Pity stayed Bilbo Baggins’ hand, preventing him from killing Gollum when he had the chance, but he could have no idea what events he had set in motion. By sparing Gollum’s life, employing the Gamgee family as his gardeners, and bequeathing the One Ring to Frodo, Bilbo unwittingly set the scene for the meeting of one of the most fascinating trios of characters found in literature.
Frodo, Sam, and Gollum form a microcosm among themselves, in which their own feelings and relationships come to dictate the fate of Middle Earth and indeed represent the universal battle between good and evil. From their meeting in the Emyn Muil, Frodo is the leader—but he quickly becomes more than this. Frodo in a sense encompasses the characters of his two companions, and they come to represent the divided desires raging inside him and the forces of dark and light struggling for mastery. Readers easily identify with the gentle, ordinary hobbit Frodo, and in his conflict they recognize the moral dilemmas that every person faces in life.
Any well-informed reader of Tolkien’s works will easily agree that Frodo Baggins has much in common with both Samwise Gamgee and Gollum. Sam is his friend and shares many of his opinions and moral beliefs. They have the same respect for Elves—it is rumored that Frodo “visited the Elves” (Tolkien, The Lord, 41), while Sam often expresses his desire to “go and see Elves and all” (Tolkien, The Lord, 63).
Both feel a moral obligation to take part in the quest to destroy the One Ring, even though they are hardly fit for the task. Frodo determines that he will “do … what [he] must” (Tolkien, The Lord, 392), and Sam agrees that “[he] must see it through” (Tolkien, The Lord 714). Frodo and Sam are exceptional among Hobbits for their curiosity and interest in the world around them. All these traits bind them tightly to each another, making their friendship touchingly close—and without that friendship the quest could never have been fulfilled. Sam, so to speak, is Frodo’s good angel. It is Sam who refuses to let him go alone to Mordor, Sam who cares for him on the road, and Sam who carries him up Mount Doom in the end.
However, by the end of the book, Frodo is hardly more distant in personality from Gollum than from Sam—the corruptive influence of the Ring has changed him to a point where he shares many traits with the ancient fish-eater as well. Inarguably, the link between them is the One Ring, which becomes precious to both. The Ring can give power to its bearer, and even someone with little or no ambition eventually falls prey to its siren call. In Tolkien’s world, this is pure evil: the desire for power over others. The conflict between good and evil is essentially a conflict between those who desire freedom and those who desire domination.
The further the book progresses, the more similarities can be found in the behavior and speech of Frodo and Gollum, as the influence of the Ring molds them into a similar shape. In a pitifully touching speech, Gollum declares: “I can’t find it. I am tired,” (Tolkien, The Lord 602) and Frodo echoes the sentiment: “I’m so tired. The Ring is so heavy” (Tolkien, The Lord 898). The Eye of Sauron haunts them both. Gollum shakes his fist “toward the East” (Tolkien, The Lord 602) and Frodo also often raises his hand “as if to ward off a blow, or to screen his shrinking eyes from a dreadful Eye that sought to look in them” (Tolkien, The Lord 914). Gollum refers to Frodo and Sam as “thieves” (Tolkien, The Lord 599) when they capture him, and Frodo eerily accuses of Sam of being a thief as well in the tower of Cirith Ungol.
Gollum represents the darker side of Frodo, created and cultivated by the corruptive Ring, in contrast to Sam, the good side. However, their relationship goes even deeper than that. Gollum himself experiences an inner struggle, one between his good half, Sméagol, and the part of him that lusts after the Ring, Gollum. Gollum’s internal war parallels Frodo’s, though it has continued for far longer and evil has far more power over him.
Sam and Gollum, Frodo’s light and dark sides, are caught in an unsolvable conflict. The two despise each other from the start, and continuously try to curry favor with their master. Sam considers Gollum a “nasty treacherous creature” (Tolkien, The Lord, 603), while Gollum believes Sam is “cross [and] rude” (Tolkien, The Lord, 672). Gollum, however, cherishes a twisted fondness for Frodo—a sick echo of Sam’s own regard for his master. Gollum often refers to Frodo as “nice master” in a fawning and disturbing manner, while Sam worries about his “dear master” (Tolkien, The Lord. 926). The two compete for who has the most influence with Frodo—the light, or the dark?
This conflict finally comes to a head on Mount Doom, both physically and spiritually. Gollum attacks Sam but gets the worst of the fight, though Sam pities him and spares his life in the end. Here the light side comes out on top, and Frodo’s own words to Gollum parallel this development when he says: “Your time is at an end. You cannot betray me or slay me now” (Tolkien, The Lord, 922). Frodo denies the corrupt side of his own nature in a last attempt to free himself from it.
Things, however, do not end so simply. Gollum, both the creature and the mentality, overtake Frodo at the very Crack of Doom, in a desperate last attempt to claim the Ring. Frodo declares that “[he] will not do this deed...[for] the Ring is [his]” (Tolkien, The Lord, 924). The Gollum-side of Frodo has apparently won, and cannot relinquish its precious treasure. Conversely, however, it is the physical Gollum himself who saves the day—evil consumes itself and causes its own downfall. With Gollum’s death, Sam and what he represents finally triumph. The corrupt part of Frodo dies as well, and he becomes once again the “dear master of the sweet days in the Shire” (Tolkien, The Lord 925), to Sam’s great satisfaction.
The warring personalities within Frodo are even more apparent in the structuring of the final chapters of Lord of the Rings. Up until this point, the main focus has been on Frodo – he confronts and controls the evil Gollum, and even begins to redeem the creature, keeping the growing evil in his own soul in check.
After his capture and imprisonment in Cirith Ungol, however, Frodo dims into a shadow of what he was, and his character becomes passive. From here on Sam takes over the lead, with Gollum dogging his footsteps. Frodo himself fades into the background, so to speak, and Sam and Gollum take over the action, battling bitterly for the mastery. Frodo no longer speaks; he does not see “the way before his feet” (Tolkien, The Lord 914). He is too busy fighting the Ring to pay attention to anything else. Sam and Gollum’s own actions accurately represent Frodo’s conflicting desires at this point—good is still winning, but evil follows ever closer in its footsteps. The fate of Middle-earth and the physically larger battles taking place there hinge precariously upon the results of this small, internal battle fought by a mere hobbit. On Mount Doom, the two finally meet and happily, though narrowly, good wins out.
The relationship of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum has a significance that every reader can easily understand. The forces of good and evil warring in the souls of Tolkien’s diminutive heroes remind us all of our own private battles and temptations. Whether or not we define evil in the same words as Tolkien, the conflict of good versus evil is universal. We experience Frodo’s pain and despair as he feels the Ring, a thing of pure evil, gain a hold over him; we sympathize with Gollum’s torment and Sam’s desperation. Tolkien’s genius takes us into the depths of our own darkness, to face our worst fears, and yet can assure us that “the hands of the weak” (Tolkien, “The Silmarillion” 303) are ultimately no more helpless against evil than those of the strong.