Fellowship Of The Ring Corruption Research Paper

Corruption, having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money, wealth, or personal gain. In modern society corruption can be seen across the globe, whether it be a respected politician or a wealthy business owner, corruption is everywhere. Corruption mainly occurs because of lust for power or lust to maintain complete control of a certain object or an organization. Corruption is the main theme in many famous books of literature such as, "The Fellowship of the Ring" written by J.R.R Tolkien in 1954. The theme power corrupts is reflected in The Fellowship of the Rings through the ring's ability to corrupt the wearer and cause them to murder innocent people to maintain the power created by the ring.

In the novel, "The Fellowship of the Ring" written by J.R.R Tolkien, the main article

of corruption that is seen through out the novel is The Ring. The Ring is a simply gold ring that will grant the wearer endless amounts of power to the wearer, but at a price of there humanity. Sadly, any person that wears the Ring will become corrupt and do anything to maintain its power. After being created by the Dark Lord Sauron, the Ring started showing that it had a will of its own and used the wearer as a tool. As said by Gandalf the gray, a power wizard of the shire, "And the ring of power has a will of its own. It betrayed Isildur, to his death. And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge. Until, when chance came, the ring ensnared a new bearer. The ring came to the creature Gollum, who took it deep into the tunnels under the Misty Mountains, and there it consumed him." (Tolkien, 1954 p 157) Shown by the betrayal of Isildur, the Ring has a will of its own and doesn't care about the wearer and uses them to complete the Ring terrible actions. Ultimately, the Ring gives the wearer complete power and the ability to do good with it, but because of the Ring's will of darkness and wickedness and causes the wearer to become corrupt and discards the idea of doing something good with there power.
Another example of corruption shown in the novel, "The Fellowship of the Ring" is the actions and deeds committed by Smeagol or Gollum. In the novel a hobbit and his best friend set out to map out and discover the caves under the misty mountains. Smeagol and his best friend Deagol, set out to complete their adventure, until Deagol discovers a golden ring hidden under a fallen rock inside the cave. Later that day Deagol shows Smeagol the Ring and tells him the strange affects it had on him when he put it on. After hearing this words the Ring spoken to Smeagol and making started to make Smeagol lose his mind. After this Smeagol attacked Deagol, "Oh, you are indeed, my love," said Smeagol; and he caught Deagol by the throat and strangled him, because the gold looked so bright and beautiful. Then he put the ring on his finger.(Tolkien, 1954, p. 58) The ring possessed Smeagol to murder his best friend in order to obtain the power of the ring. Because of the sadistic actions of Smeagol to obtain and maintain his power, he became corrupt and murdered his best friend in cold blood to keep the Ring. Overall, the Ring corrupted Smeagal because it need a weak minded host that would become corrupt just as the Ring desired.
The final example of corruption within the novel, "The Fellowship of the Ring" is the Dark Lord Sauron.

Lord Sauron was a powerful ruler of the dark army and created the ring with the help of the foolish elves to create the One Ring that would rule over the Rings created by the elves. Sauron did this to have complete control of the world because the One Ring gave the wearer unimaginable power and because Sauron was evil and was hiding his true motives for creating the ring, the world wouldn't be able to stop him. After creating the Ring, Sauron chanted an elvish incantation to give the ring its power. Gandalf the Gray, re-tells the story of this to Frodo before reaching the elvish castle, "For in the day that Sauron flirt put on the One, Celebrimor, maker of the Three, was aware of him, and from afar he heard him speak these words,many so his evil purposes were revealed." (Tolkien, 1954, p 284) Sauron hid his corrupt and misguided plan to run the shire and later the world, by simply telling everyone his rings would help bring good to the world. Ultimately, supporting the theme of corruption by showing Sauron's dark, misguided, and corrupt desires to rule the

world.
Corruption plays a massive role in many famous pieces of literature such as "The Lord of the Rings" and can be seen across the globe within our own world. The main sign of corruption in literature and the real world is trying to maintain power by manipulating people or doing illegal actions such as murder to stay in power. In the novel "The Lord of the Rings" corruption is shown by many characters in the fact of manipulating and taking the lives of innocent people to maintain power. Though, many of the forms of the corruption is created by wearing the Ring and its will to do evil, the wearer are corrupted in the sense of using their power to maintain their power. Overall, supporting the fact that a main theme in the novel "The Lord of the Rings" is corruption because of the terrible acts to innocent people to maintain the power the Ring grants the wearer.