The Hobbit Character Analysis

In this assignment, we had to read “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien and “How to Read Literature like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster. Once both books were read, we had to take at least one archetype and compare it to the events in the book. “The Hobbit” tells of lonely Bilbo Baggins that enjoys his peaceful life. He is convinced to go on an adventure with the wizard Gandalf and the thirteen dwarves to steal back the dwarves’ treasure from Smaug the dragon. Throughout the story, the group goes through a rollercoaster journey and even experience death in the time throughout the adventure. The first archetype I noticed in the story was Every Trip Is a Quest (Except When It’s Not) Bilbo is the quester and he is not aware of the dent on his door that alerted the dwarves to his home.
They stayed in the dark and once someone came in, they most of the time didn’t come back out because they were eaten. The Great Goblin resembles Hades in a way because the Great Goblin was the leader and ruled the goblins and had his own army. The underworld is supposed to have a sad feel and the goblin’s underground cave was very sad and depressing, because of how they tie up and plan to eat their victims they catch. The underworld is the afterlife and the goblin’s underground home gives the same feel as the underworld does. The last archetype is irony. Irony is the opposite of what is intended, usually for humorous effect. One thing that was very ironic in this book was when the dragon attacked the town, Bard intended to save the town, but he actually made the town worse. When he killed Smaug, Smaug still ended up falling down and destroying the town. It was very ironic, because what he meant to do was save the town, but he actually did the opposite. Tolkien seemed to have wanted to make light of the situation and give it a more humorous approach by making Bard the archer make the situation even