I'd also like to point out, what Tolkien does excel at is not really defining good and evil as this black and white concept (all these good guys over here are pure, righteous and good...and they're facing all these dirty, rotten, evil people)....but there are 'areas of gray:'

Some reviewers have called the whole thing simple-minded, just a plain fight between Good and Evil, with all the good just good, and the bad just bad. Pardonable, perhaps (though at least Boromir has been overlooked) in people in a hurry, and with only fragment to read, and, of course, without the earlier written but unpublished Elvish histories. But the Elves are not wholly good or in the right…In their way the Men of Gondor were similar: a withering people whose only ‘hallows’ were their tombs. But in any case this is a tale about a war, and if war is allowed (at least as a topic and a setting) it is not much good complaining that all the people on one side are against those on the other. Not that I have made even this issue quite so simple: there are Saruman, and Denethor, and Boromir; and there are treacheries and strife even among the Orcs.~Letter dated 25 September 1954

There are a few characters that I would say are nearly and completely evil (afterall Tolkien does say Sauron and Morgoth were in 'absolute satanic rebellion'). But, I don't think the 'nature of evil' is so rigid...at least Tolkien felt like he didn't make it so easily defined as 'good vs. evil.'

I've never really been happy with the summary of the Lord of the Rings as a battle of 'good vs. evil' I mean sure there are good characters and there are bad...however good and evil exist on both sides. As Tolkien remarks about WW2:

For we are attempting to conquer Sauron with the Ring. And we shall (it seems) succeed.But the penalty is, as you will know, to breed new Saurons, and slowly turn men and elves into Orcs. Not that in real life things are so clear cut as in a story, and we started out with a great many Orcs on our side...~Letter 66

Let's say if we look at the 'good' side in The Lord of the Rings...Denethor comes to mind as one that's a bit confused about good and evil. Sure he is completely and fully against Sauron...but that does not make him a 'good person.' Denethor was a capable and strong ruler; however he was filled with pride and despair...as Tolkien puts it he became 'corrupted by politics,' he became obsessed with his power as Steward and if he had still lived after the War of the Ring he would have 'ruled as a tyrant.' No one believes a Tyrant is good do they?

On the 'evil' side, we have some examples...Grima, Saruman, and Gollum. All of these characters are fighting against the destruction of the Ring and the 'free peoples' yet they are not on Sauron's side. They have their own objectives or were just led astray and decieved. How about the Haradrim warriors through Sam's point of view:

It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace - all in a flash of thought which was quickly driven from his mind.~Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit

What it all comes down to when the boundaries between good and evil are not so rigid...there is a lot of 'jumbled' and 'gray' areas; I think we see that others (certainly myself) pity people on the 'evil side' (Gollum and Grima)...or find them fascinating as characters (like Saruman). Then we look at the 'good side' and see characters that have become corrupted and controlling (Denethor) or who are struggling with good and evil (Boromir). Boromir wants to do the right thing, he wants to be 'noble' and 'honourable' but he doesn't always succeed (and that being due to the pull of the Ring and Boromir's attraction to it).