...I tend to think Frodo never used the Ring to dominate Gollum; he didn't need
to. Gollum was already very much a slave to his need for the Ring, and
Frodo happened to be the one who had it. He won Gollum's help, to a
point, through kindness and pity, not domination. I believe Tolkien
supports this in his letters (246, specifically):
"If [Sam] had understood better what was going on between Frodo and Gollum,
things might have turned out differently in the end. For me perhaps the
most tragic moment in the Tale comes in [TTT} when Sam fails to note the
complete change in Gollum's tone and aspect. 'Nothing, nothing,' said
Gollum softly. 'Nice master!' His repentance is blighted and all
Frodo's pity (in a sense) wasted (in the sense that 'pity' to be a true
virtue must be directed to the good of its object). Shelob's lair became
inevitable.
"This is due of course to the 'logic of the story.' Sam could hardly have
acted differently... If he had, what could then have happened? The
course of the entry into Mordor and the struggle to reach Mount Doom would have
been different, and so would the ending. The interest would have shifted
to Gollum, I think, and the battle that would have gone on between his
repentance and his new love on one side and the Ring. Though the love
would have been strengthened daily it could not have wrested the mastery from
the Ring. I think that in some queer twisted and pitiable way Gollum
would have tried (not maybe with conscious design) to satisfy both.
Certainly at some point not long before the end he would have stolen the Ring
or taken it by violence (as he does in the actual Tale). But 'possession'
satisfied, I think he would then have sacrificed himself for Frodo's sake and
have voluntarily cast himself into the fiery abyss..."
"Frodo had become a considerable person [by the time of events in 'Mount
Doom'], but of a special kind: in spiritual enlargement rather than in
increase of physical or mental power; his will was much stronger than it had
been, but so far it had been exercised in resisting, not using, the Ring and
with the object of destroying it. He needed time, much time, before he
could control the Ring or (which in such a case is the same) before it could
control him; before his will and arrogance could grow to a stature in which he
could dominate other major hostile wills."
These comments of Tolkien's pretty much sum up much of what I have always felt
about Frodo and the Ring. It was not until the very end, when he had
reached the limits of all his strength, that he finally gave in to it, and to
its promise of power. It was, I think, very important to the thematic
development of the story (as well as Frodo) that he NOT use the Ring in any
way, especially not in controlling another person, for Tolkien often makes
clear the point that ends do not justify the means. If Frodo had used the
Ring, he would have been using the means of the Enemy to force Gollum's will to
his bidding (a Mortal Sin in Tolkien's mythos), and would have ultimately been
no better than the Enemy. That he resisted the Ring to the last and not
once actually used it with the intent of tapping its power for his own purposes
is, I suspect, part of why he was ultimately spared. In the end, the pity
of Bilbo, and Frodo, and Sam ruled the lives of many. Not their use of
the Ring, however seemingly small.
IMHO, as
always.
