Very likely. But Sam's love for Frodo grew in the telling, as you might say. The Sam who set out with Frodo was not the Sam who came home. Not just changed by his experiences, but changed by the writer.Voronwë_the_Faithful wrote:Because, while Merry and Pippin loved Frodo, their love for him was not like Sam's. Even Sam's love for Rosie was not like his love for Frodo.
As I said earlier, we all know that flame wars erupted all over the interweebs on the subject of Sam and Frodo and "how much" Sam loved Frodo. Did he love Frodo more? Would he have "chosen" Frodo over Rosie if the choice had had to be made? Was he, in fact, "in love" with Frodo and was Rosie just consolation?
I belonged to the earthly camp, not the heavenly camp. I still do. It isn't so much whether Sam chose to leave Middle Earth via ship or by dying in the ordinary way, it's the exaltation of his relationship with Frodo over his long marriage - which included fathering 13 children. That's what troubles me. What was Rosie, then? Second best?
Men who have been through war together often form close bonds and think of their comrades as brothers or closer than brothers. But in ordinary life (and Sam was pretty ordinary) the realities of carrying on after the battles must be seen as "more important" or we seem to be saying that the only worthwhile, or the MOST worthwhile and precious relationships a man can have are those warrior friendships.
Tolkien endured war of a kind that men had really never experienced before. It marked him, as it would mark anyone. But he himself went on to live an ordinary life as a husband and father, and from what I've read his love for his wife was very romantic and passionate. He wasn't Sam, of course. But he wasn't Frodo, either.