You can place him in the Neutral category simply because he does not serve any other master but himself. It is true to say that the Ring is his master, but he desires the Ring for himself and his petty cravings. He has no intentions of using the Ring to conquer the world, or its inhabitants. All he wants to do is to find his "precious" and go back to his caves under the Misty Mountains. Gollum calls Frodo "master", but since Frodo is the Ringbearer, he becomes Gollum's master because of this, not by the virtue of his own person.
Finally, you can place him in the Evil category for the evil in his character. He is a vile creature, full of mischief, and will not hesitate to kill, given the chance. He has killed many times before during the long span of his life9 , and his biggest wish is to kill the one who stole his "birthday present", i.e. the Ring. The only way to subdue him and make him "nice" is by force, and by threatening him. Not even Tolkien himself could truly understand the complex nature of Gollum. In a letter to Sir Stanley Unwin, his publisher, he wrote: "I do not rely on Gandalf [i.e. Tolkien] to make [Gollum's] psychology intelligible" (Letters 121). Just as Tom Bombadil is a mystery to the world, and to Tolkien, in many ways, so is Gollum. To do Gollum justice, you have to treat him in a category of his own.
In Lord of the Rings, we fully learn the significance of this chance meeting. The ring Bilbo finds, is not just any funny magical ring, but an important weapon to be used in the oncoming fight between Good and Evil. Gollum is not just a pathetic creature hiding under the mountains, but a character that still has an important role to play in the great matters of the world. This is a fact that Gandalf is well aware of. Frodo thinks it a pity that Bilbo does not kill Gollum when given the chance, under the mountains. To this Gandalf retorts: "[Gollum] is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet" (LR 73). Even though Gollum is an evil creature, Gandalf feels that he is connected with the Ring, and that he might be useful in the end. Gandalf cannot see in what way this will happen, but knows that there is some greater force controlling the destiny of the world. The wheels of the world can turn in mysterious ways.
Gandalf also stresses the importance of the fact that it is pity and mercy that stay Bilbo's hand from killing Gollum (LR 73). That is the reason that Bilbo is not more affected and hurt by the power of the Ring, than he really is. Gollum comes into the possession of the Ring by murder and deceit, and it turns him into a wretch. Bilbo shows pity and mercy, when he obtains it, and that is why he is not destroyed by the Ring. It is merely "growing on his mind" and he feels "thin and stretched" (LR 60). The act of treating Evil with Good is in fact one of the themes in Tolkien's mythology, and it has been observed by many critics. They all seem to be of the same opinion, and they stress the importance of this particular act of pity, and mercy, and that it is made out of free choice (Kocher 35-36, W.H. Auden 58, Helms 43, 87). Most important, Tolkien himself was of that opinion. Frodo's salvation is achieved by "his previous pity and forgiveness of injury" (Letters 234). An interesting fact about the question of free choice is that it is Bilbo and Frodo that are involved in these choices, but they always seem to concern Gollum.
Gollum is captured by Sam and Frodo. With the help of the Ring, they force him to guide them to Mordor, and to help them find a way in to this dark country. During their journey, Gollum starts to develop some feelings for Frodo. His hate for one Baggins (Bilbo), who stole his precious ring, turns to a fondness for another Baggins (Frodo). As their relationship develops into some kind of mutual affection, Gollum becomes more and more ambiguous. In our terms, we could even say that he develops schizophrenic features. The two sides of Gollum are named Slinker and Stinker by Sam. One side of him, Slinker, wants to do good, and help his new master. The other side of him, Stinker, only wants to get hold of the Ring and, with the help of it, continue his mischief. I would go so far though, as to say that the good side of him represents Frodo in him, and the evil side represents Sam. The two hobbits evoke such strong feelings in Gollum that his ambiguity is partly created by them. To him, Frodo is Slinker, and Sam is Stinker.
For a fleeting moment, could one of the sleepers have seen him, they would have thought that they beheld an old weary hobbit, shrunken by the years that had carried him far beyond his time, beyond friends and kin, and the fields and streams of youth, an old starved pitiable thing.
Here we are shown that Gollum is not entirely evil. He is in fact tired of his wickedness, and wants to die peacefully, as he was supposed to do, many hundred years ago. He can still remember a time when he did not have any knowledge of the Ring. He is reminded of an ordinary and happy life, and knows that his life would not have had to be filled with never-ending misery. I for one, am moved by this apparent sadness and remorse that he feels. It makes you wonder how thorough Wilson and Muir have read Lord of the Rings, before writing their reviews.
