Failure and Punishment

[Holbytlass]

Originally Posted by Bb

By burden of confidence I meant he lacks confidence

Oh. I saw it as a person who has confidence may be burdened with always having to be confident, even in a situation they feel they are not. In that case I agree with what you stated, except I think Frodo was even more of a loner when he came back. He certainly isolated himself which consequently worsened his situation.
What is the role of his bereavement in his psychology?(Bb)
One thing we have to keep in mind is that the ring was literally ripped from his hands and destroyed at the peak of his lust for it. At the time when he fully gave himself-heart, mind, body, soul to it by "claiming" it as his own. That certainly will and did leave emotional scarring. Hence Frodo's pining away for the ring even though he knows it was for the greater good of himself and MiddleEarth that it was destroyed.

Originally Posted by D*P

Did Tolkien dish out "just desserts" to these characters as a consequence of their ignoble actions?

Did Boromir really have to die? In terms of consequence, Boromir's actions of trying to take the ring from Frodo caused Frodo to utterly fear him and fear what the ring's influence would be on the others so he left the fellowship. Frodo still feared him untill he found out about his death from Faramir. And I would hazard a guess that he thought better of Boromir when told how his death came about in helping his friiends.
Boromir protected Merry and Pippin because Aragorn (in book) told him to go after them and help fix the mischief he caused when everyone was scattering in a panic to find Frodo. As we know he dies fighting for them. His death may be a blessing in disguise because it definitely raises his esteem in everyone's eyes and Boromir being a warrior/protector died in probably the way he has always wished. I think it was ablessing also because I don't think Boromir could really live with himself for succoming to such weakness-bullying and taking away something from some one half his height, third his weight and less fighting skills, a noble warrior would never do that. Now this would be a person who would beat himself up for the rest of his life- a person with my definition of having a "burden of confidence".