Gollum: Inside the mind of a liar

In this week's chapter, called "The Black Gate Is Closed," we continue to follow Frodo and Sam and Gollum as they journey towards Mordor.  The hobbits have asked Gollum to lead them to the gates of Mordor, which he has done.  Having reached the gates, Gollum remarks:

Master said so.  Master says:  Bring us to the Gate.  So good

Smeagol does so.  Master said so, wise master."

"I did," said Frodo."  His face was grim and set, but resolute.  He was filthy, haggard,

and pinched with weariness, but he cowered no longer, and his eyes were clear.

"I said so, because I purpose to enter Mordor, and I know no

other way.  Therefore, I shall go this way.  I do not ask anyone to go with me."

Gollum immediately panics, and tells Frodo that there is, in fact, another way into Mordor.  Frodo asks why Gollum didn't bring this up before, and Gollum says that he didn't realize Frodo's intent was to enter Mordor.  Gollum explains his point of view,  "He [Frodo] says:  'Smeagol, take me to the Gate - and then good bye!  Smeagol can run away and be good.'  But now he says:  'I purpose to enter Mordor this way.'  So Smeagol is very afraid.  He does not want to lose nice master.  And he promised, master made him promise, to save the Precious."  Why else did he think they wanted to go to Mordor?  He seems to have thought they were going sightseeing!

Gollum claims he is afraid.  But afraid of what?  He has not been ordered to enter Mordor - Frodo specifically says no one else needs to follow him.  And while Gollum may in fact care about Frodo, pity might be a better word; If Frodo dies in Mordor, it would be sad for Gollum to lose a "nice master", it doesn't actually affect him much.

Ah, except that Frodo is the master of the Precious, and Gollum has sworn an oath to serve the master.  And if Frodo dies, and Sauron regains the Ring, it is to Sauron's will that Gollum shall be subjected.  Gollum knows Sauron's terror.  While Frodo can be harsh to Gollum, his cruelty is no match for Sauron.  Observe...

During Gollum's initial panic when Frodo says he will go to Mordor, he says this:   "Give it back to little Smeagol.  Yes, yes, master:  Give it back, eh?"  Once Gollum convinces Frodo and Sam to hear his "other way," Frodo says:

You revealed yourself to me just now, foolishly.  Give it back to Smeagol,

you said.  Do not say that again!... In the last need, Smeagol, I should put on the Precious;

and the Precious mastered you long ago.  If I, wearing it,

were to command you, you would obey, even if it were to leap

from a precipice or to cast yourself into the fire. 

And such would be my command.  So have a care, Smeagol.

Such a command would be very cruel - but it would be quick.  One can only die once, as horrible as that death would be.  Sauron's torment would not be so easy, and eventually death would be seen as a reward, not a punishment.  Gollum has been in Mordor, and has been tortured by Sauron.  He knows what he can do.

So, while not altruistically, Gollum is interested in keeping Frodo alive.  He has already tried to take the Ring for himself, but found he could not defeat both Hobbits on his own.  In the previous chapter, Sam overheard one of the arguments between Smeagol/Gollum: Gollum goading Smeagol to attack, and Smeagol resisting - partially out of a new-found fondness of Frodo, and partially because, as he insists, "But there's two of them!"  Gollum suggests "She might help.  She might, yes."

Who "she" is, we do not know.  However, if you knowingly lead someone into a trap, are you not part of that trap?  Gollum has sworn to protect the master of the Precious, which at the moment is Frodo.  He seems convinced that leading the hobbits into danger does not break this oath (Or unconcerned that it does).  But what of the Precious?  Does the Precious agree?  Or will it find him in contempt of his oath.

Frodo says, when he rebukes Gollum for daring to ask Frodo to give him the Ring, "It will hold you to [your promise]; but it will seek a way to twist your own undoing."  Gollum may have had the Ring, he may call himself the master, but until it is destroyed, the Ring will have far more mastery over him than he has over it.  Gollum's lies are beginning to pile up, and he himself is falling victim to them.  They are fooling no one but himself.

And yet, when Gollum says there is another way, Frodo and Sam initially refuse to believe him.  Gollum becomes offended.  The text says:  "He had all the injured air of a liar suspected when for once he has told the truth."

Again, we see the consequences of constant lying.  Not only do you begin to believe your own lies, but those around you will begin to doubt even the truths you say.  The lesson here is obvious:  Don't lie.

I recently heard, and I wish I remembered from where, that "Every other wrongdoing can be forgiven but lying."  Why is this?  Well, if you are being forgiven, presumably you are remorseful and sorry about your actions.  But if you were lying, then your remorse and sorrow might, too, be a lie.  Lying undercuts the mechanism by which forgiveness is given.  While certainly many acts are worse than lying, there are few that are as infectious.  A lie impacts how every word you speak is interpreted.  Is it true?  If what you're saying benefits you in any fashion, many will suspect you of making it up.  It is difficult to recover from such a loss of faith.

2 weeks ago I ended my post this way, "As we rejoin Frodo and Sam on their fraught journey, paranoia and mistrust grows with every turn of the page." The first half of The Two Towers is about fighting monsters from without - keeping the company safe from outside harm. This second half is about how to battle the monsters that are within. Motivated first by pity, Frodo and Sam have now come to rely on Gollum's guidance in order to get them into Mordor. They need him, but they know they cannot trust him. Their danger deepens.