Note: I accidentally wrote a paragraph about Galadriel, but realized it would be better to start with Gollum.
Now a feral creature, Gollum resentfully wandered the Misty Mountains on all fours, banished by his kinfolk. Any notion of “Smeagol” faded from his memory, as the “Precious” continued to chisel away at any remnant of his fragile sanity; “Yes. Yes. It was my birthday,” the wretch muttered to no one in particular. As Gollum’s pitiful plight indicates, our innate lust for control shatters the glass framework of our moral compasses, because it allows subjectivity to stain the fabric of our judgement. This phenomenon is independent of any preexisting purity. It is a universal curse extending far beyond the boundaries of fiction — a poison which often seeps into our own reality. Whether it’s the sadistic SMERSH officers within Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s momentous exposé The Gulag Archipelago, or the numerous corrupted souls within J.R.R. Tolkien’s pioneering Lord of the Rings trilogy, all are fallible. By sailing towards this sirens’ call, we become capable of separating humanity from the human. This an ever-present threat, and recipe for unspeakable malice; a well-trodden path in constant danger of being repaved.
Until confronted with the “fear of fire,” the cave-dweller remained in denial about Deagol’s murder, insisting to Gandalf that the Ring was nothing more than a birthday gift from his grandmother. By engaging in sustained self-delusion, Gollum creates his own distorted version of the past, because it serves as a guilt-avoidance mechanism. Burdened with remorse, Smeagol opts out of reality, his mind a broken record player convinced of its own functionality. Such shameless self-justification is commonplace among those who believe in subjective morality, a crooked worldview often abused in totalitarian societies. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn highlights, this can manifest itself through the “Lie as a Form of Existence” in which adherence to a skewed reality becomes “the only safe form of existence” (Solzhenitsyn 325). Just as Gollum reinforced his own falsehoods, so too did the Soviet people embrace the ruling class’ engineered truth. While the former was led astray by the Ring’s devious will, the latter was battered into submission by the ruthless, red hammer of Communist dogma. Individuals were no longer deemed able to make their own distinctions between right and wrong, with many forced to abandon their “treasonous” thoughts and opinions out of sheer necessity. Fear and paranoia caused the conscience to become heavy — an anchor worth leaving behind. Eventually, the Soviet citizenry became numb to its grim surroundings. Broad acceptance replaced “shudder[s] of revulsion” as resistance became futile, and the “Slave Psychology” usurped free expression. Alas, even Gollum grew accustomed to life without sunlight, as the surface above waned into a distant memory.
To Frodo’s surprise, Gandalf lamented the tragedy of Gollum’s story: How the “Precious” coaxed him into a lonely, bitter existence. Isolation is a typical weapon for those looking to attain control, because as The Origins of Totalitarianism author Hannah Arendt posits, it blurs the distinctive lines “between fact and fiction” (CITE ARENDT). Gollum became consumed by the evil forged within Sauron’s Ring, powerless to its “unbearable torment.” Far from a mere inanimate object, the Ring spurred him towards “crooked and malicious” behavior,
In Tolkien’s philosophy, it is a pure demonstration of wisdom if one rejects offerings of power tainted by tyrannical elements. Frodo’s telling time in Lothlorien, more specifically his encounter with Galadriel, bolsters this claim. Frightened by the daunting responsibility that awaits him, Frodo offers the Ring of Power to the Elven royal. “You are wise and fearless and fair, Lady Galadriel… It is too great a matter for me” (Tolkien 365). The “Lady of the Forest” dismisses Frodo’s idea, but also admits her great desire to wield such power. This stark refusal, followed by humble acknowledgement of her own susceptibility, helps define Galadriel as a character possessing sound judgement, capable of both rare foresight and resisting temptation. Unfortunately, such moral clarity is scarce, even among the higher beings of Middle-earth.
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