Opinions: Fëanor, ritcheous or over-proud?

[Artanis]

Why did Fëanor want a tress of Galadriel's hair? I don't think he meant to make something out of it, I think he just wanted to possess and cherish it, as a thing of immense beauty.

Even among the Eldar she was accounted beautiful, and her hair was held a marvel unmatched. It was golden like the hair of her father and her foremother Indis, but richer and more radiant, for its gold was touched by some memory of the starlike silver of her mother; and the Eldar said that the light of the Two Trees, Laurelin and Telperion, had been snared in her tresses. Many thought that this saying first gave to Feanor the thought of imprisoning and blending the light of the Trees that later took shape in his hands as the Silmarils. For Fëanor beheld the hair of Galadriel with wonder and delight. He begged three times for a tress, but Galadriel would not give him even one hair.

When I read this again I'm wondering about Fëanor. From what we are told about him elsewhere, it seems completely out of character for him to beg for anything, and moreover three times! Apparently there's more to this Elf than we think.

Why did Galadriel deny Fëanor some of her hair? Because, as has been pointed out, a gift of hair is a very personal thing, and Galadriel did not have a friendly relationship with Fëanor. Now one may say this was a sad circumstance, but quite understandable from her point of view, since she clearly saw the darkness that had fallen upon him. Her fault was not the denial as such, but her lack of insight into herself and the rest of her people. If she had recognized the true sorce of evil and realised that the shadow had fallen upon all of the Ñoldor, then perhaps she would not have singled out Fëanor the way she did.