26. Isengard:  not allowed to express one’s thoughts, creativity, or opinion

Gríma Wormtongue, Saruman

Subtlety

            “No!  You must not speak your own mind to them!”  Saruman leaned closer to Gríma as if to offer a secret in confidence.  “They must not know that your words, your advice, comes from me in the end.  But it is my thoughts that you will speak to them—my wisdom that you will impart, my will that you will see manifested.”

            Gríma said nothing of his own thoughts in return, nothing of how it was not the Wizard’s brilliance he wished to show forth in Edoras, but his own he desired to exhibit instead.  But in the end he knew it was better he submit to Saruman’s commands, for never would she deign to look upon Gríma for his own sake—she’d made that plain enough already!  Nay, if he was to take her as his own, he must continue to dissemble….