A question that consequently arises is if we are to blame Sam for his mistrust. He is only trying to protect his master, and given the past of Gollum, Sam feels that they cannot trust him. Tolkien himself is not so forgiving. He is unnecessarily hard on Sam in some of his letters, and blames him for Gollum's failure to repent (110, 221, 234n). On the other hand, he also tells us that this was for the best: "Though the love [for Frodo] would have been strengthened daily it could not have wrested the mastery from the Ring" (330). In other words, they could never have trusted Gollum completely. "[Gollum] hated [the Ring] and loved it, as he hated and loved himself. He could not get rid of it. He had no will left in the matter" (LR 6.
In the end, it is Gollum who saves the day. At the top of Mount Doom, Frodo decides not to throw it into the fires where it once was forged. He claims it for his own, and by doing so, furthers Sauron's cause. Gollum jumps on to Frodo and bites off the finger with the Ring on. In his ultimate moment of joy, Gollum dances over the edge and down into the furnace. The Ring is destroyed after all. Again, we see that evil deeds further the cause of the Good. Without the help of Gollum, the Ring would never have been destroyed. Sauron would eventually have captured Frodo, and the world would have fallen into eternal darkness.
So are we to judge this last act of Gollum as an act of goodness? The answer is of course no. Had Gollum been able to prevent it, he would never have fallen into the flames. He would have run of with the Ring, and, in the end, Sauron would have found him too. Even if we feel sympathy for him, and gratitude, it is an act of evil that saves the world, not an act of goodness: "Gollum [is] pitiable, but end[s] in persistent wickedness" (Letters 234). Marion Zimmer Bradley suggests that it is an unconscious act of love that makes Gollum jump off the edge, and that "he genuinely saves Frodo, whom he loves as much as he hates" (123). On this point, I think Bradley is wrong. Gollum is beyond all feelings of love when he takes the Ring from Frodo. To suggest that he commits suicide for the love of Frodo is misleading. It is an act of Evil. It is not love he feels but desire, an overwhelming desire for his "precious". On the top of Mount Doom, he is past goodness. He has already made up his mind being reprimanded by Sam, and from here on there are only evil thoughts in his mind.
"Gollum is to me just a 'character' - an imagined person - who granted the situation acted so and so under opposing strains, as it appears probable he would" (Letters 233). Gollum is what he is, and nothing else. Again we have a character that does not live up to any preconceived stereotypes. We see a character that is a bit of a mystery to us, just like Tom Bombadil. When it comes to Gollum, Tolkien has no intentions of leading us into adapting a certain opinion, e.g. Gollum being ultimately evil. He leaves it us as readers to decide what we will eventually think of this creature. Gollum is complex because we cannot easily define him. He is Evil, Good and Neutral, all in one, and that is why we get so many different impressions of him.
Sonuç olarak Gollum'a iyi davrandıÄ?ınız takdirde sizi sever, ama kötü davrandıÄ?ınız takdirde (Sam gibi) o zaman iÅ?ler karıÅ?ır. Frodo'nun sevgisi, Sam'in nefretini bastıramadı ve böylelikle Gollum'un kötü kiÅ?iliÄ?i ortaya çıkarak Frodo'ya saldırdı.
Yukarıdakilerin bir kısaltılması olacaksa, Gollum ne iyi, ne kötü, ne de nötr...
Joined: Oct 08, 2004
Posts: 1861
Location: aksaray-izmir
Posted:
Sun Mar 02, 2008 12:39 pm
Sadece son 2 satırı yazsaydın keÅ?ke gayet güzel özetlemiÅ?sin. gecenin 4 ünde bu kadar uzun yazıyı okumak kastı valla.
_________________ Bir tek seni bana çok gördü dünya
Ä°yiler bu savaÅ?ı kaybetmiÅ?
Peki ben nası büyük adam olucam
Kötü olmak seni geri getirir mi acaba...
Gollum bunu da yüzük için yapıyor, sonuçta yüzüÄ?ün büyüsü etkisindeydi ve arkadaÅ?ıyla kavga ediyorlardı, yani eÄ?er güçsüz olsaydı ölen o olacaktı
_________________ I always knew I was a star And now, the rest of the world seems to agree with me.
The reason we're successful, darling? My overall charisma, of course.
I never thought of myself as the leader. The most important person, perhaps.
Joined: Oct 08, 2004
Posts: 1861
Location: aksaray-izmir
Posted:
Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:07 pm
Gollum kötü deÄ?il bence. yüzüÄ?ün etkisi sonucu zaten içinde ki zayıflıklar daha fazla su yüzüne çıkıyor. Ona kötü demek Frodo ve Bilbo ya kötü demektir. Hepsini geç Boromir gibi delikanlıyı bile yoldan çıkaracaktı nerdeyse gollum gibi yarım akıllı ne yapsın.
