“The Lord of the Rings” by J. R. R. Tolkien (post 8): Is Frodo a hobbit besieged by magical forces or a person with conflict among his alternate personalities?

“He seemed to be in a world of mist in which there were only shadows: the Ring was upon him…And suddenly he felt the Eye. There was an eye in the Dark Tower that did not sleep…He heard himself crying out: Never, never! Or was it: Verily I come, I come to you? He could not tell. Then as a flash from some other point of power there came to his mind another thought: Take it off! Take it off! Fool, take it off! Take off the Ring! Two powers strove in him…Suddenly he was aware of himself again, Frodo, neither the Voice nor the Eye: free to choose, and with one remaining instant in which to do so. He took the Ring off his finger” (1, pp. 400-401).

The above must be read in the context of an earlier passage, previously quoted:

“Frodo himself, after the first shock [from the departure of Bilbo]…did not worry much about the future. But half unknown to himself [what he knew was compartmentalized in different personalities?] the regret that he had not gone with Bilbo was steadily growing. He found himself wandering at times [was this that common symptom of multiple personality, the dissociative fugue?] especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams. He began to say to himself: ‘Perhaps I shall cross the River myself one day.’ To which the other half of his mind always replied: ‘Not yet’ ” (1. p. 43).

The intended meaning is that Frodo is a hobbit besieged by magical forces. But the story would seem to have been written by a person who’d had storytelling, and conflicted, alternate personalities.

1. J. R. R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings [1954-55]. 50th Anniversary One-Volume Edition. New York, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2004.