Does it count as survival?

[Morwen]

I think it is quite clear that Frodo does not survive the quest in the same way that Aragorn and the other hobbits survive to marry, have children and take up their offices of responsibility.

Merry, Pippin, and Sam all marry in their thirties. At the time he left the Shire Frodo was about 50 and, like Bilbo before him, he seemed like a confirmed bachelor. I therefore don't see the quest as depriving him of a family life as he didn't seem to be heading down that path anyway.

Instead of coming to terms with or learning to accept the limitations caused by his trauma, Frodo retreats. Into it or away from it we don't know as we don't follow him, but he may as well be dead to us as he has gone where others cannot follow.

I thought that he did come to terms with his situation by accepting that he could not stay in the Shire and be healed, that he has had to give the Shire up so that others may keep it and that if he was going to survive (physically) he would have to go West. So I didn't see his departure as giving up or fleeing but moving on - like recognising that a particular drug or treatment isn't working for you and trying something different.

Whether he found healing - I don't know but like Child of the 7th Age the description of Frodo's arrival in the West - sweet fragrance in the air, the sound of singing, a far green country under a swift sunrise - left me feeling optimistic about his chances.