progression of disheartenment led him to depart from
The paranoid-schizoid position is fragile and challenged constantly; Frodo's first challenge is to see the hobbit Sméagol in the wretched remains of his alter ego, Gollum, a good hobbit turned bad.
Not like in The Lord of The Rings. In the main character case — Frodo`s depression is never acknowledged. The other characters have their own problems to worry about.
Frodo was so wounded/hurt/damaged/ptsd by the terrible burden of the Ring, being wounded by the Witch King's cursed blade, and poisoned by Shelob, that he could not live a "normal" life in the Shire anymore. He was allowed to go to the Undying Lands to find peace and healing.
Frodo did suffer from PTSD, or, rather, as it was called in WW I, shell shock. So did Tolkien himself, and he took his own experience to heart when creating Frodo. This is the whole point of Frodo's insight about the Shire was saved, but not for me.
He's deeply introverted, preferring to keep to himself and his treasure hoard whenever possible, and he LOVES riddles and logic puzzles, which is typical of individuals who lead with introverted thinking.
However, Frodo Baggins is notorious for being irritating, often helpless and almost whiney, and undeserving of the plaudits he would receive for destroying the Ring. Much like with Boromir and Isildur, the Ring held a certain amount of sway over Frodo.
At the end of Return of the King, when the four hobbit friends are being honored for their journey, there is a heavy tone of sadness in Frodo's aura because although he is glad there is no longer a great evil threat lurking over Middle Earth, he wishes very badly that none of this had happened.
As for Frodo's delay in the book, that was intentional because neither he nor Gandalf felt he should leave right away. That would stir up interest in his intentions and activities. And so Frodo proposed in April 3018 that he leave Bag End on his fiftieth birthday in September.
The Destruction of the Ring
When Frodo despairs in the Mines of Moria, Gandalf tells him that he believes Gollum has a part to play in the fate of the Ring. In both the book and movie for The Return of the King, Gandalf's prediction comes to pass. In the book, Gollum bites off Frodo's finger and reclaims the Ring.
While watching The Lord of the Rings movies for the millionth time, I discovered something: Frodo's struggle with carrying the ring of power is a metaphor for life dealing with depression. The ring is heavy, burdensome, & drives people to act in ways they normally wouldn't. The ring acts as depression does.
This metaphor is most apparent in the One Ring: to possess the Ring is to be powerful, to lose it is to lose power, and to seek it is to seek power. The One Ring establishes a necessary connection between an object and an abstraction (i.e. power).
The passivity phenomena Gollum experiences are caused by the ring, and these symptoms occur in all ring bearers. Gollum does not fulfil the ICD-10 criteria for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. The presence of two personalities, Gollum and Sméagol, raises the possibility of multiple personality disorder.
Liz Sampson, concludes that Gollum was actually suffering from schizoid personality disorder.
J.R.R. Tolkien, a World War I veteran and philologist who became the most renowned fantasy writer in history, seems to have suffered from PTSD from the war, too — although Tolkien would never admit it.
Of the Ring-bearers, three were alive after the Ring's destruction, the hobbits Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam. Bilbo, having borne the Ring the longest, had his life much prolonged. Frodo was scarred physically and mentally by his quest. Sam, having only briefly kept the Ring, was affected the least.
He had already celebrated his 131st birthday, becoming the oldest Hobbit in the history of Middle-earth. As a mortal, he died in the West. While sailing west, Bilbo composed a last poem looking back on Middle-earth in farewell.
ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul." (One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the Darkness bind them.)
And Tolkein himself confirms this in his own private letters, where he makes it clear that Frodo and his friend Sam (who is also eventually granted a place in Valinor) would always be mere mortals and would eventually succumb to death even if they were to remain in The Undying Lands.
61, on 22 September Sam left Bag End, and went to the Tower Hills where he was last seen by Elanor, entrusting to her the Red Book; according to her, he went to the Grey Havens to sail across the Sea and be reunited with Frodo in the Undying Lands.
The reasons for the Elves inviting him are clear given his destruction of the One Ring and Sauron, but Frodo's reasons for accepting are less so. Ultimately, it was the injuries that the ring-bearer Frodo endured on his journey that pushed him to leave Middle-earth.
There is no doubt that Sam and Frodo's relationship is one of the greatest loves stories ever told. It's a love not catalyzed by sexuality but it's a love story none-the-less.
As the Ring-bearer and then principal protagonist of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo is endowed with a temperament well suited to resist evil. He is brave, selfless, thoughtful, wise, observant, and even unfailingly polite.
While Frodo is selfless and noble, Bilbo has to do a little more personal growth. The Bilbo who returns to Bag End in the end is a very different hobbit than the one who originally set out with Gandalf and 13 dwarves. Over the course of his adventure, Bilbo finds a courage, ingenuity, and selflessness within himself.