Gandalf: the Unilateral Coalition Builder

[davem]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

Perhaps he felt like to succeed he needed to defeat Sauron by himself? This leads him down the wrong path and to the power-hungry and independent person we see in LOTR.

This would likely have been the case if he took his mission so seriously that it became an obsession, drifted into paranoia, & began to feel that no-one else was safe to be entrusted with the mission. Only he had any chance of succeeding as far as he was concerned. He certainly makes himself increasingly isolated, ending up with no-one to talk to or discuss things with. It was almost inevitable that he would end up brooding on his fantasies of becoming the 'saviour' of Middle earth, defeating Sauron & bringing in an age of 'peace & plenty'. Sauron couldn't have wished for easier prey. From this point of view being given the keys of Orthanc, a place where he could isolate himself & make his plans in peace, was possibly the worst thing that could have happened to him.

Gandalf seems to have chosen the wandering life to enable him to perform his task of rallying all good people against Sauron, but either directly or indirectly, planned or not, that life forced him into contact with others, & into dependence on the hospitality & charity of others - in other words, it kept him humble. If pride was Saruman's downfall, humility was Gandalf's 'salvation' - he never lost touch with people, so they never became just 'numbers', expendable means to an end in his mind, as I think they did with Saruman.