Not just implied.
Gandalf actually belongs there even more than the Elves do…it’s where he came from. Bilbo, Frodo, Gimli and possibly Sam were allowed to go West. In earlier ages, Earendil was allowed in Valinor briefly to beg aid from the Valar against Morgoth, and Tuor is rumored to have been allowed to sail West with his Elven wife Idril.
One thing which hasn’t been mentioned here and tends t completely escape those who only watched the movies is the character of Denethor and how he fits into this. Most people recall he was the mad steward, but his role in the books was far more important.
Most critically, Denethor was a righteous man. A bit on the hard-nosed side, but no more than was really required. But the most critical aspect of the character is age. Almost everything about him reflects that theme, and everything he does is directly related to the idea of growing old. If anything, I would state that Denethor is Tolkein’s way of stating that even his heroes didn’t do everything they should have. They made serious mistakes, sometimes well before the story began.
Denethor was never corrupted. But he was pushed well beyond his capacity to endure and eventually began to break under the strain. Simply put, he was a man trying to fight off a demigod with no one to aid him. it is true that he wasn’t an easy man to help. He was liable to resist the kind of aide that Gandalf wanted to give, which is not entirely a positive character trait. The issue is that Gandalf had implicitly said, “Yup, I can leave this well enough alone.” Théoden eventually left him. His wife died. His forces were steadily pushed and pushed back and Denethor knew what was coming.
Hence he ended up turning to more dangerous measures. Denethor was not a weak or cowardly man, and he was quite willing to risk himself vying against Sauron. However, here is where the huge difference between Saurman and Denethor comes in. Saruman is seduced and corrupted by evil. Denethor is not. Instead, he is weakened by it. He fights Sauron with everything he has and manages to learn very valuable intel for his troubles. He wins, in a manner of speaking. But the thing about evil is that it’s often a lot more patient than we give it credit for, and Sauron was willing to play the long game.
So first Denethor is weakened from this, and then something very, very bad happens. It’s arguably the single most important event in the entire world since Bilbo found the Ring. Boromir dies. This isn’t exactly a bad thing for Boromir: he was crushed by falling to the Ring’s power. Although, it would have happened to every single member of the Fellowship eventually, and as a “mere” man he alone had a low Special Defense state which as any Pokémon Breeder will tell you, can really come back to bite you when opponents start using Psychic moves. This was very bad but not fatal: Denethor knows he’s not going to live that much longer in any case and Faramir is ready to step in into the succession of Stewards. There’s still some hope left, even if it’s daily growing dimmer.
Then the final straw comes down, and the camel’s back can finally no longer take the strain. Form our perspective, it’s a little hard to understand. Why would Faramir being wounded be the thing which breaks him? Well, because Faramir was it. There was no King. There wasn’t another Steward. Faramir was Denethor’s last hope, and further, he was the baby. We see Faramir as a strong and noble lord and great warrior, but he was Denethor’s youngest and the only person able to bear some of the weight. And the mind of the great Steward of Gondor could take no more. He snapped like a twig, because no one was able to take the burden from him…
This is shown in a number of ways, but probably the most apt is his choice of undergarments: in the book, Denethor wears his state robes… with chainmail underneath. He always wears it every day, so that he doesn’t grow weak. The problem is that he’s a very old man, and even with a little Elven ancestry, he can’t hold out against the ravages of time for much longer.
And this is the reason the story is a tragedy. Denethor’s tale is like the reverse aspect of Saruman’s. Denethor shows us that both that we need to take care of each other, because nobody can stand up to evil alone for very long, but also that we have to be wiling to ask and accept aid. And even more clearly, that in the war against evil, there are going to be losses. We can be hurt deeply and irrevocably by the evil we fight against and what we endure, even if somehow we win in the end. In that sense, Denethor is something of a bridge character: he’s both like Saruman and like Frodo.
A very astute essay about Denethor’s character. Well said!