Sam is faced with many choices: Hunt down Gollum, and have his
vengeance? Throw himself off the cliff? Stay with Frodo? Call
it quits and go home? Continue with the Quest?
He seemed to have decided to go on, to "see it through," but then he is unable
to go:
But he could not go, not yet. He knelt and held Frodo’s hand and could
not release it. And time went by and still he knelt, holding his master’s
hand, and in his heart keeping a debate.
1. Sam has just recalled his statement to Frodo, about having something to
do before the end that he needs to see through. He seemed to have decided
to go on with the quest—yet he’s now unable to leave Frodo. What do you
think of his indecision here? Is this, like in the Emily Dickinson poem
"After great pain a formal feeling comes," Sam’s "chill, then stupor, then
letting go"? Or are there greater powers at work here?
2. The text says "in his heart keeping a debate" yet most people think of
debating with their head/thoughts (or perhaps debating head vs. heart, and
we’ll see Sam make a reference to this later). Is the debate truly being
waged in Sam’s heart? Or does it merely begin there?
The next paragraph finds Sam thinking about going after Gollum, then realizing
that this act wouldn’t bring Frodo back, nor serve any greater purpose.
3. It would seem to be temporarily satisfying to take vengeance on
Gollum, yet Sam decides against it, though it seemed appealing. Was this a test
of some sort, akin to the test that he "passed" in Lothlorien?
After great pain a formal feeling comes--
The nerves sit ceremonious like tombs;
The stiff Heart questions--was it He that bore?
And yesterday--or centuries before?
The feet, mechanical, go round
A wooden way
Of ground, or air, or ought,
Regardless grown,
A quartz contentment, like a stone.
This is the hour of lead
Remembered if outlived,
As freezing persons recollect the snow--
First chill, then stupor, then the letting
go.
Not all those who wander are lost.
