Most of us consider Sméagol (gollum) as an evil character and tend to hate him at one point or another. But we really need to understand what that character is all about. What exactly he has gone through.. This is how I understand Sméagol -
Now, its very difficult to defend him n say he was not evil because it all starts with him murdering Déagol... But consider this, Sméagol as we know was a son of a thief (as mentioned in tolkien letters), a mean son of a thief.. And you know how mean people behave.. they don't care as long as they are getting what they want.. So it is possible that ring affected gollum so much so that he ended up killing Déagol. Its not entirely his fault then, is it?
Ok lets assume that ring didn't affect him at all.. It was all by himself. But after that he spend not just 13-14 years but 500+ years alone..
What happened in those 500 years? Quoting FoTR -
The murder of Déagol haunted Gollum, and he made up a defence, repeating it to his "precious" over and over again, as he gnawed bones in the dark, until he almost believed it. It was his birthday. Déagol ought to have given the ring to him. It had previously turned up just so as to be a present. It was his birthday present, and so on, and on.
I guess I'll call him 'clean' after these many years.. evilness percentage back to 0.
In the hobbit book, in revised edition, tolkein made him nasty n dark.. previously he was not like that.. In previous edition he was more like how peter jackson has pictured it.. not exactly evil.. not exactly charming helping personality either.. I guess that's how he was after those 500 years..
Now.. consider a situation, your father stole something from me and gave it to you. You know that, I know that. I want it back. So why am I the evil person here? There was nothing wrong of Sméagol for wanting the ring back.. I probably would have done the same thing...
So Sméagol tries to get it back. Frodo and Sam capture him. Sam suggests to kill him. Frodo says 'no.. lets use him as a guide instead..' (wow! very noble of him)
Still Sméagol agrees. He had no choice anyways.. Frodo says "Its the only way.."
Sméagol must be thinking "dude, I kept it secret for more than 500 years nothing happened.. now you showed it to the Sauron n now everybody's at war"
Anyways, Sméagol keeps the promise n shows him road to the black gate, stops him from going through the gate (really pointless n ridiculous idea) and tells him that there's another way..
At this point Sméagol must be like - "Wtf?? They stole the ring from me. and why am I at their mercy? And why am I showing them road where they can destroy the ring they stole from me? Chuck it! I want the ring back.. one way or another.."
Here gollum tries to I'll not say 'kill Frodo', I'll say 'get back the ring from frodo'...
And it was actually his right to do so.. He fails..
Then Sméagol waits till they both come to mount doom. Frodo Cries "The Ring Is Mine.. m not gonna destroy it.." Imagine what Sméagol must have thought that time -
"W0ot!! Dude, you told me My ring must be destroyed so I can't have it.. so I showed you the path.. now you say its mine? WTF! Give it back to me"
n So they fight and you know the end..
Here, at any point, I don't think he's nasty or you know, evil for no particular reason..
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Side note: I agree with people who think Gollum is kinda like a warning to Frodo. Gollum was created for showing frodo what he could become if he has the ring for too long..
