Opinions on Boromir

[Amarinth]

hail thulorongil!

boromir is not a bad or evil man, and agreeably his portrayal in lotr is that of a good, high-born man of noble aspirations who fell into the most grevious of errors. oft in our passionate desire to do a noble deed do we lose sight of ourselves and become bewitched into committing the wrong choices. the fate of boromir demonstrates that even the best of men can make the worst of mistakes especially under such persuasion as the power of the one ring--but that is not to say that the very man himself is inherently self-serving, stupid or evil. indeed the above posts testify that boromir had only the succor, survival and ultimate victory of gondor over the forces of mordor at heart, and i believe never at any instance in lotr was it explicitly said nor implied that he desired the ring for his own aggrandizement.

i agree that boromir is one genuine representation of human nature. the message i personally derive from his character is that evil (or in this case, wrong) can emanate from something inherently good-- that there is a distinction between the nature of the offender and that of the offense committed. that human beings cannot be judged entirely on one great act of desperation or folly. we need to look at people beyond what they do when they are under intolerable pressure.

[ July 04, 2002: Message edited by: Amarinth ]