“There is some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it is worth fighting for.”
– Samwise Gamgee (The Two Towers)
In J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, much attention is drawn to the heroics of Frodo Baggins, the Hobbit tasked with destroying the One Ring to prevent Middle-earth from falling under the Dark Lord Sauron’s rule. Frodo, accompanied by Samwise to Mount Doom(Orodruin), a volcanic mountain in Mordor, draws much strength from Galadriel’s words that “even the smallest person can change the course of the future” when faced with stiff resistance. Many lovers of art’s first encounter with the LOTR Trilogy occurred before age ten or in their early teens, yet it lingers for an entire life. There is no doubt that Tolkien’s LOTR casts a long shadow over modern fantasy and has inspired many other works of art, including films, video games, and board games, and was even named Britain’s best-loved novel of all time in a 2003 poll held by the BBC called The Big Read.
There are many lessons, of course, and our obsession with heroic adventures is kindled throughout the series, including of Gandalf’s resurgence, the Elves’ immortality, the army of trees, and Boldimir’s valor. Why are these extremes necessary for our curiosity, there is one element of significance that less is studied about: the character of Sméagol (Gollum), a creature, cursed, and obsessed with the Ring, perpetually torn between good and evil, battling his internal struggles during much of the journey. Whether it is the obsession with the ring or the nature of Sméagol remains an inconclusive argument. However, one can remember Galadriel’s words to Frodo, reminding him of the continuous need to exert ‘just control’ and character because the hearts of men are easily corrupted, she continued, and the Ring of Power has a will of its own, something that Sméagol battled with all through. His fractured psyche mirrors an age-old philosophical question: Does power corrupt, or does it reveal the corruption already within?
Sméagol’s descent begins with murder. Upon discovering the Ring, his first instinct is to kill his friend Déagol, who had found it while fishing in the Anduin River. The Ring magnifies his darkness, leading to his transformation into Gollum. Throughout LOTR, he wrestles with two identities—Sméagol (his original, kinder self), who longs for redemption, and Gollum(his corrupted, Ring-obsessed self), consumed by greed and malice.
The Battle Within: Sméagol vs. Gollum
In The Two Towers, Gollum debates with himself continuously, acknowledging Frodo as a friend, but still craving the ring as his adorned possession. It represents Carl Jung’s Psychological Types, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, the idea of the shadow, representing the repressed or darker side of human nature. Gollum goes on:
“We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false!”
“No! Not Master!”
“Yes, precious. False. They will cheat you, hurt you, lie.”
“But Master is our friend!”
“You don’t have any friends. Nobody likes you.”
“I’m not listening. I’m not listening.”
“You’re a liar and a thief.”
“No! Not listening!”
By The Return of the King, Sméagol’s battle is all but lost. He deceives Frodo and Sam, plotting to let Shelob kill them so he can reclaim the Ring:
Shelob kill them so he can reclaim the Ring:
“But the fat Hobbit, he knows. Eyes always watching. He’s looking for it.”
“But we must get it first, yes. Soft and quick as shadows we must be.”
“We could let her do it? Yes, she could do it for us. And then we takes it once they’re dead!”
The once-conflicted Sméagol becomes overpowered by Gollum’s darkness, proving that unchecked obsession and greed consume even the best intentions.
And finally, in The Two Towers, Sméagol tries to resist the Ring, facing conflicts between his id (instincts), ego (reality), and superego (morality) [borrowed from Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents]:
“Go away and never come back!”
“What did you say?”
“Go away and never come back!”
“We told him to go away… and away he goes, precious! Gone, gone, gone! Sméagol is free!”
But, of course, the Ring’s power eventually brings Gollum back. His monologues help us understand the tragic internal conflict between the remnants of his former self (Sméagol) and his corrupted, obsessed persona (Gollum), much of what can be examined about the character of man even in today’s world, and how he is torn between good and evil.
The Philosophy of Corruption and Free Will
The nature of evil and corruption has long been debated in philosophy, mirroring Gollum’s struggle. In Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau argues that man exists in a dual state; he begins as pure and peaceful (natural) but is corrupted by society(restrained). This contrasts with Christian theology, which posits “original sin”, that all men are inherently flawed from birth, only redeemed by Christ’s love. Whether power corrupts or unmasks corruption already found in man has existed, inconclusively, across many philosophies. The concerns of the moral degradation of mankind, sin, ethics, rights, and wrongs offer many interpretations, shaping values and characters within religions and different belief systems. However, Tolkien’s LOTR leans toward both views. Sméagol starts as an ordinary creature but harbors hidden greed, which the Ring amplifies. He is neither born evil nor entirely innocent—instead, he reflects human frailty, showing how power manipulates those vulnerable to its allure. His psychological battle is a semblance of Sigmund Freud’s tripartite model of the mind: Id (Gollum) – Pure instinct, desire for the Ring, Ego (Sméagol) – Tries to balance his cravings with reason, and Superego (Frodo’s influence) – The moral force urging him toward redemption.
Despite occasional moments of goodness, Sméagol’s failure to govern himself is one of the major themes in Plato’s Republic. Cicero argues that a just man must rule over his passions with reason because, without control, both men and societies descend into chaos.
Around 375 BC, Plato’s most influential work, De Republica, a series of Socratic dialogues with Athenians, possibly assumed to have occurred during the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE), scripted some of the earliest and most essential theories of politics, philosophy, city-states, character, and what he called the ‘just man’. Plato’s theory of the soul and cardinal virtues are laid out in Book II–IV, titled, “The City and the Soul,” a few of Cicero’s remarks have stood out for me until now. On the Soul and the City in Book II, Cicero draws a parallel between the governance of the self and the state, that a just man, like a just city, must have order and harmony, control, and discipline because he too is like a city that must be governed. He remarked, just as the soul of man is the guide of his life, so too justice is the soul of the republic.” Sméagol struggles with this act of governing himself and allows his faulty reasoning to drive his will. But On the Ideal Ruler and the Just Man, [Book IV], Cicero shared that his rule of reason must be preserved, both in the city and the soul. For without reason, neither man nor state can be truly free. The corruption of cities and societies and the absence of justice are birthed by flawed reasoning. Cicero argues that reason and justice are intertwined and that the just man rules over his passions with reason, as a just city is governed by wisdom and law.
Final Thoughts: The Shadow Within Us All
There is much extended literature on this, and while René Descartes tries to separate the mind (thinking substance) and the body (extended substance) in Meditations on First Philosophy (Cartesian dualism), it seemed to be a flawed concept, only argued better in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, where he reinforces the balance between rational thought and base instincts in human nature. We often find ourselves down this path, faced with dark desires, lusts, and cravings for pleasures – but there is always something in us, some silent whisper of morality (whatever we define that to be per our values)… and only as we learn to tame these dark desires, can we conquer the cities within our souls, and extend such act of order to the societies in which we live.
Tolkien’s genius in LOTR is in how Gollum reflects our struggles. His duality reminds us that within every person exists light and darkness, a battle between desire and restraint. In some ways, we are both Sméagol and Gollum—torn between our best and worst instincts. And like him, we must choose which voice to listen to.
As Galadriel warns Frodo:
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
The true test of character lies not in never having dark impulses but in choosing which part of ourselves we allow to take control.
