Boromir refers to the end of
The Fellowship of the Ring when, tempted by the Ring’s influence, he tried to take the Ring from Frodo to use in battle to protect Gondor and bring himself glory. Boromir recognizes that his actions were a betrayal of the Fellowship—whose goal is to destroy the Ring—and everything it stands for. Still, his efforts to defend the hobbits, as well as his own regret, reveal that he hasn’t been wholly corrupted by the Ring. He isn’t motivated by the promise of glory in protecting Merry and Pippin, but rather by simple necessity and generosity. Boromir complicates the relatively straightforward morality of Middle-earth, in which the forces of good join together to oppose the forces of evil. Neither wholly good nor wholly evil, Boromir’s flaws and mistakes reveal the moral conflict that occurs within individuals.