How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph).
Quote #7
In fact with every step towards the gates of Mordor Frodo felt the Ring on its chain about his neck grow more burdensome. He was now beginning to feel it as an actual weight dragging him earthwards. But far more he was troubled by the Eye: so he called it himself. It was that more than the drag of the Ring that made him cower and stoop as he walked. The Eye: that horrible sense of a hostile will that strove with great power to pierce all shadows of cloud, and earth, and flesh, and to see you: to pin you under its deadly gaze, naked, immovable. So thin, so frail and thin, the veils were become that still warded it off. Frodo knew just where the present habitation and heart of that will now was: as certainly as a man can tell the direction of the sun with his eyes shut. He was facing it, and its potency beat upon his brow. (4.2.82)
All right folks, things are pretty dire, and we're still only in The Two Towers. This cannot be good. What kind of shape is he going to be in when Frodo gets to the end of his quest in The Return of the King? In this passage, Tolkien uses his descriptions of the setting to evoke the horrible pain that Frodo is going through as a result of the Ring, and to great effect. When Tolkien describes the Eye of Sauron, he suddenly switches from "Frodo" and "he" to "you," as though he is addressing this "deadly gaze, naked, immovable" to you the reader. Yikes. You might want to run for cover.
Quote #8
It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would really rather have stayed there in peace—(4.4.99)
Because Sam is essentially kind, and also because he's growing wiser, he immediately wonders about the motivation that brought the dead Southron to this terrible place. In other words, just because these men are fighting under Sauron's banners doesn't mean that they are not human, with their own pain and difficulty and past behind them. Sam can sympathize with their suffering, even though they are on the wrong side. For more about moral ambiguity and suffering, check out our "Character Analysis" of the Southrons.
Quote #9
Even as these thoughts pierced [Frodo] with dread and held him bound as with a spell, the Rider halted suddenly, right before the entrance of the bridge [from Minas Morgul], and behind him all the host stood still. There was a pause, a dead silence. Maybe it was the Ring that called to the Wraith-lord, and for a moment he was troubled, sensing some other power within his valley. This way and that turned the dark head helmed and crowned with fear, sweeping the shadows with its unseen eyes. Frodo waited, like a bird at the approach of a snake, unable to move. And as he waited, he felt, more urgent than ever before, the command that he should put on the Ring. But great as the pressure was, he felt no inclination now to yield to it. He knew that the Ring would only betray him, and that he had not, even if he put it on, the power to face the Morgul king—not yet. There was no longer any answer to that command in his own will, dismayed by terror though it was, and he felt only the beating upon him of a great power from outside. (4.8.22)
Frodo really doesn't want to slip that ring on his finger, because he knows "that he had not, even if he put it on, the power to face the Morgul king—not yet." That "not yet" is really interesting, there, because it suggests that somewhere inside of him, Frodo imagines that he might someday have the power to face the Morgul king with the Ring. That means the Ring is still subtly changing his mind, maybe without Frodo's being aware. He is starting to think of the potential power the Ring could bring him. This "not yet" is a tiny hint foreshadowing the coming conflicts of The Return of the King, so stay tuned Shmoopers.