Examples Of Archetypes In The Hobbit

Archetypal Analysis of The Hobbit

“The Hobbit” by J. R. R. Tolkien is a fantastic tale of hobbits, dwarves, wizards, and an evil dragon. It begins with a lonely old Hobbit named Bilbo being sought out, by a wizard named Gandalf, for a hand in the quest to take back the Dwarves’ treasure. At first Bilbo refuses to leave his comfortable abode but soon becomes enveloped in the adventure and sets off with Gandalf’s party of dwarves. Bilbo encounters many dangerous elements and enduring trial but he continues on, and ultimately lives through the party’s successful battle against the draconic behemoth known as Smaug. After the journey, Bilbo returns with a new found mental empowerment and, while his old hobbit friends cannot accept who he has become,

It begins with the initial quest - and the proposal of such quest - to embark on a perilous journey to foreign lands, certain trials that the hero must face to continue on in the quest, the dragon or destroyer that is the hero’s ultimate trial, and then the hero, who ends up saving the world. Through an archetypal critical lens, “The Hobbit” will be broken down into its core qualities and analyzed to find their function and behaviour within the larger

Instead, he uses the ring, obtained during his conflict with Gollum, to enter Smaug's lair within the mountain and attempts to avoid the dragon completely: “‘Old Smaug is weary and asleep,’ he thought. ‘He can’t see me and he won’t hear me’” (169). Bilbo soon realises that Smaug could undoubtedly sense him when Smaug speaks to him: “‘Well, thief! I smell you and I feel your air. I hear your breath. Come along! Help yourself again, there is plenty and to spare’” (170). Instead of running like he would have before, he continues to converse with the dragon until he finds a “large patch in the hollow of his left breast” (173) that could be used as a weakness. That exact weakness is later used in the following battle with Smaug, when he was destroying neighboring Lake-Town, which ends up subduing the great destroyer - subsequently ending Bilbo’s lengthy