I think one area where I seem to out of step with a lot of fandom is on the subject of Gollum, and just how much sympathy did that character deserve in The Lord Of The Rings. I have heard from numerous people that they view Gollum as a sympathetic character, and like Frodo, they view him with pity. Color me unconvinced. I’m with Sam on this, he is Slinker and Stinker and neither of those aspects generates much in the way of pity for me.
Those who argue that Gollum deserves pity usually take the tack that fate dealt him a cruel hand by putting the ring in his path, and that the ring perverted him, turning him into the miserable, evil creature that we meet in both the revised The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings.
Bullocks!
Let’s take a look at the characters and their interactions with The One Ring.
Isildur The first mortal to posses the ring, a human, a warrior, and aKing, not the sort of person who normally is very resistant to power and temptation. He takes the ring from Sauron’s finger and keeps it as a keepsake for his family. The Ring Betrays Isildur and he dies, but other than being greedy for the ring there’s not much in the way of evil there.
Bilbo Baggins a hobbit and thief who stole the ring from Gollum in an unfair game of riddles under The Misty Mountains. (‘what is in my pocket‘ is not a riddle and it is cheating.) Bilbo keeps the ring for sixty years, through warfare, dragon treasure hordes, and nasty relations. he great crimes with the ring? Pranks and pratfalls, using the ring to escape his relations. Again, hardly a manifestation of pure evil.
Boromir, a human, the favored son of the Steward Of Gondor, a warrior and leader of men. He traveled with the ring south, desperately wishing to find a way to save his people from a swelling tide of evil armies upon their border. Eventually he gives into temptation and tries to steal the ring from Frodo so that he might save his people, betraying his oath and his honor. Not good for sure, but still not really evil.
Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, Merry, and Pippin They all traveled with the ring the same as Boromir, but being made of apparently sterner stuff never tried to steal it.
Faramir, Brother of Boromir. (first let’s look at the book version.) Never even tempted by the Ring, Says that if were laying on the side of the road he would not even consider it. Boom, leave it in the trash and move on. (now we look at the film version.) Tempted, seduced by the Ring he takes the ring bearers captive and nearly steals the ring himself for his father the Steward of Gondor, but barely resists in the end, proving himself stronger than his brother. Again, I don’t see the evil.
Samwise. A hobbit he comes to posses the ring with the ringer bearer falls in Mordor. So, in the land of evil, where the sun never shines and close to Sauron the source of the Ring’s power and evil Sam finds it hard to give the Ring back to the bearer and his thoughts are constantly for the well being of his friend, Frodo. yup, that’s evil.
Frodo. The ring-bearer, the hobbit who carries the Ring from the Shire to Mount Doom in Mordor. He lived with the cursed jewelry around his neck, close to his heart, for months. In the end the quest fails because his tremendous will finally crumbled when it came time to destroy the ring, and he claimed it for his own. That’s the sum total of his evil actions after the ring influence for months (or decades if you go by the book version where he lived with it a years and years before anyone knew what it was.)
I’m sure someone out there, if they are reading this, is going to point out that poor Gollum, Smeagol originally, possessed the ring for hundreds of years. That this long term exposure, like radiation, builds up over time becoming more and more poisonous. That this was what drove Gollum to be a murdering, thieving, baby-eating (that’s int the books people, look it up!) monster, and that it wasn’t his fault.
Bullocks!
Smeagol saw the ring. Smeagol wanted the ring at once, hadn’t even touched it yet. Smeagol murdered his kin, his cousin to get the ring. Oh but that was the Ring’s influence I am told. Yeah, right, pull the other one it’s got bells on it. No one else had such a instantly evil reaction to the ring, no one. Smeagol reacted the way he did because he was already freakin’ evil.
I have no sympathy for Gollum.
I was thinking of Frodo in the book where something like 17 years pass between Bilbo leaving and Gandolf sorting out just which magic ring Bilbo had.
I agree with the point that Smeagol/Gollum is evil and I don’t consider him tragic or sympathetic – except in this sense: the ring has led him to a dark, depreesing half-life and I am sad to see that. It it similar to how I feel when I see a crack addict. It is bad for them and I am sorry for it but there is little hope of a return to grace.
A couple of points: I believe Bilbo lived with the ring for decades, not Frodo. Frodo does not receive the ring until Bilbo leaves the Shire just after his 111 birthday bash. He (Bilbo) had lived with it all those decades, never knowing what it was. Frodo is told what it is shortly after he receives it which brings me to one more who COULD have responded to the evil influence of the ring that you forgot to mention:
Gandalf. He is the one who first realizes exactly what the ring is. He both travels with it and the Fellowship and is offered it by Frodo. He knows exactly what he is giving up and he does so without a qualm. Amazingly strong and the White Wizard, indeed.
Smeagol/Gollum is weak & covetous to the point of evil. Sad to see it, but no sympathy here.
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There was a big dormant period between Isildur’s death and Gollum sieving the ring from his cousin’s corpse. Also Sauron was more powerful when Bilbo stole it as Gandolf was down south dealing with the first return of sauron in South Murkwood. So I am not swayed by the waxing and waning power of the ring argument. 🙂
The one thing you are perhaps failing to touch upon is the fact that the ring’s power waxes and wanes throughout the story. Maybe the ring was more powerful directly after the slaughter of Isildur… it was definitely weaker when Bilbo used it as Suaron was only just beginning to regain his strength.
Still though, good points.