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Book 4, Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Two Towers, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Decline and Decay
Good and Evil
Duty
Joy and Optimism vs. Despair
Power
Heroism, Honor, and Glory
Summary
Analysis
As Gollum leads Sam and Frodo to a narrow gully that heads towards the marshes, he sings a song about the harshness of the land and the riddles he once told Bilbo. Sam, meanwhile, worries about the problem of food, now that Frodo has adopted Gollum as their guide. He wonders how Gollum has been feeding himself, and guesses, from the sight of him, that he hasn’t been feeding himself well. Sam imagines that Gollum might try to eat one of them if food gets scarce and resolves not to let his guard down.
Though Frodo carries the burden of the Ring and has now taken on the responsibility of Gollum as well, it’s Sam who has to consider the practical aspects of traveling through a barren land. Gollum becomes an extra burden for Sam, who has to worry about him hurting Frodo and eating their dwindling supply of food.
Themes
Near sunrise, Gollum leads them to a hiding place in the gully to hide from orcs during the daylight and eat something. Gollum doesn’t like the taste of the lembas, which smells like the elves and chokes him when he tries a bite, and complains that he’ll starve. Sam thinks it tastes better now that he knows Gollum hates it. Sam intends to keep watch while Frodo sleeps, though Frodo doesn’t think it’s necessary. But Sam accidentally falls asleep until dusk.
Just as he hates elven rope, Gollum hates elven bread. He can no longer eat cooked or processed foods, preferring raw meat and fish instead. This suggests that he’s cut himself off from the good things of ordinary life. His hatred of the lembas also implies his rejection of its properties of physical restoration and spiritual renewal. Sam pays more attention to the taste and its effects, pleased that the lembas separates himself and Frodo—still able to recognize and enjoy good things—from Gollum.
Themes
When they wake, Gollum is gone, and Sam feels a little bad for assuming Gollum would try to hurt them at the first opportunity. Gollum reappears to tell Sam that he’s going to find food, waking Frodo up. Frodo tells Sam not to feel bad for falling asleep on watch and assures him that Gollum will come back—he won’t leave the Ring any time soon.
When Gollum doesn’t take the first opportunity to kill them and steal the ring, Sam—suspicious of any threat to Frodo, yet usually kind—begins to feel remorseful that he was so harsh with Gollum. He seems to have the most pity for Gollum when he’s not actually there; as soon as Sam has to deal with Gollum firsthand, the feeling fades.
Themes
The hobbits don’t know how long their task will take them, but it seems likely that they won’t have enough food to return after they reach Mordor. They only have enough lembas to last about three weeks. Frodo, calling Sam his “dearest hobbit,” admits that he doesn’t think they’ll survive to need food after reaching Mount Doom and completing their quest. Just getting there already feels like too much for him. Sam takes Frodo’s hand and cries over it.
The narrator conveys Frodo’s inner turmoil primarily through Sam’s observations of Frodo and their conversations. Rather than hoping for the best, Frodo doubts his abilities and prepares for the worst. Hope, as proven already by the Three Hunters and the battle of Helm’s Deep, is a powerful motivator—one that Frodo has lost somewhere along the road to Mordor.
Themes
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Gollum, covered in mud and chewing on something, returns to lead them on down the gully, which shallows out as they go. On their third night with Gollum, they reach a stretch of marshes with the mountains of Mordor looming in the distance, and set out across them in the dim morning, since the only other way to the mountain is watched carefully by Sauron. They walk in single file, following Gollum through the maze of pools, and Frodo lags behind often in his exhaustion. The walk is slow and wearisome, with Gollum stopping them frequently to test the stability of the ground.
Frodo’s physical exhaustion is tied to his internal struggle. While traveling, he must also contend with the Ring’s influence and his own despair about what he thinks is his imminent death. Much of this internal struggle is invisible, noticeable only when he mentions it to Sam and when it’s expressed through his listlessness and trouble keeping up with his companions.
Themes
In the dark, the hobbits keep close to Gollum, and Sam begins to see wisps of light over the marshes. Finally, after the lights have surrounded them, he asks Gollum what they are. Gollum calls them “candles of corpses” and warns Sam not to look at them or follow them. Realizing Frodo has lagged behind again, Sam goes to fetch him and finds him standing stiffly, staring at the lights, his hands covered in water and slime. Frodo seems as though he’s returned from a dream when Sam urges him away from the lights, but on their way back to Gollum, Sam trips and plunges his hands into the water. He falls back away from the water, crying that there are “dead things, dead faces” in the water. When Sam asks who the faces are, Frodo answers that he doesn’t know, but he’s seen them—Men, Elves, and Orcs, all dead and rotten.
