THE HIDDEN MOTIVATION BILBO’S LIFE CHANGING DECISION IN J.R.R. TOLKIEN’S THE HOBBIT: A PSYCHOANALYSIS PERSPECTIVE
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of
Sarjana Sastra
LUTER SANTANA
NIM: 392012007
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ART SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
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Introduction
Written in 1937, The Hobbit seems to be a famous novel of the century as reflected in its transformation into three sequel movies entitled “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (2012), “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” (2013), and “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies” (2014). Portraying the hobbit society, the story mirrors a similarity between the society in the novel and the society of human beings. Not unlike human society, the hobbit’s also has norms. One of them is that having an adventure is not a respected thing to do. Siena.edu defines that social norms are beliefs about what is acceptable in a social context. Social norms are rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit (www2.siena.edu/pages3273). If someone does something against his or her social norm s/he would be considered an outcast.
Similar to human society, the hobbit society is a classified one. Of all hobbit families, the richest ones are the Baggins family and Took family. As the only son of Bungo Baggins and Belladona Took, Bilbo cannot have problems with money. On the contrary, at a young age Bilbo has already enjoyed luxurios things in his house and a comfortable life. However, the hobbit society does not seem to use wealth as a norm of respectability. Although both are equally rich, The Baggins family is the most respected, while the Took is the least respected, because they are known for having a great interest in adventure. This implies that the hobbit society values unadventurous attitude highly and underestimates adventurous one.
Interestingly, a young hobbit of the Baggins ; i.e Bilbo Baggins, took part in an adventure of reclaiming the dwarves’ homeland and treasures. As a half Baggins and a half Took, Bilbo must have known the risk of having an adventure; i.e. he would not gain the
society’s respect anymore. He would be considered as breaking the norms due to the decision
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Money or treasure can not be the reward he is looking for by taking part in such an adventure because he is the only son of the rich Bungo Baggins and Belladona Took. Therefore, his decision triggers a question of why he did a seemingly unimportant act which might put himself in a disrespectful situation.
If literature is considered an imitation of what happen in real life, what Bilbo Baggins decided to do seems to be many wealthy people’s common attitude. In reality, many rich and succesful people work for charity to help others and it seems to satisfy their emotional needs to help less-lucky people. Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Melinda Gates are widely known
for their foundation’s involvement in helping the poor in different parts of the world
(www.gatesfoundation.org). Cristiano Ronaldo is another example. The Independent, an online news in the U.K, reported that the Portuguese football player named the most charitable athelete in the world in 2015 after he donated 53, 000 poundsterling for a 10-month-old baby’s surgery. He also financed a nine-month-old’s cancer patient medical expenses (17 August 2015). However, what The Gates and Cristiano Ronaldo have done do not require them to risk their respectful position. On the other hand, those make them be respected even more because they would be considered kind, generous, socially responsible, and humanist.
In contrast, Bilbo is a Baggins who is known as non-adventure hobbit. He has no experience on adventure at all, he only thinks about tea time and lunch. By joining the adventure, Bilbo took the risk of losing respect from others, his comfort hobbit-hole and most probably his life. Therefore, this research would try to examine what motivated Bilbo to go on an adventure, which risked his respectable social position, even his life.
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The findings of the study are expected to helps readers inspire themselves to get out of their comfort zone. The findings are also hoped to help readers understand themselves and other people better so that they will not easily judge other people. Besides, the findings are expected to contribute to literature world and also to help people who might be do a similar research on motivation.
Having J.R.R Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit as the object of the study and only be focusing on the protagonist character, which is Bilbo Baggins, to find out the hidden motivation
behind Bilbo’s decision to go on an adventure, this library research would borrow Freud’s
Psychoanalysis to analyze the novel. Psychoanalysis has been chosen because of a few reasons. First, it is concerned about behaviour, ego and feeling of the characters of a novel. Second,
Freud’s psychoanalysis was selected because the theory deals with someone’s past life,
someone’s desire and someone’s behaviour. It believes that the unconscious, which consists of
repressed desire, need, fear, and conflict, determines what one is like (Tyson12). Since this study would like to find out what motivate Bilbo Baggins to risk his respectable name, comfort zone and his life by behaving against the social norms, Freud’s psychoanalysis would be the best tool to analyze the hidden motivation behind the decision.
