Por que não usar o anel?

RESPOSTA DO UNIVERSO

Tolkien disse que usar o Anel para derrotar Sauron seria inerentemente mau. Comentando sobre o esforço de guerra no final da Segunda Guerra Mundial, em uma carta datada de 1944, ele disse:

An ultimately evil job. For we are attempting to conquer Sauron with the Ring. And we shall (it seems) succeed. But the penalty is, as you will know, to breed new Saurons, and slowly turn Men and Elves into Orcs. Not that in real life things are as clear cut as in a story, and we started out with a great many Orcs on our side.
-Tolkien, Letter #66.

Obviamente, ele queria que os Aliados ganhassem, mas ele desaprovou como os Aliados estavam agindo.

Ele também discutiu o que aconteceria se um dos mais poderosos (e mais 'bons') personagens de O Senhor dos Anéis usasse o Anel para derrotar Sauron (alerta de spoiler: não seria seja bom):

Of the others only Gandalf might be expected to master him – being an emissary of the Powers and a creature of the same order, an immortal spirit taking a visible physical form. In the ‘Mirror of Galadriel’, 1381, it appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond. But this is another matter.

It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power. But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as is seen in Elrond’s words at the Council. Galadriel’s rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve.

In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy him by force. Confrontation of Sauron alone, unaided, self to self was not contemplated. One can imagine the scene in which Gandalf, say, was placed in such a position. It would be a delicate balance. On one side the true allegiance of the Ring to Sauron; on the other superior strength because Sauron was not actually in possession, and perhaps also because he was weakened by long corruption and expenditure of will in dominating inferiors.

If Gandalf proved the victor, the result would have been for Sauron the same as the destruction of the Ring; for him it would have been destroyed, taken from him for ever. But the Ring and all its works would have endured. It would have been the master in the end...

Gandalf as Ring-Lord would have been far worse than Sauron. He would have remained 'righteous', but self-righteous. He would have continued to rule and order things for 'good', and the benefit of his subjects according to his wisdom (which was and would have remained great).

[The draft ends here. In the margin Tolkien wrote: 'Thus while Sauron multiplied [illegible word] evil, he left "good" clearly distinguishable from it. Gandalf would have made good detestable and seem evil.']
-Tolkien, Letter #246

O Anel era inerentemente mau, e mesmo se você o usasse para fazer coisas boas, as coisas boas seriam todas maléficas quando você chegasse até ele.

RESPOSTA DO UNIVERSO

E agora a explosão de Galadriel faz sentido:

And now at last it comes. You will give me the Ring freely! In place of the Dark Lord you will set up a Queen. And I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!
- The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 7: "The Mirror of Galadriel".

Quanto a Boromir, Gandalf aborda esse ponto mais tarde, quando Denethor diz que Boromir deveria ter trazido o Anel para ele.

"In no case would Boromir have brought it to you. He is dead, and died well; may he sleep in peace! Yet you deceive yourself. He would have stretched out his hand to this thing, and taking it he would have fallen. He would have kept it for his own, and when he returned you would not have known your son".
-The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King, Book V, Chapter 4: "The Siege of Gondor"

Mas Gandalf já mencionou isso no Conselho de Elrond:

Its strength, Boromir, is too great for anyone to wield at will, save only those who have already a great power of their own. But for them it holds an even deadlier peril. The very desire of it corrupts the heart. Consider Saruman. If any of the Wise should with this Ring overthrow the Lord of Mordor, using his own arts, he would then set himself on Sauron's throne, and yet another Dark Lord would appear.
-The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, Book II, Chapter 2, "The Council of Elrond"

Sua pergunta, claro, assume que eles acreditam que não há problema em permitir intencionalmente que o anel corrompa alguém. Os discursos de Gandalf sobre Piedade e Misericórdia parecem indicar que o contrário é o caso.

Tão importante, no entanto, permitir que alguém use o Anel em vez de destruí-lo, na verdade, não derrotará Sauron, como fica claro em esta resposta :

His Ring was lost but not unmade. The Dark Tower was broken, but its foundations were not removed; for they were made with the power of the Ring, and while it remains they will endure.

(Elrond, Comunhão do Anel , Livro II, Capítulo 2, "O Conselho de Elrond"; grifo nosso)

Its strength, Boromir, is too great for anyone to wield at will, save only those who have already a great power of their own. But for them it holds an even deadlier peril. ... If any of the Wise should with this Ring overthrow the Lord of Mordor, using his own arts, he would then set himself on Sauron's throne, and yet another Dark Lord would appear.

(Gandalf, ibid .)

Eu postei isto para expandir a primeira citação na excelente resposta de Wad, acima, e porque me parece altamente relevante, mostrando como a clara crença de Tolkien de que o uso do Anel pelas forças do bem rapidamente produzir maus fins . Foi tirado do prefácio de Tolkien para a minha 2ª edição "Fellowship" (Unwin, 1966), na qual ele escreve sobre a 2ª Guerra Mundial:

The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion. If it had inspired or directed the development of the legend, then certainly the Ring would have been seized and used against Sauron; he would not have been annihilated but enslaved, and Barad-dur would not have been destroyed but occupied. Saruman, failing to get possession of the Ring, would in the confusion and treacheries of the time have found in Mordor the missing links in his own researches into Ring-lore, and before long he would have made a Great Ring of his own with which to challenge the self-styled Ruler of Middle-earth.

Ele adiciona

In that conflict both sides would have held hobbits in hatred and contempt; they would not long have survived even as slaves.

Não há garantia de que, mesmo usando o anel, eles possam derrotar Sauron. A razão pela qual eles conseguem enganá-lo no portão preto é porque ele acredita que um deles tem o anel e está pronto para atacar e reclamar o anel de volta.

‘He is not yet sure,’ said Gandalf, ‘and he has not built up his power by waiting until his enemies are secure, as we have done. Also we could not learn how to wield the full power all in a day. Indeed it can be used only by one master alone, not by many; and he will look for a time of strife, ere one of the great among us makes himself master and puts down the others. In that time the Ring might aid him, if he were sudden.

Mesmo que Galadriel aceitasse o anel, Saruon ainda poderia ter travado uma guerra e vencido de volta. Ter o anel não garantiu o sucesso de ninguém além de Sauron.

Você simplesmente não pode usar o Anel. A relação com o Anel é mais parecida com uma simbiose: dá-lhe poder mas também precisa de potência. Lembre-se que a razão pela qual o Anel quer voltar para Sauron, é porque ele precisa de Sauron. Precisa do poder dele.

Alguém sem poder comparável seria traído pelo Anel na primeira oportunidade. Foi o que aconteceu com Isildur (e Sméagol também). E lembre-se que Isildur não foi o primeiro cara por aí: ele era o homem mais poderoso da época.

Então, eu diria que pouquíssimas pessoas poderiam administrar o poder do Anel com a intenção de usá-lo como uma arma contra Sauron, e essas pessoas são basicamente os 4 membros do Conselho Branco (Saruman excluído, obviamente) :

Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel, Círdan.

Além do Conselho Branco, o único homem que poderia usar o Anel era Aragorn. Mas ele também se recusa a fazê-lo. E eu acho que foi a escolha certa, porque se o Ring traiu Isildur, é muito provável que ele tenha traído Aragorn também.