I know that Lord of the Rings is not really about addiction. I just wanted to say that to me (and I just rewatched the trilogy last week), there are certain things people say and do around the ring that remind me of addiction:
The scene where Gandalf tries to talk Bilbo into the leaving the ring behind reminded me of the first time I tried to not buy a pack of cigarettes after smoking habitually for ten years.
The scenes where various characters (Gandalf and Aragorn come to mind) almost touch the ring then thing better of it remind me.
The codependent relationship between Frodo and Sam, the part where Sam says “I can carry you!” and the way things play out at the crack of doom all remind me.
The ring is as difficult to get rid of, and as poisonous to personal relationships, as addiction.
I believe this was probably not intended by Tolkien, but it may well have been amplified by Jackson and co. due to our increased knowledge in this day and age of that unhappy phenomenon, addiction.
I think it’s kind of the reverse. It’s not that ring “symbolizes” addiction. It’s that the attraction and lure of the ring can be treated (visually) like an addiction, to convey the power of the desire it awakens.
This is a fairly common cinematic technique – and the ring is far more immediately attractive in the movies than in the books. The movie-maker uses one fairly well-understood emotion (or symbol or set of cinematic conventions) to imply another.
And no one – no one, mind you! – is allowed to say anything about the ring being addictive because it’s hobbit-forming.
All that pseudo-exegesis just so that you could afflict us with a dreadful pun. Just because you’re a Mod, Dex, you seem to think you can get away with Mordor.
In the writers’ commentary on the extended Two Towers DVD, Fran and Phillipa do make a direct comparision between Frodo’s being under the influence of the Ring and addiction. IIRC, I believe they talk about this specifically during the scene where Frodo and Sam are sitting in the Cave of Major Contunuity Errors having their conversation about why Frodo can’t just put on the Ring and escape – just before Faramir comes in.
Tom Shippey, in J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century (probably the best single book about Tolkien), makes the same suggestion (and he was talking about the book, not the movies, which hadn’t yet come out). Probably other people commenting on Tolkien’s works have made the comparison between addiction and the One Ring. It’s hard to tell whether Tolkien intended this or not, but your comparison is just as easily drawn from the book as from the movies.
FWIW - In many interviews (none of which I have handy) Andy Serkis, who played Gollum, has stated that he based his portrayal on that of a junkie. That is to say, Gollum is addicted to the ring.
As a JRRT uber-geek and recovering addict I feel I am obliged to chime in here.
I think the ring would be harder to give up than alcohol, morphine and nicotine all rolled together.
And the meetings (RA, or Ringbearers Anonymous) could get a bit tiresome after a while. Frodo, Bilbo. Does Sam get to attend? Probably. But there’d be no newcomers! What point in carrying the message? Just the same old stories over and over. “Yes, Bilbo. You’ve told us before about how you were able to let go of the ring, while I had to have it bitten off. What’s your point?” and “Sam, stop saying that you just “turned it over” to me! I am not your freaking higher power!”
On the other hand, you’d get some cool slogans!
“Let go and let Iluvatar”
“One age at a time”
“Nothing is so bad that putting the ring on won’t make it worse”
“Don’t ringbear, read the Silmarillion, and go to meetings”