My search for previous studies done on The Hobbit brought me to the works of Leah
Smith. Smith’s work explains how Bilbo’s reacted, acted, what Bilbo thought before, during
and after the adventure. Another one is on online website, Cliffnotes.com, of which article
stated that Bilbo’s reason behind taking the adventure is because the dwarves underestimate
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Freud’s
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is one way to understand individual’s attitude and how human mind
works. Believing that human present behavior is shaped by unrealized needs, fears, worries, needs, desires (Tyson 14-15), it sees an individual’s behavior since s/he was very young,
starting from an individual’s childhood experiences in the family. Family is very important in
psychoanalysis theory, because individuals are a product of the role they are given in the family (Tyson 13). It means parents and other family members are influencing an individual’s behavior, consciously and unconsciously.
According to Sigmund Freud, human behavior is determined by the three parts of their mind; i.e. the conscious, preconscoius, and unconscious. Freud argued that conscious is the part that percieves and records external reality and is the reasoning part of the mind. Conscious is not aware of the existence of the unconscious, as we believe that it is the reason for our
analytical skills and also responsible for our behavior, though Freud said that “the unconscious
governs a large part of our action” (Bressler 149). Preconscious is the place of memories that
the conscious part allows to be brought to consciousness without disguising the memories into some form or another (Bressler 150). Tyson said that the unconscious is the part where painful experiences, emotions, wounds, fears, guilty desires and unresolved problem are located (12). Bressler adds that unconscoius also contains disguised truths and desires that want to be revealed in though the conscious (149).
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alcoholic father. She would not necessarily realize that what she really wanted is the thing she never received from her long-dead alcoholic father, which were the love and attention (13).
Since the unconscious is the storehouse of painful experiences, guilty desires, unrersolved conflict, and we do not want to know about them, it comes into our being through repression (Tyson 12-13). Repression does not eliminate those painful experiences, rather it makes the organizers of our current experiences, which we unconsciously allows to “play out” without admitting our conflicted feelings about those painful experiences and emotions we repress (13). Sometimes the reppresed feelings and emotions want to appear in the conscious. Our minds have some mechanism to keep the repressed feeling still repressed (the unconscious remain in the unconscious part), because we will feel overwhelmed by them if we examine them too closely, and that procces is called Defense. Defence mechanism is needed so we will not experiences anxiety. Anxiety happens when our defense mechanism momentarily breaks down (Tyson15).
6 it out’ on someone or something less threatening than the person who caused our fear, hurt,
frustration, or anger (qtd in Tyson 15).
One of many important ideas of Sigmund Freud is the structure of human personality that consist of the Id, Ego and Super-ego. Freud said that the id is irrational, instinctual and unconscious part, containing secret desires, darkest wishes, most intense fears and the id demand immediate satisfaction (Bressler 150). Supporting Bressler, Tyson wrote that the id is full of prohibited desires of power, sex, for amusement, for food, without considering the consequences (Tyson 25). Similarly, Mcleod stated, “the id contains biological needs and
desires such as libido, sex and satisfaction” (simplypsychology.org). In other words, the Id
operates based on pleasure principle. In direct opposition the super-ego acts according to
morality principle and society’s moral restriction. It is a filter to surpress the desires and instinct
forbidden by society back to unconscious, superego will create guilt or fear when the id’s gone too far (Bressler 150). The ego is the conscious part the sense that play a role of referee between the id and the superego, and all three are defined by their relationships and none of them acts independently (Tyson 25). In much simpler way Mcleod said, “ego is the tool to make the id and superego balanced.” (qtd)
Psychoanalysis helps individuals understand their own as well as other people’s attitude and behavior. Aimed at helping individuals resolve their psychological problem (Tyson 12), Psychoanalysis believes that human’s attitudes and behavior are shaped by their past experiences which start in childhood. In essence, human beings are motivated by things they are not aware of, i.e their fears and worries, needs, guilty or unfullfiled desires and unresolved conflict. All these things are repressed and kept in the unconscious. These repressed feelings and experiences organize their present behavior. Besides, family also plays an important role
in shaping an individual’s behavior. One’s perception of his/her position in the family and
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The Hidden Motivation B
ehind Bilbo’s Decision
As a young wealthy hobbit from the Baggins family, Bilbo should not come along to the adventure without a strong motivation because this is against the social norms (Tolkien 7). To dig out the hidden motivation behind Bilbo’s decision to break the norms and have an adventure with a wizard and thirteen dwarves, his family background, and anything related to his past life, which shape his unconscious and structure of personality, would be examined.
