The topic of this essay is to what extent the novel; The Hobbit complies with Joseph Campbell’s theory of the monomyth. The Hobbit is a story of a hobbit, which is Bilbo Baggins who is brought on an unexpected adventure. The Monomyth is a theory that some stories have all 17 stages of a hero’s journey to achieving their goal.
The first phase of the Monomyth is the Departure. The first stage of Departure is ‘The Call to Adventure’ when ‘the hero receives a call to leave his or her normal life and face adventure. This happens in The Hobbit as Bilbo is still in his home and Gandalf appears to send him on his adventure to become a burglar: “ In fact I will go so far to send you on this adventure said Gandalf” (19) and that’s how Bilbo got chosen to become the burglar.
The next stage would be ‘Refusal of the Call’ “a hero at the beginning will reject the call to adventure due to
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‘Temptation’ is the next part of the phase; in this stage it means “The hero is tempted to wander from his quest by some offer of personal gain.” (Marinello) Bilbo wanted to go back home and he just started dreaming of his house. “But all night he dreamed of his own house and wandered in his sleep into all his different rooms” (130)
‘Atonement with the father’ is the next stage for the initiation. “The hero succeeds his master/father figure.”(Marinello) This happens because Bilbo succeeds his goal in the end. Which was to help the dwarves get the gold back. “And I think this time you better all come with me.”
Joseph Campbell calls the initial phase of a hero’s development the “Call to Adventure.” The call is the in...
He left the hobbit, but not before he had scratched a sign on Bilbo’s door. The following day, Gandalf showed for tea, along with thirteen dwarves. This was the beginning of the adventures between the hobbit and the dwarves. The next day, Bilbo somehow found himself leaving his comfortable hobbit hole, and on what seemed to be an adventure. This was the beginning of not just one, but many adventures for Bilbo.
Bilbo Baggins undergoes a hero’s journey in The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien. He departs from his home, is initiated into a more mature mindset, undergoes a road of trials, goes through his innermost cave, and is returned home and reintegrated into society. Bilbo’s journey is also a quest for self identity, because he realizes his place as “quite a little fellow in a wide world” and learns to balance out his respectable Baggins heritage with his adventurous Took background (Tolkien
The first of the Monomyth is the call to adventure when the story starts separating three parts; the ordinary world, the hero’s call
Every hero goes through certain stages in their valorous journey. Some stages are more important in a hero’s journey compared to others. In The Hobbit, the most important stage of the hero’s journey is stage 6, tests/challenges. This is because the hero, Bilbo (a friendly hobbit), learns how to make decisions based on his mistakes and work individually, he learns new tactics and strategies and he earns possessions and answers after accomplishing them. Bilbo learns to make his own decisions when he sees trolls ahead in their way and he must decide whether to warn the dwarves or steal from the trolls. We see Bilbo learn new tactics and strategies when he must win a riddle-contest against Gollum. Bilbo earns an answer when he plans and outsmarts
Andy goes through three steps all heroes experience the departure, initiation, and the return. The first step that will be discusses is departure. Andy experiences the call to adventure first which occurs when a person first notices that everything is going to change. This step happens when Andy first enters into the prison system. Refusal of the call is when a call is given but the hero refuses to need it.
The hero must share their boon with the world but, like the call to adventure, the call to return canbe refused. One such example is in the story of the Hindu warrior-king Muchukunda. When he won a battle against demons, he asked that the gods grant him unending sleep. He went to a cave in the mountains that separated him from the normal world. Muchukunda later returned to the land only to find that he was an giant compared to the man that inhabited it (Campbell 167-169).
