Family

Faramir was born to Denethor II and Finduilas of Gondor, as their second son and youngest child. His mother passed away when he was only four years old, and while he may have felt sorrow at the time, it is likely that she only became a blurry memory to him as he grew older. His interaction with is father is one of the things that makes most readers despise Denethor; quite simply put, Denethor treats Faramir as if he hated him. Obviously, there's more to it than that - he does seem to have SOME love for his son, but he obviously loved Boromir much, much more.

Despite his father's blatant favoritism of Boromir, Faramir never resented his brother for it; or, if he did, he never expressed it, and he didn't hate his brother. He idolized his brother, more or less, and as a child - and possibly as an adult - loved him more than anyone. Boromir tended to be protective of his younger brother, Tolkien said, possibly over-protective. This protective instinct obviously followed him into adulthood, to the point where he went to Rivendell and joined the Fellowship in his brother's place. Granted, this must have gotten annoying at more than one time during his life; I have over-bearing and over-protective family members, and I can testify to this fact. No matter how much you love them, it just gets annoying. But I digress. There must have been a deep bond between Faramir and Boromir; in the movie, it's hearing of the cause of Boromir's death that makes Faramir give up the ring and let Sam and Frodo go. Personally, I would have liked to get a deeper insight into Faramir and Boromir's relationship; but then again, if we had that, we [by which I mean me] wouldn't have all this fun speculating, now would we? [once again, we = me.]