Family Background
Tyson stated that family is important and responsible for who we are (13). Considering his family background, Bilbo Baggins should be a very respectable hobbit because he comes from the two richest families in the hobbit society; i.e. the Baggins and the Took. His father was a Baggins, while his mother was a Took. The Baggins family is also the most respected family in the hobbit society because they are known as an anti adventure-family (Tolkien 7).
Bearing the name of his father’s family, Bilbo Baggins is generally a homebody who never
goes on adventures, and his idea of adventure before he had one was “Nasty disturbing
uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them” (9).
Bilbo filled his day with having breakfast, smoking, having tea times and waiting for dinner (Tolkien 8-10).
However, Bilbo Baggins’ mother, Belladona Took, came from Took family whose
ancestors were very fond of adventures. As Tolkien wrote in the first chapter, “Not that
Belladona Took ever had any adventures after she became Mrs. Bungo Baggins” (8). It is clear
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adventures are fascinating. Growing up in an environment that admire adventure, she most probably has a similar idea about adventures. This means Bilbo is raised in a family of a father who disrespects adventures and a mother who has a positive opinion about adventures.
The unconscious
Psychoanalytic Criticism believes that individuals have different psychological record that start with childhood experiences and that their present behavior are shaped by past
experiences (Tyson 13). As a Took and Bilbo’s mother, Belladona must have directly or
indirectly influenced Bilbo with her ideas and childhood experiences about adventures even if she had never had any adventures herself. If she had any, she must have told that story to Bilbo when he was a child. Even, she might have told her not just her adventures, but also the
legendary tale of Old Took’s battle of the green fields, where “he knocked the king of goblin
Gol-firnbul’s head clean off with a wooden club”(18). As a half Took, Bilbo must know the
stories about the Tooks family’s adventures well. As a result, those great childhood’s
experiences must be hidden in Bilbo’s unconscious mind. As the story stated that “Got something a bit queer in his makeup from the Took side, something that only waited for a
chance to come out” (8). What is meant by the Took’s side is most probably Bilbo’s
unconscious, which is filled with experiences or stories of the Took family.
Telling stories seem to be a habit among the Tooks. Chapter six of the story, “Out Of The Frying-Pan Into The Fire”, mentions a tradition inside theTook family when Bilbo, the dwarves and Gandalf met wolves.
"There were no wolves living near Mr. Baggins’ hole at home, but he knew that noise. He had had it described to him often enough in tales. One of his elder cousins
(on the Took side), who had been a great traveller, used to imitate it to frighten him.”
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This proves that Bilbo’s childhood was filled with listening to tales and great experiences. And Bilbo must have loved it, as he “had had it described to him often enough” (72). As it was mentioned before, that must be stored in his unconscious mind.
Because the unconscious consists of, among others, hidden desire (Tyson 13), adventure may be a part of Bilbo’s unconscious. He consciously thinks that he is a Baggins, which means he is aware that he is like the other ordinary hobbit who likes dinner, smoke-ring, handkerchief or anything comfortable (Tolkien 8-10). Yet, that is not completely true. As Tolkien described, when the dwarves were singing, Bilbo thought of something unusual for a Baggins.
“...Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the
great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick. He looked out of the window. The stars were out in a dark sky above the trees. He thought of the jewels of the dwarves shining in dark caverns. Suddenly in the wood beyond The Water a flame leapt up.probably somebody lighting a wood-fire-and he thought of plundering dragons settling on his quiet Hill and kindling it all to flames. He shuddered; and very quickly he was plain Mr. Baggins of Bag-End, Under-Hill, again.” (16).
