Functional Order: Fi/Se/Ni/Te
Dominant Fucntion: Fi
is primarily motivated by self-interest. He does think about some moral concepts, such as fairness and kindness, but mainly when they apply to himself in some way. If he breaks some aspect of this moral code, he finds a way of justifying it (e.g., claiming the Ring was his birthday present and that he is therefore the rightful owner). Smeagol, unlike his alter-ego Gollum, can feel personally responsible to people who have helped him (although not to people in general). Gollum does not even care about people who have helped him, reacting viciously toward anyone who stands in his way. Smeagol cannot empathize with other people unless they have had similar experiences–specifically in relation to the Ring. While he understands something of how Bilbo and Sam think because he is a Hobbit himself, he has little sympathy for either of them. On the other hand, he knows that Frodo has experienced something like his own struggle while staying wiser and retaining a strong moral code. Smeagol admires Frodo, but he betrays Frodo anyway because he cannot be loyal to Frodo while fulfilling his own desires.
Auxiliary Function: Se
Even before Smeagol found the Ring, he was known for his curiosity about things his relatives and friends found disgusting. Smeagol was interested in roots and beginnings, and he would tunnel underground to see what he could find there. These interests were not connected with any sort of long-term goal for his life: Smeagol simply wanted to see what lay under the earth’s surface. After he finds the Ring, Smeagol proves extremely adaptive, using his knowledge about caves and mountains to secure hiding places for himself when his grandmother kicks him out. He easily becomes used to practices that would disgust any other Hobbit, eating raw fish and Orcs to stay alive.
Tertiary Function: Ni
Smeagol is obsessed about the one ring. While he mainly considers its material value and beauty, he is also well aware of its hidden power and immaterial value. Smeagol is so fixated on keeping it to the point of loosing himself in the process. He is also a decent schemer, coming up with clever tricks to steal the ring from Frodo, but rarely thinking them through the end. Smegaols‘s tragedy is that he is aware of the bad influence the ring has on him and can imagine a new future where he helps destroyed the ring for good, but is to caught up in his momentary desires and pleasures to go through with it.
Inferior Function: Te
Smeagol is more concerned with achieving practical results than in analyzing how ideas fit together. His Te function is weak: he does not often consider what would be practical beyond the immediate present. Smeagol, particularly when Gollum is more dominant, can be ruthless. He murders to protect his initial claim to the Ring, and he betrays Frodo and bites off Frodo’s finger in order to preserve that claim. Unfortunately for Gollum, he is so emotionally overwhelmed when he gets the Ring back that he fails to think reasonably. He forgets his surroundings (e.g., being on the edge of a volcano with two potential attackers nearby) and falls to his death.
Comments