After the departure, the initiation into the heroic reputation occurs. The first step of the initiation process is the road of trials. Many battles are experienced by the hero in
The Hobbit begins with introducing our hero, Bilbo Baggins, who is a respectable hobbit that lives in the Shire. His ordinary life is a middle-aged hobbit that does not go on adventures, even though he longs to do something exciting like his deceased mother. His call to adventure starts with Gandalf the Gray, a wizard, who was also a friend of his mother. Gandalf shows up to try and convince Bilbo that he is needed for an adventure, though he does not go into detail about what the adventure would entail. Gandalf leaves after Bilbo refuses the call to adventure and wishes him a good day. He is later surprised by a company of dwarves that show up during dinner time, this moment is in which I believe to be a second call to adventure for Bilbo. They explain to Bilbo about their journey and how it is meant to help take back their mountain from Smaug the dragon. This conversation really begins to ignite Bilbo’s desire to leave the Shire and travel with them, though he again refuses the call to adventure that night. The morning after dinner he suddenly decides to accept the call and races out his door to meet up with the dwarves. He then spends the rest of the movie working through the rest of the hero’s
The first stage of The Hero’s Journey is The Separation, within The Separation there is the call which is the “invitation”for the hero to go on his journey. In the case of The Odyssey the call occurs according to greek mythology, when Odysseus is called to fight in the Trojan War. The second
(20). Amir first refuses the call of action due to being afraid of the adventure ahead of him. Call to action is the very first step of the hero's journey, where the hero is disrupted and the At the beginning he did not posses any heroic qualities, but by taking and accepting the first step of the passage he was able to rediscover his true potential. I believe that Amir came looking to redeem his past mistakes belated, however, he found an alternative way to put himself to peace with his past. I learned that we should stand up for who we are and what we believe to be true.
In the book Heroism in the Harry Potter series, the author discusses how Harry Potter “reintroduced the literary hero to public recognition” (2). Harry Potter brought an analysis on the modern hero and how it still applies to Campbell’s theory. Tom Shippey’s book, J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century, compares how Tolkien’s main characters followed Joseph Campbell’s model of a hero. Tolkien and Rowling successfully create hero’s that appeal to the masses.
Bilbo begins his long journey with the dwarves, who at the time were still skeptical of Bilbo’s abilities. The dwarves didn’t see why they needed such a small incompetent hobbit with them along their journey. Gandalf tells them to stop complaining and to trust that there is more to Bilbo than meets the eye (Tolkien 6). Bilbo soon shows his courage and heroism for the first time in the story when they run into their first obstacle, three large trolls huddled around a campfire. Bilbo, who was once a shy, non-adventurous type, begins to develop into a hero as he tries to steal one of the trolls’ money purses. This is a dramatic scene in the novel because it was Bilbo’s very first act outside his comfort zone. It was this...
The first phase of initiation is the Road of Trials, represented when Gandalf, Bilbo’s supernatural aid, saves Bilbo from a a danger, “Of course it was Gandalf… It burned with a rage that made it gleam if goblins were about; now it was bright as blue flame for delight in the killing of the great lord of the cave” (Tolkien 65). Bilbo realizes when the Goblin attack ends, that adventure can be difficult when Gandalf saves the group from the goblins. The next stage is the Meeting with the Goddess, since Bilbo never actually encounters a mythical goddess in The Hobbit, this ‘goddess’ is represented through the ring, “his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it” (Tolkien 68). In the third phase of Initiation, Woman as Temptress, Someone or something tries to distract the hero from his goal; in The Hobbit, this temptress is represented by the ring; however, it does not affect Bilbo negatively. Bilbo uses the ring to get him and the dwarves out of sticky situations, “The ring felt cold as it slipped on to his groping finger… Gollum passed him by, taking no notice of him, cursing and whispering as he ran” (Tolkien 83). Bilbo uses the ring to get away from Gollum, unaware of its abilities. The fourth phase of Initiation, Atonement with the Father arises during the
The Hero’s journey or monomyth is a 12 step cycle that begins and ends in the hero’s ordinary world. The hero goes forward into a world of mystical wonder where they encounter challenges and many small obstacles along the way. The journey ends when the hero returns from their adventure with a strong victory and transformed - nothing is quite the same when you’re a hero. The hero’s journey is predominantly a story of growth and development. This requires the hero to become estranged from their comfortable normal life as they go through a journey of self awareness, responsibility and skill to mature into a new found person. In the early 1950’s Joseph Campbell first noticed this common template amongst many movies and books. Campbell realised this was a