Like the Ring and the palantíri, the lights above the marshes seek to steer them away from their path and tempt them towards some evil end. Frodo, lethargic and hopeless, seems almost to fit in with the corpses in the water. He isn’t startled by them as Sam is, but reaches his hands towards them, emphasizing both his vulnerability to seductive influence—since he’s also fighting off the corrupting power of the Ring—and his growing weariness. Sam, as ever, is his guide away from danger, but even Sam can only do so much to save him from the internal strife that’s turning him slowly corpse-like.
Themes
Gollum explains that there was once a great battle on the Dead Marshes. Sam argues that the battle was an age ago, so the bodies can’t actually still be there. Gollum doesn’t know how to explain it, and adds that he once tried to swim down to the corpses and couldn’t actually touch them. Sam glares at him, guessing that Gollum wanted to eat the bodies. They walk on, trying to ignore the lights, sometimes crawling as Gollum does to get through difficult patches of mud. Sam thinks they’ll turn into three “little Gollums in a row” if they spend much longer in the marshes.
The Dead Marshes are a wound left on Middle-earth from the conflicts of the people who inhabited it. Though the battle was many generations ago, the Dead Marshes haven’t healed. The candles still lure people down and the bodies are still in the water. The fact that Gollum can’t actually touch the bodies implies that the harm and pollution done to Middle-earth is spiritual as well as physical. Though the allied Free Peoples seek to stop the decline of Middle-earth, and some wish to restore it, the Dead Marshes indicate that such a feat may not always be possible.
Themes
Late that night, they come to the end of the marshes and reach solid ground. Gollum urges them to press on to keep Frodo away from the lights, and smells something in the air that makes him uneasy. All three of them hear a high-pitched cry from far away and the lights on the marshes go out. By the light of the moon, they see a black winged shape emerge from Mordor, passing low over them and then returning to Mordor. Gollum lies cowering, crying that the wraiths see everything. He refuses to move again until the moon goes down.
Travel through the lands surrounding Mordor means the constant threat of surveillance by the enemy. Gollum and the hobbits avoid all light, making them more difficult to spot, but also robbing them of the fortifying power of daylight. Gollum’s fear and hatred of the sun and moon are similar to his hatred of the lembas; things that bring others joy and peace of mind are repellent to him.
Themes
Sam notices another change in Gollum—he’s still fawning, but he returns to his old speech patterns and looks strangely at Frodo. Frodo, meanwhile, is worrisomely weary, hardly speaking, and walking as though the burden of the Ring grows heavier the closer they get to Mordor. He is also troubled by the Eye, the sense of a hostile presence that seeks to find him and pin him down. Gollum probably feels some similar weight, a combination of the heaviness of the Eye, his desire for the Ring, and his promise to Frodo.
Frodo is weighed down both by the Ring and the very land they pass through. Sauron’s search for them, even while unsuccessful, is a mental strain on Frodo. Frodo’s environment, corrupted by Sauron, seeks to wear him down in a way that makes him more susceptible to the influence of the Ring and thus more vulnerable to capture. Gollum feels similar internal turmoil, but his is more obvious, expressed through his speech and mannerisms.
Themes
Sam is so concerned for Frodo that he hardly feels the darkness of Mordor weighing on him. He devotes himself to watching over Frodo and encouraging him “with clumsy words.”
Sam’s love for Frodo and his dedication to his duty consume him so entirely that he fails to notice the oppressive force surrounding him. His devotion provides him with the emotional resilience to remain optimistic and share that hope with Frodo.
Themes
In the daytime, they hide under the cover of rocks, and for the next two nights they press on towards the mountains through the stinking air. On their fifth morning with Gollum, they reach the hills at the foot of the mountains of Mordor, where nothing lives or grows. Frodo finds the land more awful even than the Dead Marshes.
As they grow closer to Mordor, the land, previously polluted and corrupted, becomes dead. They’ve entered a completely barren land that supports no life at all, a visual reminder to Frodo that he, too, will likely die there, at the hands of the same corrupting power.
