Denethor

Myself, like most of you probably, never really liked Denethor. He seemed like just a big jerk. I still largely stand by that. Both the movies and the books don't really give Denethor a good light. He is rude to Pippin, who is just trying to help, he doesn't trust Gandalf, he almost kills Faramir, and he essentially gives up on his city in a time of crisis.

But think about the situation that Denethor is in. The power of Mordor is growing, and Gondor is on the front lines. The only thing between Sauron and the rest of the world is Gondor. He loses his eldest son and heir, and he believes that he lost his only other son. An outsider is coming in and telling him how to rule, and the prospect of Aragorn coming back and taking the throne essentially makes Denethor obsolete. His entire livelihood is under threat, and he doesn't know what to do about it. It would have been easy for Tolkien to write Denethor with the nobility of Aragorn, but instead he choses Denethor to break. If anything, that makes him more realistic than many of the other characters. In the face of almost certain doom, and the threat that life will never again be the same, it takes a hero not to be phased. Most of us, if not all of us, wouldn't be able to handle it. I certainly don't know how I would behave when faced with my own mortality like Denethor is.

I still think he is a jerk, but at least I can see his humanity now.