[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by skip spence

I'm eagerly awaiting your explanaition.

Such a patient person, it's usually a quality I lack. Anyway, to my explanation.

In the Third Age there is an 'Eye of Sauron' (sometimes just short-handed by Tolkien as 'the Eye') as there was an 'Eye of Morgoth.' In both cases (in my opinion I should also stress) it's a metaphor to both Dark Lords' dominant, over-powering wills.

Frodo see the Eye in Galadriel's Mirror as Galadriel goes to point out:

"You saw the Eye of him that holds the Seven and the Nine."~Mirror of Galadriel

And in the Silm:

"He took up the great Ring and clothed himself in power; and the malice of the Eye of Sauron and few even the great Elves and Men could endure"~Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age

Now with the quote from Mount Doom, I would call it a delusional vision of Frodo's:

One moment only it stared out, but as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye; and then the shadows were furled again and the terrible vision was removed. The Eye was not turned to them: it was gazing north to where the Captains of the West stood at bay, and thither all its malice was now bent, as the Power moved to strike its deadly blow; but Frodo at that dreadful glimpse fell as one stricken mortally. His hand sought the chain about his neck.

"but as from some great window...the flicker of a piercing Eye." >>>the start of the metaphor (or simile if you would prefer).

Frodo's vision is over, but Tolkien continues with "the Eye" to describe Sauron (something that he also used for Morgoth). He also uses another metaphor for Sauron as "that Power" something Saruman does too:

A new Power is rising. Against it the old allies and policies will not avail us at all. There is no hope left in Elves or dying Numenor. This then is one choice before you, before us. We may join with that Power.~The Council of Elrond

Note with both "the Eye" and "that Power", the consistent capitalization of the words, which would denote that they are both referring to person, almost like a personal title. When Saruman says "that Power," Gandalf and everyone knows he's talking about Sauron. It's no different with the Mount Doom quote, where the Eye is a vision of Frodo's, and Tolkien then used the Eye and the Power as metaphors to refer to Sauron's will (or his "malice") which was now entirely bent towards the Captains of the West.

I got another Sauron metaphor for you

As when death smites the swollen brooding thing that inhabits their crawling hill and holds them all in sway, ants will wonder witless and purposeless and then feebly die, so the creatures of Sauron, orc or troll or beast spell-enslaved, ran hither and thither mindless, and some slew themselves, or cast themselves in pits, or fled wailing back to hide in holes and dark lightless places far from hope.~Field of Cormallen

Here Tolkien is describing Sauron's servants as ants with Sauron as their Queen, and when their queen was destroyed, they were crazed and mindless. Thos not held under the Eye...erm Iron Will of Sauron (like the Men of Rhun and Harad) they had a much different (and far more noble) reaction.

"It is true, of course, that Morgoth held the Orcs in dire thraldom, for in their corruption they had almost lost all possibility of resisting the domination of his will. So great indeed did the pressure on them become ere Angband fell that, if he turned his thought towards them, they were conscious of his "Eye" wherever they might be....this servitude to a central will that reduced the Orcs to an almost ant-like life was seen even more plainly in the Second and Third Age under the tyranny of Sauron, Morgoth’s chief Lieutenant."~Home X: Morgoth’s Ring, Myths Transformed

I'm pretty sure there are several places in the Silm too where Morgoth is referred to as "the Eye," but right now time is short and I'm too lazy to flip through the pages. But I will end with...what was Sauron's symbol? A red Eye. Seeing as Sauron loved order, co-ordination (to the point of being a control freak) he seemed to also push the Eye as a metaphor for himself. So many metaphors, maybe Sauron aspired to be an English teacher, in his early good lil Maia days. Oh and what was Saruman's symbol? A white Hand...was there a white Hand on top of Orthanc?