The theme of addiction to power in The Lord of the Rings is central, as the Ring, made by the Dark Lord Sauron to enable him to take over the whole of Middle-earth, progressively corrupts the mind of its owner to use the Ring for evil.
The corrupting power of the Ring has been compared to the Ring of Gyges in Plato's Republic, which gave the power of invisibility and so tempted its owner, but there is no evidence that Tolkien modelled The Lord of the Rings on that story. Scholars such as Tom Shippey consider the theme to be modern, since in earlier times, power was considered to reveal character, not to alter it, recalling the English politician Lord Acton's 1887 statement that "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely".
The corrupting effect of power in the book is not limited to the Ring. Sauron was already corrupted when he chose to put much of his power into the Ring to gain further control of Middle-earth. Some other characters are of an earlier time, and are unaffected by the Ring; the giant spider Shelob is unquestionably evil but uninterested in the Ring. The Wizard Saruman turns to evil and is wholly corrupted, lured by pride and power, but never gets the Ring.
Tolkien uses the Ring to illuminate the moral choices made by each character. Sméagol kills his friend Déagol to gain the Ring, and is corrupted by it, becoming wholly miserable as the creature Gollum. The virtuous warrior Boromir is seduced by the idea of using the Ring for good, and dies as a result. The Elf-lady Galadriel is greatly tempted, but rejects all use of the Ring. The Hobbit Frodo Baggins contends bravely with the Ring but is taken over by it, whereas his companion Samwise Gamgee is saved by his love for Frodo, and his simple good sense.
The Ring and power
In the narrative
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy work The Lord of the Rings, the One Ring was forged by the Dark Lord Sauron in the fires of Mount Doom during the Second Age to gain dominion over peoples of Middle-earth. He intended it to control those who wore any of the other Rings of Power. Since they were powerful, he had to put much of his own power as a Maia, a supernatural being, into the Ring to achieve this.
When the Stoorish Hobbit Sméagol saw the Ring that his friend Déagol had found in the River Anduin, he killed Déagol to get it, and used the Ring's power of invisibility:
The wizard Gandalf explains that Gollum was wholly corrupted by and addicted to the Ring:
The Ring's effects
A major theme is the corrupting influence of the Ring through the power it offers, especially to those already powerful. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey notes Gandalf's statements about the power and influence of the One Ring in "The Shadow of the Past", and the corrupting influence it has on its bearers. Gandalf rejects the Ring for this reason when Frodo offers it to him; this view of the Ring is reinforced as Elrond, Galadriel, Aragorn, and Faramir in their turn also reject it, fearing that it would overpower them as well. Inversely, the hobbits' good-naturedness and lack of ambition makes them less susceptible to the Ring's promises of power, as in Frodo and Samwise Gamgee, who are able to handle the Ring for extended periods of time. Hobbits are not totally immune to the Ring's effects, however, as shown by the changes it works in Frodo, Bilbo and Gollum. On the other hand, Boromir becomes obsessed with the Ring, but never possesses it, while Sméagol kills his kin Déagol, the first Ring bearer after Isildur, to obtain it.
Gollum and Saruman differ from the other characters in submitting willingly to an evil power; the effect, according to the scholar Patricia Spacks, is of gradual destruction, even when the character starts out mainly virtuous. Saruman's case shows, she writes, that "pride and the lust for power", as he strives to get the Ring and to be powerful like Sauron, are enough to destroy him even though he never gets the Ring. When Gandalf comes to the ruins of Isengard to meet Saruman, and offers him freedom in place of slavery to Sauron, Saruman is too thoroughly corrupted to be able to choose any longer. As for Gollum, he is "a far more pitiable creature" as the Ring has taken him from a basically amoral position to one of evil. When Frodo suggests Gollum is not totally evil, Faramir replies "Not wholly, perhaps, but malice eats it like a canker, and the evil is growing".