Frodo succumbed to the Ring of Power. If Gollum hadn’t bitten his finger off (and taken the Ring with it), and then lost his footing and fell with the Ring into the lava of Mt. Doom, the Ring wouldn’t have been destroyed.
Yes, Frodo resisted for a long time, but Frodo wasn’t immune to its powers. Therein lies the moral of the story. No one (not even Hobbits) can resist the allure of Absolute Power, and all that it entails.
To follow up, in truth, Frodo failed. He was the Ring Bearer, but he didn’t destroy the One Ring, as he was tasked to do.....he was seduced by its power.
It was Gollum who destroyed the One Ring, though unintentionally.
I’ve always loved how Lord Of The Rings is quite likely the only work of literature named for it’s primary antagonist (Sauron); an unusual literary choice, but absolutely brilliant.
Frodo resisted mostly. I understand your point, but dang... Were you the hall monitor in school?
Yes, Frodo resisted for a long time, but Frodo wasn’t immune to its powers. Therein lies the moral of the story. No one (not even Hobbits) can resist the allure of Absolute Power, and all that it entails.
That's a good point, but there's a deeper moral there as well, which is that if one puts one's faith in doing what is right, the rest will be given by Grace as needed. For example, Sam wanted to kill Gollum, but Frodo knew in his heart that he'd contacted the shred of humity still in Gollum, and that that shred was (pun intended) precious. So he honored that small spark of light, and worked with Gollum out of compassion, to try to help him get his humanity back.
Result? When Frodo finally collapsed, when the power of the one ring overwhelmed him at last, despite all of his efforts to deny it, and he reached for the power, Gollum was there to fight him for it, and to seize it from him, and thereby protect him and destroy the ring at the same time, thereby fulfilling the quest and defeating the evil.
You could say that Gollum was just being Gollum, that all the touchy-feelly crap failed and that, in the end, he did exactly what Sam predicted he would do - he'd jump for the ring. But you could also say that God works in mysterious ways. That Gollum was rewarded for the fact that he, in his own way, tried to do good, and so was helpd by Frodo. And that by everyone doing their best, even though everyone lacked what was necessary, God made use of their efforts to bring them success (and even Gollum reached a release of sorts with his "precious").
Perspective is everything.
That's why the Powers That Be fight for people's perspective - because when they have that, they own them.