The Hobbit Quotes Greed

Greed is a major theme in J.J.R. Tolkien's book, The Hobbit. This type of desire can drive people to achieve great things, but it can also lead to disastrous consequences. Throughout the book, we see how greed motivates the characters and alters their actions, eventually leading to their downfall. Thorin, a great leader, Gollum a small slimy creature, and Smaug a fire-breathing dragon. They all demonstrate how greed can corrupt anyone.

In The Hobbit, Gollum is a small, emaciated creature who lives in the depths of the Misty Mountains. He is known for his riddles and his possession of a mysterious ring. This ring is a prize possession of his and Gollum shows this when he loses it. In The Hobbit, it says “ Gollum was cursing and wailing away

In the book it states “Beneath him, under all his limbs and his huge coiled tail, and about him on all sides stretching away across the unseen floor, lay countless piles of precious things, gold wrought and unwrought, gems and jewels, and silver red-stained in the ruddy light”(Tolkien 206). Smaug is consumed with his desire for treasure, and thus hoards it in his lair instead of using it. In the text, it says “Thieves! Fire! Murder! Such a thing had not happened since first he came to the Mountain! His rage passes description—the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy suddenly lose something that they have long had but have never before used or wanted (Tolkien 208)”.

Smaug has no use for that cup but still enraged him. This leads to his demise. The Hobbit indicates that His greed blinded him to the warnings of his weaknesses, leaving him vulnerable to attack. In The Hobbit, it says “With a shriek that deafened man, fell trees and split stone, Smaug shot spouting in the air, turned over and crashed down from on high in the ruin. (Tolkien 238)”. Smaugs blindness to the situation led him to think the dwarfs were working with the lake men. Smaug trying to destroy lake town optimally lead to his

Thorin, the leader of the dwarves, is primarily motivated by his desire to reclaim his family's treasure, which Smaug had taken away. When Bilbo gave away the Arkenstone ultimately trying to make things better he says “You miserable hobbit! You undersized burglar! (Tolkien 233)”. His greed consumes him and he becomes arrogant, refusing to share the treasure with his allies who helped him reclaim it. Bilbo was a big part of his success in getting his treasure back but Thorin was blinded by his greed. Thorin demonstrates how greed has taken him over when Bard and the Elvenking come to get a 1/12 share of the treasure. Thorin responded saying “ But nothing will we give, not even a loafs worth, under a threat of force (Tolkien 224).” Thorin has been dominated by greed. Bard the man that killed Smaug, is the reason he can safely get to his treasure but cannot share his spoils with him. Smaug burned down all of lake town and can’t rejoice by giving them some tribute. His behavior leads to conflict, and eventually, the Battle of Five Armies. In this battle, Thorin faces his demise. In his last breaths, he realized what he did was wrong. He had found that treasure is not the most important thing. J.J.R Tolkien proved this when in The Hobbit Thorin says “Farewell, good thief. He said. I go now to the halls of waiting to sit beside my fathers until the world is renewed. Since I leave now all the gold and silver