Scholars, including psychoanalysts, have commented that J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth stories about both Bilbo Baggins, protagonist of The Hobbit, and Frodo Baggins, protagonist of The Lord of the Rings, constitute psychological journeys. Bilbo returns from his journey to help recover the Dwarves' treasure from Smaug the dragon's lair in the Lonely Mountain changed, but wiser and more experienced. Frodo returns from his journey to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom scarred by multiple weapons, and is unable to settle back into the normal life of his home, the Shire.
Bilbo's journey has been seen as a Bildungsroman, a narrative of personal growth and coming-of-age, and in Jungian terms as a journey of individuation, developing the self. Frodo's journey has been interpreted both as such a Jungian development, and in terms of the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein and Lev Vygotsky. Jungian interpretations have identified numerous figures who correspond to archetypes, such as Gandalf and Saruman as the Wise Old Man, Gollum as Frodo's shadow, and Denethor and Théoden as the Old King, while Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel and Gollum have all been described as guide figures. Several features of The Lord of the Rings have been interpreted as Jungian mandalas, figures of the self; one such is the group of four Hobbits, who may collectively represent the ego with its four cognitive functions. In Klein's theory, Frodo oscillates between the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions, striving to resolve internal conflicts. In Vygotsky's theory, the journey is towards death, which Tolkien acknowledged as the theme of his book.
Context
Jungian psychology
Carl Jung (1875–1961), a Swiss psychiatrist, coined the term analytical psychology for his approach to the psyche, to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories. (New Pathways in Psychology) Concepts specific to Jung's analytical psychology include the anima and animus, archetypes, the collective unconscious, complexes, extraversion and introversion, individuation, the Self, the shadow and synchronicity. The findings of Jungian analysis have been applied in areas of life including social and family relationships, dreams and nightmares, work–life balance, architecture and urban planning, and politics, economics, and conflict.
J. R. R. Tolkien and Jungian psychology
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) was an English Roman Catholic writer, poet, philologist, and academic, best known as the author of two high fantasy works set in Middle-earth, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien was a member of The Inklings, a literary club that included his friend C. S. Lewis, who was interested in Jungian psychology, "enchanted" by the idea of the collective unconscious, and probably shared these ideas with Tolkien. The Tolkien scholar Verlyn Flieger states that Tolkien's The Lost Road, a story of time-travel by a father-son pair who reappear in different ages in the past, was based on Jungian psychology, in particular the collective unconscious, with a hint of reincarnation. Flieger states that Tolkien's mythology for England was "not simply ... about England ... but ... ingrained in the memory of countless generations of Englishmen, memory revived, reexperienced, and re-possessed ... through the genetic recollections of their ancestors." Flieger comments that in The Lost Road, Tolkien uses the "recognised psychological phenomenon" of sudden flashbacks "as a psychic gateway into locked-off areas of the soul", extending it from past experience to past lives. She states that this was wholly compatible with J. W. Dunne's theory in his 1927 An Experiment with Time which allowed the mind to "dream through time in any direction". The clinical psychologist Nancy Bunting writes in Mallorn that Tolkien expressed a Jungian view in several places, such as in a letter to Christopher Tolkien which in her words "sounds the Jungian refrain of linking native soil, race, and language".
Middle-earth narratives
The Hobbit
The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins, safe in his comfortable home, Bag End, is invited by the Wizard Gandalf and a party of Dwarves to help recover the Dwarves' treasure from Smaug the dragon's lair in the Lonely Mountain. On the way he faces dangers from a group of Trolls in a wood, goblins and the monster Gollum – from whom he acquires a magic ring – in the Misty Mountains, Wargs in Wilderland, giant spiders in Mirkwood, the imprisonment of the Dwarves by wood-Elves, and finally Smaug himself; and many of the opposing groups meet in the climactic Battle of the Five Armies. He returns from his journey changed, but wiser and more experienced., The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
Gandalf demonstrates to the Hobbit Frodo Baggins that Bilbo's magic ring is the dangerous One Ring. Frodo, terrified, bravely sets out of the Shire, heading for Bree, accompanied by his gardener, Sam Gamgee, and two other Hobbits, Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took, both cousins of Frodo's. They are pursued by Black Riders. They escape into the Old Forest, where they are nearly trapped by Old Man Willow, but rescued by Tom Bombadil, master of the forest. They are captured and put under a spell by the barrow-wight; Frodo awakens from the spell and summons Tom Bombadil, who frees them a second time. Reaching Bree, Frodo puts on the Ring, causing shock in the inn there. The Black Riders raid the inn during the night, but the party escape, hidden by a Ranger, Strider. He leads them across the Wild to Rivendell. The Black Riders attack on top of Weathertop hill, wounding Frodo with a magical Morgul-knife. He starts to fade to invisibility. He reaches Rivendell deathly ill, but is healed by Elrond.