It proves that Bilbo’s unconscious hides a desire to go to on adventure and see all the things
mentioned by the dwarves so that even he imagined himself doing an adventure. Another
evidence of Bilbo’s unconscious is reflected in his great interest in dragon. When Bilbo heard
the word ‘dragon’, which he had never seen nor had an experience with, he was so interested
that he forgot to shut his mouth (20). As Bilbo had never had adventure before, he should not be excited and interested. That excitement must happen without Bilbo himself knowing it. It is a spontaneous response when he heard about adventorous-stuff.
There is another event that confirms that Bilbo’s conscious which he thinks he’s a
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and warned the others about the trolls or he should do a bit of good burgling to get their ponies back. Yet he decided to do the burgling (Tolkien 29-30). As a hobbit with no experience of adventure at all, Bilbo’s courage reflects that his conscious, in which he thought he was a Baggins, is not completely true, means his courage come from his unconscious.
Moreover, as a hobbit who had never been on an adventure before he joined the dwarves, Bilbo loved adventurous stuffs. When Bilbo and the others met with Elves, it is described that Bilbo loved elves, maps, and runes, (Tolkien 41) which are adventorous-stuffs. Such an excitement and interest can not come out of his conscious mind. Rather, they are what are stored in his unconscious. The reason is because a Baggins, which he thought he was, would never love adventorous-stuffs. Reflecting on the time Gandalf asked him to run, Tokien
explained that “To the end of his days Bilbo could never remember how he found himself
outside, without a hat, walking-stick or say money, or anything that he usually took when he went out; leaving his second breakfast half-finished and quite unwashed-up” (26). Even in his last days, Bilbo still wondered if his decision to come along with the dwarves on their adventure was right or wrong. This means all his life he did not really know why he was off to an
adventure. It implies Bilbo’s unconscious mind which motivates him to take immediate
decision to run and join the adventure.
The Structure of Personality
Freud suggested that individual consists of the Id, Ego and Superego (Bressler 150). They are not completely separated from the unconscious because the Id, which operates based on pleasure principle, is natural (Tyson 25). As the novel supports that adventure may be
Bilbo’s hidden desire, it also describes how he started to think of what adventure is. Starts when
Bilbo decided to follow Gandalf to go to the adventure. “...These didn’t come quite as often as
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(27). Based on that narration, we could identify that adventure maybe Bilbo’s id. The id is instinctual, in the unconscious part and contains hidden desires (Bressler 150). The id wants immediate satisfaction, but it was controlled by the super-ego. Super-ego acts according to
moral society’s restriction (Bressler 150). In Bilbo’s case, the super-ego should be the social
norm existing in the hobbit’s society. One who goes on an adventure is not respectable, especially if the person is a Baggins. That could be one reason why Bilbo had never had any before Gandalf came and offered him to join the dwarves’ adventure. Gandalf’s reasons for asking Bilbo to join the adventure may act as the moral principle. Yet, he still did not know if decision to take part in the adventure was right or wrong.
Bilbo’s uncertainty of his decision is reflected in his responses to the events he faces
during the adventure. When he and his group faced obstacles he started to regret what he had decided. Even though the obstacle was as trivial as a rainy day. Bilbo complained about the water that has got into his dry clothes and his food-bags. Then he said that he wished he had been at home by the fire with his kettle’s beginning to sing (Tolkien 27). In contrast, he previously, thought that adventures were not so bad (Tolkien 27). This shows that he was actually confused and unsure about his decision.
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conflict between his Ego and Superego; his reality and moral principles, creating a moral anxiety (Tyson 26). If His Ego follows his Id, Bilbo would go on an adventure. However, his frequent uncertainty seems to reflect what his superego says that going on an adventure is not respectable. This conflict represents Bilbo’s ‘mixed’ personality as a Took and Baggins as well as a member of the hobbit community who disrespects adventures.
