WHY GRÍMA WORMTONGUE IS NOT EVIL
All of us who have read and are familiar with JRR Tolkiens masterpiece of a trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, will undoubtedly know of a character (First introduced in the second volume of the three-The Two Towers) of the name of Gríma Wormtongue.
We know of his treachery against the kingdom of Rohan and its King, Théoden. We also know of his so called "obsession", with the King's niece, Éowyn. Éowyn is a Shield-Maiden of Rohan and so she is strong-willed in mind and also when wielding a sword or blade.
No one really knows what happened in Gríma's past, for Tolkien never mentions it. Therefore we are forced to make our own assumptions about his childhood. My personal (and quite widely shared) opinion is that he was picked on and bullied from quite an early age. He could have been picked on from a number of different angles, but most likely it was his unusual, and somewhat startling appearance.
Because of this he would have shown a couple of different sides to his personality. These would have been not only self-consciousness, but also he would have developed a very sharp mind and the ability to think ahead of people. Many years later when he was in early adult years, Gríma took up the post of King Théoden's advisor and counsellor. Life would have not improved at Edoras for Wormtongue. He would have become too used to his changed personality, to go back to being what he once was. His hostility towards the race of men, because of his childhood, would therefore drive people away from him, rather than convincing them to engage in a friendship with him. The enmity that is continually shown to Gríma; by the people of Rohan, will have only deepened his hatred of them even more. Because of this, Gríma will have gradually sunk into himself and will not let anyone into his life, for fear that they will only despise, hurt and reject him, as everyone else has done to him in his past.
The main pivotal point of his treachery however is, (as I have already mentioned) the King's beautiful niece-Éowyn. Gríma appears to be obsessed with Éowyn, but in truth he is stuck in a vicious circle. Gríma is in love with Éowyn, she despises him, so he tries countless times (in vain) to make her at least like him. But the more he tries, the more she pushes him away, and so the more she pushes him away, the more he tries and so on. Therefore he ends up falling into a state of hopelessness where he feels that any other life is better than the one he has now. Eventually he realises that he cannot have her, this is until Saruman "promises" if he (Gríma) helps to destroy the world of men, then he will give Gríma; Éowyn, as his prize. So Gríma, now having no one else in the world, cannot see another path to take and so sides with Saruman and therefore, slips into a state where he is seen as evil, because of his decisions. This is where we, as the readers can often trip up in casting him in the role of "bad-guy" and ultimately "completely evil", without consideration to his previous decisions, that were, in a way made for him by people such as Éowyn and Éomer. His banishment from Edoras is really the last straw. He runs to Isengard, and to Saruman; and again, we as the readers can wrongly condemn him for this decision without properly looking at all the facts. Because of his childhood, he has no "long-known" friends to turn to. Éowyn and Rohan have rejected him and so he can't even turn to his own people for aid. Therefore there is only one person left, in the whole of Middle-Earth that he has left to turn to-Saruman. Any hope of the redemption he might have had if he had had even a single friend to help him, is all washed away now that he has returned to the one person, whom he obviously didn't wish to. Hence the quote in The Return of the King: "Poor old Gríma! Poor old Gríma! Always beaten and cursed. How I hate him! I wish I could leave him!"- Gríma Wormtongue: Ch:Many Partings. p262 in Harper Collins Edition.
This all proves that if a single person had accepted and pitied him, it would be more likely that he would have gone to them, instead of to Saruman. Gríma seems though to eventually realise (In The Scouring of the Shire) that evil is not the only way. He realises ling before that, however that Saruman is not really going to save Éowyn for him. He will let he die, along with all her people and this is probably one of the major wires in the circuit that made Gríma finally snap and kill Saruman. The hobbits that end up killing Gríma, (in my opinion) represent those readers that stick him in the "evil guy" role and refuse to let him see forgiveness.
"Before Frodo could recover or speak a word, three hobbit bows twanged, and Wormtongue fell dead."
CONCLUSION: Although there are many aspects in Gríma Wormtongue's nature that may make us want to criticise him for, it all boils down to the fact that his biggest threat was his lack of friends. Because of his history of being bullied (In my opinion) It provided him with a sad sense that nobody would ever care about him, or want to accept or love him, and because of this, he became his own worst enemy. If we are adamant in casting him as "bad-guy" or "evil-guy", then we must also cast those such as Frodo, Boromir, Faramir, Gollum etc in the same role. They were all corrupted at some point by the power of the One Ring, as was Gríma Wormtongue. It was, after all, the Ring that swayed Saruman from the good side into evil, and it was the same cause that swayed Wormtongue to Saruman: the thought of power and of owning something he could never have (In Gríma's case; this is Éowyn). "There is only one Lord of the Ring, only one, and he does not share power" Gandalf the Grey:The Fellowship of the Ring movie-"Atop Orthanc."
This all shows that Gríma is not "evil" as we may have originally thought, but instead he is a misunderstood man who if only he had someone who cared for him, all the events that happened to men in The War of the Ring, may not have occurred. "You were once a man of Rohan.." For it was Gríma that told of the only weakness of Helm's Deep, but it was also Gríma who disposed of the Palantír. It is not really Gríma Wormtongue's fault that what happened, did, but on the contrary it is the people of Rohan's fault. They treated Gríma, for the whole of his life, as though he was something unpleasant on their shoe and so Gríma spent his whole life believing that nobody cared about him. So when it came to the crunch, when all he needed and wanted was a friend, there was no one willing to help him.
