Perhaps it’s an empty threat made to get Sam out of danger, but I think he meant it. Frodo, the mild-mannered, middle-class hobbit who wanted nothing more than to stay at home in his beloved house and let the world go by is now seriously threatening to cut someone’s throat. Let go, or you’ll feel it this time! I’ll cut your throat.'” You have seen it before once upon a time. Both of them were aware of his presence and were ready for it, but Gollum nearly chokes the life out of Sam until Frodo draws his sword and threatens Gollum. Our first full view of Gollum comes when he leaps on the hobbits in the dark. But this doesn’t mean Frodo is entirely merciful. Now that Frodo has finally seen Gollum for himself and knows what the Ring has done to both of them, he understands. Gandalf counseled pity and told Frodo that, if he saw Gollum, he wouldn’t say such harsh things. Months ago, in the comfort of Bag End, with no idea of what the Ring really was, Frodo said he wished Bilbo had killed Gollum. But hundreds of years of bearing the Ring have utterly broken him, turning him against everything and everyone, shriveling him into a pathetic wretch whose only desire is to get the Ring back. Though Sméagol was a mean-spirited person when he found the Ring, he wasn’t wholly evil. Gollum’s presence underscores this corruption to both us and to Frodo. Gandalf can lecture all day about the Ring’s corruptive influence, but until we actually see what it does to a fundamentally good person like Frodo, we’re not going to fully understand it. Here is where we start to truly see the effect the Ring is having on Frodo’s psyche, especially now that Gollum is in the picture. What we get in Book Four is not an action story, but a profoundly psychological one.
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