There is a conflict between Bilbo’s Ego and Superego which is reflected when the group reached the elves’ teritory. Bilbo wanted to ask the elves’ opinion about his adventure, because they seemed to know about him, even though Bilbo never met them before (Tolkien 39). This
reflects that the conflict between Bilbo’s Ego and Superego is ‘haunting’ him. He wanted to
know whether his decision to follow his id and came along to the adventure is right or wrong, leaving his hobbit-hole, ignoring his super-ego which says “you’re a Baggins, going in an
adventure is against the norm.”
However, Bilbo’s Id and repressed desire of having an adventure seem to be stronger than his Superego. It can be seen when Bilbo had to face great obstacles. First when Bilbo had to free himself and the dwarves from giants spiders (Tolkien 109-110). When he was in the dark forest and he realized that his legs were wrapped with sticky string, his super-ego is like
saying “if you stay at home you would have been eating bacon and eggs and toast butter.” Yet,
his id is like saying “you can do it, you can finish the adventure,” then Bilbo came back to his
sense again and decided to fight the spider that had wrapped his legs. In the end, Bilbo could kill the spider and save the dwarves. By doing that, Bilbo is also proving that his id is stronger.
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if Bilbo could send a message to Gandalf asking for help, since Gandalf is the one who offered Bilbo the adventure. Yet, his id is stronger and Bilbo realized that it is impossible to ask any help, if anything was to be done, Bilbo had to do it by himself. Eventually, Bilbo could think
an idea to free the dwarves and to get out from the Elven’s king palace (121-126).
Those two Bilbo’s great actions are also form of defense mechanism. Defense
mechanism is the processes to keep the unconscious remain in the unconscious (Tyson 15). Because the unconscious which also consists of the id wouldn’t like to be recognized, because it will make the person feel overwhelmed (15). One form of defense mechanism is sublimation, it changes the repressed material into something grander or disguises it as something 'noble' (Barry 96). Before Bilbo took the decision to come along to the adventure he was underestimated by Thorin (Tolkien 18). Yet, during the adventure Bilbo did a great job by saving the dwarves twice (Tolkien 109-111), (121-126). By joining the adventure Bilbo also proves the underestimation is wrong, he can do more in an adventure and later Thorin finally thanked him and respected him (Tolkien 134).
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Conclusion
The above discussion has revealed the hidden motivation behind Bilbo’s decision to
join the dwarves’ adventure; i.e. his upbringing and his unconscious mind. Bilbo was raised by
mother who had positive opinion towards adventure and his chidhood was full of listening to tales and great experiences of adventure. Those memories must be hidden in his unconscious mind and become the id. Bressler said that the id is instinctual and wants immediate satisfaction
(150). That is why Bilbo’s decision was to come along to the adventure, to satisfy his id.
However, during the adventure, Bilbo’s Ego and Superego are involved in repeated conflicts.
By taking the decision from his unconscious, Bilbo confirms Freud’s theory, one that
motivation can be decided unconscious, proving that unconscious is more powerful than the
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Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to thank lord Jesus Christ for having me as His child and for His love throughout my life. His blessings always comfort me in the middle of problems I’ve been through and He has always strengthened me so that this thesis has been finished. I have never felt abandoned by Him and without his grace I would never have courage to step up and even to deal with my thesis. I can feel His blessings in my life, especially His guidance while I was working on this thesis.
My sincere thanks also goes to my parents: Pamuji Raharjo and Arnik for giving birth to me at the first place and supporting me spiritually throughout my entire life. Their love and patience make me strong and keep me alert that I have two beautiful parents to make them proud of me. I thank my loved one Cindy Elvinna who has been tirelessly supporting me even at my worst time. Also I thank my bestfriend Bernandus Sianturi, for the sleepless nights and for all the fun we have had in life. Thank you for the time we used to share our thesis problem and supporting each other.
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Saul, Heather. Cristiano Ronaldo‘Most Charitable’ Athlete After Donating Thousands. 2015. Web. 22 August. 2016 http://www.independent.co.uk
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Summary and Analysis Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party. Web. 23 September. 2015 Cliffnotes.com