_________________ Bir tek seni bana çok gördü dünya
Ä°yiler bu savaÅ?ı kaybetmiÅ?
Peki ben nası büyük adam olucam
Kötü olmak seni geri getirir mi acaba...
Joined: Oct 01, 2003
Posts: 4316
Location: istanbul
Posted:
Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:10 pm
ArkadaÅ?ını öldürmede tüm suçun gollumda olduÄ?una ben de inanmıyorum. Zayıf iradesi yüzüÄ?ün çaÄ?rısına karÅ?ı koyamamıÅ?tır. YüzüÄ?ü bir kez alıp taktıktan sonraki fiilleri ise daha çok yüzüÄ?ün baskısı altında iÅ?lendiÄ?i ve zihni yüzük tarafından çarpıtıldıÄ?ı için kendi sorumluluÄ?u olmaktan uzaktır.
Gollum bir yönelime sahip olmaktan çok daha temel bir hastalıÄ?a sahiptir. Zihin yapısı uzun süre yüzük tarafından çarpıtılmıÅ? ve bozulmuÅ?tur. Ona iyi ya da kötü demek yerine akıl hastası demeyi tercih ederim.
_________________ her zaman yalan söyle ki, kimse yalan söylediÄ?ini anlayamasın
güç amacın, k
Joined: Oct 04, 2007
Posts: 2670
Location: Innsmouth
Posted:
Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:33 pm
Ya bir de Å?öyle bir Å?ey var, o da Chaotic evil olabilme olasılıÄ?ı, yeminerin dediÄ?i gibi hastalıklı bir kiÅ?ilik. Ve genellikle CEler Å?izofren oluyorlar. Ã?ok kompleks bir karakter sahidende. EÄ?er bir alignment vereceksek illa ki o da CE olmalıdır, çünkü çoÄ?unlukla CE kiÅ?ilere iyi davrandıÄ?ınız zaman (ve gollum gibi Å?izofrenseler) iyiliÄ?e çekmek daha kolay olur (her zaman deÄ?il gerçi ama). Tabii bu iyilik dönemi muhtemelen çok kısa olur, en ufak bi ters hareket eski haline dönmesine neden olabilir.
örnek olarak annesi küçükken öldürüldü diye CE olan bir karaktere eÄ?er bir kadın anne Å?evkati gösterirse iyiye dönüÅ?ür. Fakat genellikle hikaye, bu CE karakterin aslında bu kadının onun annesi olmadıÄ?ını algılar ve kadını öldürüp hayatına devam ederek sonuçlanır.
aslında chaotic neutral'i iyiliÄ?e yöneltmek daha kolay, çünkü temel baÄ?lamadan ve prensipleri olmadan kaos ve kötülük yapmanın zararını anlarsa iyi olabiliyorlar, ama mesela neutral evil'la hiç uÄ?raÅ?ılmaz adam tam çıkarcı lawful'un da prensipleri manyaklık üzerine
Joined: Jun 11, 2007
Posts: 628
Location: Miklagaard
Posted:
Sat May 09, 2009 6:30 am
Edmond wrote:
Feanor kusura bakma ama zaten Gollum Chaotic Evil deÄ?il, Chaotic Neutral bence, tamamen kendisi için çalıÅ?ıyor, ver yüzüÄ?ü eline, tamam kalsın öyle
Ayrıca Melkor ise neutral evil deÄ?il, bence Chaotic Evil'dir, sanırım iÅ?ine geleni yaptıÄ?ı için, vaktiyle Elf'lere yalakalık bile etmiÅ?ti
gollum chaotic neutral evet kafam karıÅ?mıÅ?, ama melkor kesinlikle neutral evil çünkü onun hareketlerinin nedeni bencilliÄ?i deÄ?il, iyi ve güzel olana duyduÄ?u nefret ve onları yok etme bozma isteÄ?i. elflere yalakalık etmesi olayı amaçlarını gerçekleÅ?tirme yolunda bir araç sadece, onuruna sahip çıkıp "ben kimseye yaltaklanmam" dememesi de lawful olmamasından..
_________________ Ne kanun, ne sevgi, ne de çatılmıÅ? kılıçlar
DehÃ…?et, yaralar, felaketin kendisi bile olsa
Koruyamayacaktır Fëanor ve Fëanor'un soyundan
Saklayan, kendine alan, ellerinde tutan,
Bulan ya da kaçıran kiÅ?iyi, bir Silm
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