If you were Saruman, would you have come down from Orthanc?

[The Lady of Ithilien]

After the battle of Helm's Deep and the destruction of Isengard, Gandalf offered Saruman a chance to come down and help them. Saruman refused.

What would you have done, if you were in Saruman's place?

In a discussion about Denethor in the Middle-earth Forum, Afro-Elf got me thinking about how JRRT "boxed in" his characters -- that's one of the primary things a writer has to do with characters, of course: leave them only one inevitable course of action, even if it's an unpleasant or negative one.

On thinking this over in terms of Saruman's choice, what with Isengard in ruins and the Ents installed on his grounds, his armies beaten, his Voice failing to intimidate the King of Rohan, having someone he still thought of as a subordinate member of his own order on the doorstep (someone whom Galadriel had tried to supplant him with on the Council) and who was acting very "officiously," and above all, knowing (as Denethor did) that there was truly no hope of defeating Sauron militarily but believing that the Ring was still in play somewhere, if it could only be located... well, it's difficult to think of any way I might not have acted as Saruman did, had I been in his place (which I wouldn't have been, of course, as I love trees and don't want to take over the world).