Varför använder du inte ringen?

UTAN UNIVERSLIGT ANSWER

Tolkien sade att med hjälp av Ringen för att besegra Sauron skulle det inneboende vara ont. Kommenterade krigsansträngningen sent i andra världskriget, i ett brev daterat 1944, sade han:

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.

Han ville självklart vilja att de allierade vunnit, men han ogillade hur de allierade gick till det.

Han diskuterade också vad som skulle hända om en av de mest kraftfulla (och de flesta "bra") karaktärerna i Ringenes Herre använde Ringen för att besegra Sauron (spoiler alert: det skulle inte var bra):

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

Ringen var iboende ond, och även om du använde den för att göra goda saker, skulle de goda sakerna vara onda när du kommer helt ner till det.

IN-UNIVERSE ANSWER

Och så är Galadriels utbrott förnuftigt:

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".

När det gäller Boromir, adresserar Gandalf denna punkt senare, när Denethor säger att Boromir borde ha tagit ringen till honom.

"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"

Men Gandalf nämnde redan detta på Elrond rådets:

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"

Jag lägger in detta för att expandera på det första citatet i Wads utmärkta svar ovanför, och eftersom det verkar mig mycket relevant, visar det som Tolkiens klara övertygelse om att användningen av ringen genom goda krafter skulle snabbt producera dåliga ändar . Det är taget från Tolkiens förord till min 2: a upplagan "Fellowship" (Unwin, 1966), där han skriver om andra världskriget:

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.

Han lägger till

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

Det finns ingen garanti för att även med ringen kan de besegra Sauron. Anledningen till att de lyckas lura honom vid den svarta porten är att han tror att en av dem har ring och är redo att attackera och hävda ringen.

‘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.

Även om Galadriel hade tagit emot ringen, kunde Saruon fortfarande ha krig och vann det tillbaka. Att ha ringen garanterade inte framgång för någon annan än Sauron.