I was trying to complete an insightful review on The Lord of the Rings (film) trilogy, but it seems too long to finish. So why not just write short critical reviews on some crucial roles in the film series first?
Gollum, originally known as Smeagol, once went fishing with his relative Deagol in the Gladden Fields on his birthday. There fishes pulled Deagol into the water, but he found the Ring lying on the bed and then grabs it. When he came out of the river, Smeagol demanded it as his birthday present. Refused by Deagol, Smeagol seemed to fall under the spell of the Ring and crazily scrambled for it. As the story went, Smeagol killed Deagol and won it.
The One Ring was forged by the Dark Lord Sauron in Mount Doom during the Second Age, helping Sauron control over the power of all the other rings. It looked plain and usual, but when heated its inscription appears: “One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them”. And The Ring would extend the life of its bearer by preventing natural aging, meanwhile it corrupted the body and mind of its bearer.
Accordingly the One Ring made Smeagol be Gollum - He was naive and happy as a Hobbit. But while owning the Ring he gradually became poor, old and listless. he called the Ring “My precious”, which invited so many effects.
Gollum kept the Ring for 500 years until Bilbo Baggins found the Ring and took it for his own. In the rest of Gollum’s life, he never stopped his pursuit for it, for which I tend to believe that the reason is because of the Ring corrupting him rather than his love for it - When Frodo made up his mind not to destroy the Ring but puts it in his finger, Gollum found Frodo invisible and climbed on Frodo’s invisible body and took the Ring madly from Frodo’s finger. Even he fell from the cliff of Mount Doom but still held it in his hand.
However, Gollum as a Hobbit was not corrupted completely by the Ring before Bilbo took it - despite his possession over 500 years, Hobbits are resistant to the process of corruption, therefore, he had dual personality - Good Smeagol and bad Gollum - Which always tormented him, especially at night.
Above all, Gollum is a pathetic role in the Lord of the Rings series. He could not go back to his hometown but relied on the Ring. I previously thought it was greed that makes him so sad, but turns out it is the Ring. So I learned that one can not just judge a thing before one understands everything one ought to know.