Themes
They try to rest for the day, the hobbits taking turns watching and sleeping. Sam wakes up to find Frodo asleep and Gollum having a conversation with himself, arguing in two voices. One side of him, called Sméagol, wants to be loyal to Frodo, and the other side, called Gollum, wants to take the Ring. Gollum argues that they promised Frodo not to let Sauron have the Ring, but Frodo is carrying the Ring towards Sauron.
The world of Middle-earth is split in a conflict between the forces of good and evil that rages both on battlefields and in individuals. Gollum’s internal battle manifests as an audible argument between his two opposing personalities, which have fundamentally conflicting ideas about morality, power, and desire.
Themes
Sméagol’s primary argument against Gollum is that he promised to be good to Frodo, who is kind to him. Gollum tries to console Sméagol, saying that they can still be good, both to Frodo and themselves. One moment, Gollum assures Sméagol that they don’t have to hurt Frodo if they don’t want to, and the next, he insists that they have to hate all Bagginses and anyone who holds the Ring. Gollum tries to cajole Sméagol into taking the Ring and keeping it safe from both Frodo and Sauron. With the power of the Ring, they can protect themselves, or become “Gollum the Great” and eat fish every day.
Sméagol, childlike and trusting, has a number of reasons to remain loyal to Frodo. He wants the Ring desperately, but he doesn’t want to break his promise to Frodo to take it. Gollum, the representative of the Ring’s corruption, twists those arguments however he can to achieve his goal. Gollum’s arguments are disjointed, reflecting the breakdown he’s suffered from long years of inner conflict—he threatens and bribes Sméagol in turns.
Themes
Sméagol whines that there are two hobbits, so if he tries to take the Ring, they’ll overpower him. Gollum, like a child, repeatedly insists that he wants the Ring, no matter the obstacles or consequences. When Gollum then wonders aloud if an unnamed “She” might help him, Sméagol vehemently protests. Gollum shouts again that he wants the Ring, and each time he speaks, he reaches his fingers towards Frodo’s neck.
Sméagol’s principles begin to break down under pressure; he no longer argues that taking the Ring is wrong, only that it’s difficult. Gollum is a being of pure desire. Impatient with Sméagol and running out of bribes, he resorts to a tantrum about his “wants.” Though Gollum doesn’t explain who “She” is, Sméagol’s response—and the fact that “She” would help Gollum take the Ring—indicates her fearsomeness and danger. Sméagol, it seems, really doesn’t want Frodo harmed.
Themes
Sam, secretly watching, realizes that Gollum’s desire isn’t as simple as ordinary hunger. He doesn’t want to eat them, as Sam had assumed. Instead, he feels the pull of the Ring. Sam wonders who the “She” Gollum mentioned is. Something tells Sam that he shouldn’t let Gollum know that he heard his plans, so he sits up and yawns, asking for the time as though just waking up. Gollum is tense for a moment, hissing, then falls back into his fawning act and says that it’s time to go. Sam curses him silently and wonders if Gollum isn’t just as dangerous traveling with them as he would be let loose in Mordor.
The hobbits’ journey towards Mordor reveals the deep connection between the mind and the body. While dealing with internal conflict, Gollum actually alters his voice and mannerisms. Sam, relatively unfamiliar with the mental temptation of the Ring, mistakes Gollum’s desire for a physical feeling—mere hunger. As they travel, weariness contributes to depression, and depression contributes to weariness. The lands around Mordor place strain on the whole person, body and mind—another reason why Sam recognizes Gollum’s cheerful fawning act as so obviously false.
Themes
Frodo wakes up refreshed by pleasant dreams, and Gollum greets him with “doglike delight.” Frodo promises that if Gollum takes them to the Black Gate, Frodo will let him go free. Gollum promises to get them there but doesn’t seem to think that’s where he’ll part with Frodo. Through the night, as they travel, the winged shapes fly out of Mordor three times, sensing the Ring. Gollum pleads with the hobbits not to continue towards the gate and refuses to move until Frodo threatens him with Sting again.
While Gollum allows Frodo to carry the Ring for now, he’ll do anything to keep Sauron from getting it. Ominously, his hesitation about continuing towards the gate and his insistence that his journey won’t end there implies that he has some plan for preventing Frodo from actually crossing into Mordor with the Ring.
Themes