All of us who have read and are familiar with JRR Tolkiens masterpiece of a trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, will undoubtedly know of a character (First introduced in the second volume of the three-The Two Towers) of the name of Gríma Wormtongue.
We know of his treachery against the kingdom of Rohan and its King, Théoden. We also know of his so called "obsession", with the King's niece, Éowyn. Éowyn is a Shield-Maiden of Rohan and so she is strong-willed in mind and also when wielding a sword or blade.
No one really knows what happened in Gríma's past, for Tolkien never mentions it. Therefore we are forced to make our own assumptions about his childhood. My personal (and quite widely shared) opinion is that he was picked on and bullied from quite an early age. He could have been picked on from a number of different angles, but most likely it was his unusual, and somewhat startling appearance.
Because of this he would have shown a couple of different sides to his personality. These would have been not only self-consciousness, but also he would have developed a very sharp mind and the ability to think ahead of people. Many years later when he was in early adult years, Gríma took up the post of King Théoden's advisor and counsellor. Life would have not improved at Edoras for Wormtongue. He would have become too used to his changed personality, to go back to being what he once was. His hostility towards the race of men, because of his childhood, would therefore drive people away from him, rather than convincing them to engage in a friendship with him. The enmity that is continually shown to Gríma; by the people of Rohan, will have only deepened his hatred of them even more. Because of this, Gríma will have gradually sunk into himself and will not let anyone into his life, for fear that they will only despise, hurt and reject him, as everyone else has done to him in his past.
The main pivotal point of his treachery however is, (as I have already mentioned) the King's beautiful niece-Éowyn. Gríma appears to be obsessed with Éowyn, but in truth he is stuck in a vicious circle. Gríma is in love with Éowyn, she despises him, so he tries countless times (in vain) to make her at least like him. But the more he tries, the more she pushes him away, and so the more she pushes him away, the more he tries and so on. Therefore he ends up falling into a state of hopelessness where he feels that any other life is better than the one he has now. Eventually he realises that he cannot have her, this is until Saruman "promises" if he (Gríma) helps to destroy the world of men, then he will give Gríma; Éowyn, as his prize. So Gríma, now having no one else in the world, cannot see another path to take and so sides with Saruman and therefore, slips into a state where he is seen as evil, because of his decisions. This is where we, as the readers can often trip up in casting him in the role of "bad-guy" and ultimately "completely evil", without consideration to his previous decisions, that were, in a way made for him by people such as Éowyn and Éomer. His banishment from Edoras is really the last straw. He runs to Isengard, and to Saruman; and again, we as the readers can wrongly condemn him for this decision without properly looking at all the facts. Because of his childhood, he has no "long-known" friends to turn to. Éowyn and Rohan have rejected him and so he can't even turn to his own people for aid. Therefore there is only one person left, in the whole of Middle-Earth that he has left to turn to-Saruman. Any hope of the redemption he might have had if he had had even a single friend to help him, is all washed away now that he has returned to the one person, whom he obviously didn't wish to. Hence the quote in The Return of the King: "Poor old Gríma! Poor old Gríma! Always beaten and cursed. How I hate him! I wish I could leave him!"- Gríma Wormtongue: Ch:Many Partings. p262 in Harper Collins Edition.
This all proves that if a single person had accepted and pitied him, it would be more likely that he would have gone to them, instead of to Saruman. Gríma seems though to eventually realise (In The Scouring of the Shire) that evil is not the only way. He realises ling before that, however that Saruman is not really going to save Éowyn for him. He will let he die, along with all her people and this is probably one of the major wires in the circuit that made Gríma finally snap and kill Saruman. The hobbits that end up killing Gríma, (in my opinion) represent those readers that stick him in the "evil guy" role and refuse to let him see forgiveness.
"Before Frodo could recover or speak a word, three hobbit bows twanged, and Wormtongue fell dead."
CONCLUSION: Although there are many aspects in Gríma Wormtongue's nature that may make us want to criticise him for, it all boils down to the fact that his biggest threat was his lack of friends. Because of his history of being bullied (In my opinion) It provided him with a sad sense that nobody would ever care about him, or want to accept or love him, and because of this, he became his own worst enemy. If we are adamant in casting him as "bad-guy" or "evil-guy", then we must also cast those such as Frodo, Boromir, Faramir, Gollum etc in the same role. They were all corrupted at some point by the power of the One Ring, as was Gríma Wormtongue. It was, after all, the Ring that swayed Saruman from the good side into evil, and it was the same cause that swayed Wormtongue to Saruman: the thought of power and of owning something he could never have (In Gríma's case; this is Éowyn). "There is only one Lord of the Ring, only one, and he does not share power" Gandalf the Grey:The Fellowship of the Ring movie-"Atop Orthanc."
This all shows that Gríma is not "evil" as we may have originally thought, but instead he is a misunderstood man who if only he had someone who cared for him, all the events that happened to men in The War of the Ring, may not have occurred. "You were once a man of Rohan.." For it was Gríma that told of the only weakness of Helm's Deep, but it was also Gríma who disposed of the Palantír. It is not really Gríma Wormtongue's fault that what happened, did, but on the contrary it is the people of Rohan's fault. They treated Gríma, for the whole of his life, as though he was something unpleasant on their shoe and so Gríma spent his whole life believing that nobody cared about him. So when it came to the crunch, when all he needed and wanted was a friend, there was no one willing to help him.