The Council of Elrond decides the Ring must be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom. Frodo is chosen to bear the Ring; Elrond chooses eight companions to assist Frodo on the quest, forming the Fellowship of the Ring. They set off south, fail to cross the Misty Mountains in the face of a magical snowstorm, and cross beneath the mountains through the tunnels of Moria. At the entrance, Frodo is seized by the tentacles of the Watcher in the Water. Escaping into the tunnel through the magical Doors of Durin, the party is attacked by Orcs and then by a Balrog, an ancient fire-demon. Gandalf defends the party from the Balrog, but both he and it fall into a chasm and are killed. The others flee, and take refuge in the timeless Elven forest of Lothlórien, where they are counselled by the Lady Galadriel. After leaving that land, one of the party, Boromir, tries to take the Ring, but Frodo evades him using the Ring, and sets off for Mordor.
He and Sam are tracked and then led across the barren hills of the Emyn Muil and the Dead Marshes by Gollum, who is enslaved by the Ring. Failing to enter the Black Gate of Mordor, they travel to the pass of Cirith Ungol, guarded by the giant spider Shelob. Frodo uses the magical light of the Phial of Galadriel to drive Shelob back, and his sword Sting to cut through her web. Shelob ambushes and stings Frodo, and trusses him like a fly in a cobweb. Sam, thinking Frodo dead, takes the Phial, Sting, and the Ring.
Sam rescues Frodo and they cross the wasteland of Mordor. At the Cracks of Doom, Frodo claims the Ring for himself, but Gollum bites off Frodo's finger and takes the Ring. Gollum falls into the fire of Mount Doom and the Ring is destroyed. The surviving members of the Fellowship of the Ring return home, and while the others become heroes, Frodo is scarred by multiple weapons, and is unable to settle back into the normal life of the Shire.
Jungian interpretations
The hero's journey
The evolution and maturation of the Hobbit protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is central to The Hobbit. This journey, where Bilbo gains a clear sense of identity and confidence in the outside world, has been viewed as a Bildungsroman rather than a traditional quest. Dorothy Matthews writes in A Tolkien Compass that the Jungian concept of individuation, too, is reflected in this theme of growing maturity and capability, as Tolkien contrasts Bilbo's personal growth with the Dwarves' arrested development. Thus, while Gandalf exerts a parental influence over Bilbo early on, it is Bilbo who gradually takes over leadership of the party, a fact the dwarves could not bear to acknowledge. The hero's returning from the underworld, with a boon (such as the Ring, or an Elvish sword) that benefits his society is seen to fit Joseph Campbell's mythic archetypes of initiation and male coming-of-age. The Tolkien scholar Jared Lobdell comments that he is "profoundly unsympathetic" to Matthews's psychological approach, but that she "carries it off well". Lobdell explains, citing C. S. Lewis's essay "Psychoanalysis and Literary Criticism", that many different stories could, for instance, have the same Freudian interpretation, but be quite different as literature. He remarks on the other hand that a psychoanalytic approach is at least richer than a purely materialistic one.
The psychologist Timothy O'Neill comments that The Lord of the Rings has the same overall plot and point as The Hobbit, but is far richer in structure and symbol, something that in his view does not detract from either work. O'Neill cautions that Tolkien's narrative is "not intended as an explicit description of the process of self-realization." Instead, as fantasy, it is "a sort of prose dream" where the unconscious has room "to parade its symbols". Noting that Tolkien is rather more thorough than many other authors "does not weaken its impact on the reader". He warns that "The unconscious is not educated in analytical psychology—quite the reverse—and we must make do with ready imagery and organization". Therefore, he writes, one should not "search for archetypes under every stone, behind every tree". All the same, O'Neill comments, "Tolkien's world ... [and] Jung's theoretical framework ... are waters drawn ... from the same enchanted well." Whether for that reason or not, Jungian interpretations have been offered for many features of Middle-earth. For instance, the essayist Allison Harl writes that the Watcher in the Water in The Lord of the Rings represents a gatekeeper whose goal, in the context of the archetypal journey, is to keep the heroes from entering into new territory, psychologically or spiritually. This "guardian theory" has been echoed by writers such as Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. Among the Jungian archetypes (shown in "Quoted Title Case") identified by scholars in Tolkien's narratives are:
+ Some Jungian archetypes identified by scholars Middle-earth Dorothy Matthews, 1975 Timothy O'Neill, 1979 Pia Skogemann, 2009 Gandalf "Wise Old Man" Parts of "Hero", "Self", and "Wise Old Man" combined spirit, "Wise Old Man" opposed by Saruman Gollum "Devouring Mother" "image of the nightmare not-hobbit, the alter ego that lurks just out of sight" Frodo's "Shadow", loss of meaning The One Ring "Circle of the Self" "Circle of the Self", "the potential force that promises to make whole both hobbit and Middle-earth" the dark part of the "Self" Tom Bombadil ————— "Original Man" or "Anthropos";"Trickster" to the Hobbits of Buckland and the Marish;Primitive form of the "Self" "Trickster" Tom Bombadil and Goldberry ————— A perfect whole, yin and yang A paired image of the "Self", syzygy
Paired characters