If I may, I would like to interject some observations about this chapter that don't pertain to this question of Frodo's forgiveness or redemption, but to the chapter overall.
This chapter has always intrigued me because of how it reminds me of the very popular event in medieval English drama called the Harrowing of Hell. The event derives from the descent of Christ into hell (or limbo rather than the inferno of the eternally damned) between his Crucifixion and Resurrection. Christ raised from the dead Adam and Eve and the ancient worthies who died before He brought the gospel to earth. (A handy bit of historical revisionsim, if you want to be post modern.) The term harrowing was first used by Ćlfric the Anglo Saxon grammarian in his homily on the harrowing of hell, but the idea of the harrowing really took on a very rich mythology of triumph over infernos in English medieval drama--the mystery plays especially. Imagery of all kinds were infused into this fecund idea--derived from the biblical word Gehenna, for the garbage dump outside Jerusalem where fires were kept burning and where bodies of executed criminals were dumped. In the Old English traditions which I have read, hell was more often portrayed as a hellmouth of a great beast, but the imagery of the blast furnace was also used.
Now, before you think I am running off at the mouth, let me say I am not being allegorical here. I by no means wish to imply that Frodo or Gollem is Christ. Nor do I mean that this act redeems Man of death, although it does free the Third Age of evil. What I much more simply want to suggest is how I think Tolkien was creatively conceiving of images, ideas, possibilities inherent in some of the medieval and Old English literature he read to create his own vivid sense of Sam and Frodo's achievement.
To me, this chapter is only tangentially 'about' the successful culmination of the Quest, the destruction of the Ring. It is more specifically about the spiritual journey of Sam and Frodo. So many of the words used in this chapter have religious overtones--and here I quite grant that many won't see this or accept it, as we have many different ways of reading LotR--that pertain to the spirit's culminating triumph over evil. The dark veil, the wheel of fire, the gaping mouth, the carrying of one's 'brother', the specific timing of the tremours of the earth, the palms held together, facing inwards, all imply a particular direction.
Sam and Frodo in this chapter throw off--at least metaphorically--all traipsings of their worldly goods and possessions. They stand--again metaphorically-naked before their fate. And while much of our focus has been on Frodo, little so far has examined Sam other than to nod that ,well, yes, Frodo wouldn't have made it if it hadn't been for Sam. Yet the chapter says much about Sam's interiority, far more than it says about Frodo's.
The ethical or moral triumph in this chapter belongs to Sam. Yes, he spares himself food and water to give sustenance to Frodo. He conceives of the need to throw off things they will not need to complete their journey. He is the one whose strength--hope--is renewed when he recalls not just The Shire, but Gandalf's sacrifice in Moria. He, as much as Frodo, enters that unusual and strange state of human mind under fasting and famine where vision becomes more possible:
Dream and waking mingled uneasily. He saw ... . He dreams of the cool water of The Shire and swimming with Rosie's brothers. He has the strange conversation 'with himself.' He experiences a 'calling.'
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Slowly the light grew. Suddenly a sense of urgency which he did not understand came to Sam. It was almost as if he had been called....
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(Yes, Frodo also experiences here this calling.) It is Sam who lays his hands on Frodo's and kisses them. And Sam who has the strange vision of the figure robed in white with the wheel of fire. And it is Sam now who refuses to kill Gollem. And, then, once the terrible deed had been accomplished, who is it who has the vision of Sauron defeated? Sam again:
A brief vision he had of swirling cloud, and in the midst of it towers and battlements .... Imagine this, the Gaffer's son, having visions!
It is not to a dark lake of underground fire that Sam and Frodo climb, but to a mountain top burning with fire and ash. And the Quest is accomplished because not just Frodo but Sam also undergoes purification. The characters work in tandem in this very unique version of the Harrowing of Hell.