The Hobbit Literary Analysis

JRR Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings books in bits and pieces throughout many decades. Around 1917, it is predicted that he began working on The Silmarillion. The Hobbit, however, was published in 1937, and The Lord of the Rings in 1954. Originally, Tolkien intended on his son to become the first reader of his books. Perhaps, this is the reason Tolkien makes The Hobbit a children’s story; more specifically, it is a quest tale of dwarves and a hobbit looking for a dragon. We can quickly notice that women and a female voice are actually never included within The Hobbit. In the other books aforementioned, Tolkien includes minor female characters that we will be analyzing; The lack of women roles and voices in Tolkien’s books prove that he is actually a sexist author, and intended for his books to solely be for a male audience. After performing close readings and analyzing female roles that are found within Tolkien, readers will be able to note JRR Tolkien’s misogynistic views, which are demonstrated throughout all of his stories within The Lord of The Rings.

While working on The Lord of the Rings, it is noted that Tolkien had read completed parts of his novel aloud to several scholars whom he trusted to give him sensible criticism within this field. Specifically, these critics were men, perhaps his colleagues and close associates at the University of Oxford, with whom he felt comfortable sharing his work with (Carpenter, 12). Tolkien and other scholars discussed as intellectuals, medievalists, and as enthusiasts for imaginative literature. However, like Tolkien, they were traditional men of the late Victorian period where women were still considered second-class citizens, and it was not seen out of the norm to not include...

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... candles and pray for protection for her family as they go on their daily adventures. Belladonna is probably someone who has led a full life and is always looking out for others. Tolkien only gives us a glimpse of Belladonna in that she married, had a great home with her husband, and was most likely very satisfied in the by being a wife, mother and grandmother to her heirs.

In conclusion, the women in The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit have no real place in the grand quest and adventure of the books. We will never know if Tolkien truly did this on purpose or if he was just writing to the customs of the 19th century. Even though there is little mention of the women in these books, they really do have a profound impact on the lives of those involved in the story just as women have a profound impact on the husbands and kids they raise in today’s society.