How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph).
Quote #1
Neither Pippin nor Merry remembered much of the latter part of the journey. Evil dreams and evil waking were blended into a long tunnel of misery, with hope growing ever fainter behind. They ran, and they ran, striving to keep up the pace set by the Orcs, licked every now and again with a cruel thong cunningly handled. If they halted or stumbled, they were seized and dragged for some distance. (3.3.63)
Poor Merry and Pippin are such youngsters, and in many ways they are the most vulnerable of the company. That makes their current situation all the more heart wrenching. Sure, they have traveled with the Company for many weeks, but they still have no experience to prepare them for this brutal forced march and the suffering that's raining down on them. Don't worry; they'll prove their mettle.
Quote #2
It is said that the Hornburg has never fallen to assault [...] but now my heart is doubtful. The world changes and all that once was strong now proves unsure. How shall any tower withstand such numbers and such reckless hate? Had I known that the strength of Isengard was grown so great, maybe I should not so rashly have ridden forth to meet it, for all the arts of Gandalf. His counsel seems not now so good as it did under the morning sun. (3.7.134)
Théoden is great when he has lots of things to do. He seems happiest when he's galloping off at the head of his company of soldiers. When he is stuck sitting inside the Hornburg trying to think about defense, he has time to start worrying and fretting. And, if we may say, he's a little prone to despair. Théoden has to bear some lasting effects from Wormtongue's influence, and it's a common theme of The Lord of the Rings that you can't just erase suffering as though it had never been, though you can usually heal the worst of its damage.
Quote #3
"I think all will be well now," answered Gandalf. "[Pippin] was not held long, and hobbits have amazing power of recovery. The memory, or the horror of it, will probably fade quickly. Too quickly, perhaps." (3.11.63)
Pippin is so shaken by what he sees looking into the palantír that he can barely talk about it. Sauron hurts him, even through a glass ball and from a great distance. But Gandalf comments that the memory of it will leave no lasting injury, that it will fade too quickly, perhaps. Does he mean that Pippin won't learn a lesson from this experience with the palantír, that his suffering may pass too quickly to teach him anything? And does that mean that Pippin needs a bit of suffering in order to learn a thing or two?
Quote #4
"Well, what's to be done with it?" said Sam. "Tie it up, so as it can't come sneaking after us no more, I say."
"But that would kill us, kill us," whimpered Gollum. "Cruel, little hobbitses. Tie us up in the cold hard lands and leaves us, gollum, gollum." Sobs welled up in his gobbling throat.
"No," said Frodo. "If we kill him, we must kill him outright. But we can't do that, not as things are. Poor wretch! He has done us no harm."
"Oh hasn't he!" said Sam rubbing his shoulder. (4.1.114-7)
Up until now, we have seen Sam's devoted side, and not much more. But here, we see Sam's more practical and less sympathetic aspect. In fact, the hobbit is even a little cruel. Sam wants to kill Gollum, plain and simple. But Gollum is clearly suffering. It has been so long since he's talked to anyone else that all he has left is to talk to himself — and the fact that he refers to himself as "we," in the plural, suggests that he is less than well adjusted. Nonetheless, Sam looks at Gollum and sees, not a "him," but an "it," one who is sure to "throttle [them] in [their] sleep" (4.1.118). He has no pity and no sympathy for Gollum, and seems perfectly willing to cause Gollum even more suffering.
Quote #5
"Once, by accident it was, wasn't it, precious? Yes, by accident. But we won't go back, no, no!" Then suddenly his voice and language changed and he sobbed in his throat, and spoke but not to them. "Leave me alone, gollum! You hurt me. O my poor hands, gollum! I, we, I don't want to come back. I can't find it. I am tired. I, we can't find it, gollum, gollum, no, nowhere. They're always awake. Dwarves, Men, and Elves, terrible Elves with bright eyes. I can't find it. Ach!" He got up and clenched his long hand into a bony fleshless knot, shaking it towards the East. "We won't!" he cried. "Not for you." (4.1.133)
In a weird way, Gollum is a lot like Treebeard. We're serious. He isn't on anyone's side because no one is precisely on his side. Gollum may be a wicked, twisted creature, but he is no friend of Mordor. In this rant, he suddenly slips into the first person and admits that there is a difference between himself, Gollum, and the Precious, the Ring. It is Gollum who is tired and suffering (and the Ring has put him in this state). It is Gollum who can't find it. And it pains him to be without it, but at least he briefly has a sense of himself as separate from the Ring.
