Don't think about Boromir!
Not until you've thought about this striking parallel.
When Boromir tried to take the Ring from Frodo, a madness came on him, brought on by the Ring's influence over him in that moment. Frodo refused, and trying to get away when feeling threatened, he put on the Ring in order to become invisible.
Then Boromir shouted at him, called him a miserable trickster, accusing him of trying to sell them all to Sauron.
But in a moment, when he came to himself, he called out, "What have I said? What have I done?" Frodo! Frodo! Come back! A madness took me, but it has passed!"
Now skip ahead in time. Way ahead. Frodo has been taken by Orcs in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and Sam believes him to be dead but goes after him anyway. At this point, Sam has the Ring. He finds Frodo, who is somewhat delirious, but when he comes to his senses a little more, Frodo starts panicking that the Ring is gone, believing the enemy has taken it. But no, Sam says, it's not gone, I have it here.
In that moment, so near the heart of Sauron's territory, a frightening change comes over Frodo. His tone changed strangely and he demanded, "Give it to me!" When Sam kindly offers to help him carry it part of the time, Frodo shouts at Sam and calls him a thief. For a flash of time, he seemed to see Sam as a greedy Orc.
But then the madness passed, and he looked down at Sam, who looked most miserable and hurt. And Frodo cried, "O Sam! What have I said? What have I done? Forgive me!"
Those words sound familiar?
Yep. Same words Boromir said to Frodo.
It just goes to show that even the most pure-hearted could become strangely out of character when the Ring's influence became strong. It seems the only reason Frodo went this much longer before acting this way is because Hobbits somehow were the most resistant to the Ring, and perhaps that Frodo was a particularly pure hearted Hobbit. And still, even he was overtaken by a moment of madness.
Next time you (or someone else) thinks Boromir was a terrible person and a villain because of how he acted, remember this. I'm not saying Boromir didn't have some character flaws but so did everyone, and I think that it was less a matter of character flaws and more a matter of how terrible the Ring was, that caused him to act so violently. It was out of character. Boromir knew that, because when the madness passed, he was like, "What did I just do?" He was horrified at himself because he knew that's not the way he'd act under any normal circumstances.
And when a similar thing happened to Frodo, Sam knew it was out of character. Frodo knew, too, once his mind had cleared. He also was horrified with the thought, "What did I just do?"
The point is, if we can see so clearly that Frodo's moment was out of character, then we should be able to do the same for Boromir. We know Frodo's not like that. Following the logic of the parallel, we can decipher that Boromir wasn't really like that either.
Anyway, yes, this is absolutely Defend Boromir's Character propaganda, and I unashamedly own that. 😄