Quote #6
"I don't know how long we shall take to—to finish," said Frodo. "We were miserably delayed in the hills. But Samwise Gamgee, my dear hobbit—indeed, Sam, my dearest hobbit, friend of friends—I do not think we need give thought to what comes after that. To do the job as you put it—what hope is there that we ever shall? And if we do, who knows what will come of that? If the One goes into the Fire, and we are at hand? I ask you, Sam, are we ever likely to need bread again? I think not. If we can nurse our limbs to bring us to Mount Doom, that is all we can do. More than I can, I begin to feel." (4.2.35)
What's weird here is that Frodo doesn't sound that bummed by his and Sam's apparently inevitable deaths. He is completely sure that they are going to die; the only suspense is in whether it will happen before or when they destroy the Ring. But here's a question: if they know they are going to die, does that fact lessen or deepen the current suffering Frodo and Sam are experiencing?
Quote #7
In fact with every step towards the gates of Mordor Frodo felt the Ring on its chain about his neck grow more burdensome. He was now beginning to feel it as an actual weight dragging him earthwards. But far more he was troubled by the Eye: so he called it himself. It was that more than the drag of the Ring that made him cower and stoop as he walked. The Eye: that horrible sense of a hostile will that strove with great power to pierce all shadows of cloud, and earth, and flesh, and to see you: to pin you under its deadly gaze, naked, immovable. So thin, so frail and thin, the veils were become that still warded it off. Frodo knew just where the present habitation and heart of that will now was: as certainly as a man can tell the direction of the sun with his eyes shut. He was facing it, and its potency beat upon his brow. (4.2.82)
All right folks, things are pretty dire, and we're still only in The Two Towers. This cannot be good. What kind of shape is he going to be in when Frodo gets to the end of his quest in The Return of the King? In this passage, Tolkien uses his descriptions of the setting to evoke the horrible pain that Frodo is going through as a result of the Ring, and to great effect. When Tolkien describes the Eye of Sauron, he suddenly switches from "Frodo" and "he" to "you," as though he is addressing this "deadly gaze, naked, immovable" to you the reader. Yikes. You might want to run for cover.
Quote #8
It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would really rather have stayed there in peace—(4.4.99)
Because Sam is essentially kind, and also because he's growing wiser, he immediately wonders about the motivation that brought the dead Southron to this terrible place. In other words, just because these men are fighting under Sauron's banners doesn't mean that they are not human, with their own pain and difficulty and past behind them. Sam can sympathize with their suffering, even though they are on the wrong side. For more about moral ambiguity and suffering, check out our "Character Analysis" of the Southrons.
Quote #9
Even as these thoughts pierced [Frodo] with dread and held him bound as with a spell, the Rider halted suddenly, right before the entrance of the bridge [from Minas Morgul], and behind him all the host stood still. There was a pause, a dead silence. Maybe it was the Ring that called to the Wraith-lord, and for a moment he was troubled, sensing some other power within his valley. This way and that turned the dark head helmed and crowned with fear, sweeping the shadows with its unseen eyes. Frodo waited, like a bird at the approach of a snake, unable to move. And as he waited, he felt, more urgent than ever before, the command that he should put on the Ring. But great as the pressure was, he felt no inclination now to yield to it. He knew that the Ring would only betray him, and that he had not, even if he put it on, the power to face the Morgul king—not yet. There was no longer any answer to that command in his own will, dismayed by terror though it was, and he felt only the beating upon him of a great power from outside. (4.8.22)
Frodo really doesn't want to slip that ring on his finger, because he knows "that he had not, even if he put it on, the power to face the Morgul king—not yet." That "not yet" is really interesting, there, because it suggests that somewhere inside of him, Frodo imagines that he might someday have the power to face the Morgul king with the Ring. That means the Ring is still subtly changing his mind, maybe without Frodo's being aware. He is starting to think of the potential power the Ring could bring him. This "not yet" is a tiny hint foreshadowing the coming conflicts of The Return of the King, so stay tuned Shmoopers.
Quote #10
"Frodo, Mr. Frodo!" he called. "Don't leave me here alone! It's your Sam calling. Don't go where I can't follow! Wake up, Mr. Frodo! O wake up, Frodo, me dear, me dear. Wake up!"
[…]
And then black despair came down on him, and Sam bowed to the ground, and drew his grey hood over his head, and night came into his heart, and he knew no more. (4.10.18-20)
Sam has never despaired in this novel, not once. Tolkien describes him as a fundamentally optimistic hobbit (4.3.13-4), and it's frequently his job in the story to pull Frodo's more melancholy mind away from dark thoughts. But the whole reason that he has come on this quest is to follow Frodo. Frodo is the entire motivation of Sam's presence here in this awful place. So Frodo's apparent death is a double blow. Not only does Sam think he has lost the master he loves, but he has also lost his primary purpose for coming to Mordor in the first place. Not good.