The Hobbit – Riddels in the Dark. Characteristics of Bilbo and Gollum + setting BY 123b0b “The Hobbit” – Riddels in the Dark the setting + characteristics of Bilbo and Gollum Bilbo Baggins is the main character in “The Hobbit”. The story is written in third person past tense from Bilbo’s point of view – this does that the reader gets an insight into Bilbo’s emotions and thoughts throughout the chapter. Bilbo is, as the title suggest, a hobbit. A hobbit is a supernatural creature that only exists in fantasy books. Hobbits are not quite like ordinary people; they are a lot smaller and they sually live underground (p. 7). They have a good sense of direction, recover quickly from bruises and they are very quick. At the beginning of this chapter, Bilbo has Just lost his friends, the wizards and dwarves. In addition, he has also Just been chased by a bunch of goblins and trolls. Whilst he ran from them, he fell into a hole which leads him to the cave that the plot takes places in. The cave has a tunnel system and it is located deep under a mountain. When Bilbo wakes up, he is in a small and dark tunnel. Bilbo walks in darkness in this tiny tunnel, until he suddenly walks into water.
He has arrived to the lake where Gollum lives. Gollum is a small, slimy creature. He has a creepy outlook with a thin face and big pale eyes (page 69). You don’t get to know what kind of creature he is; in the text the narrator says “l don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum – as dark as darkness”. Gollum lives on a small and slimy rock in the middle of the lake. He is living by himself and has been doing that for a long time. He has a little boat that he rows around in the lake in. Gollum loves meat, and he usually eats the fish that are in this lake.
Gollum as a great vision in the dark and is very quickly, so he catches these fish without even really thinking about it. Something that characterizes Gollum is the way he talks. He talks as if he was two people and therefore he has conversations with himself. An example of that could be on page 70: iss he, my preciouss? ” whispered Gollum (who always spoke to himself through never having anyone else to speak to). ” This is the first time we hear Gollum talk. Gollum calls himself “my precious”. The narrator even writes the thing about Gollum, because if the reader doesn’t know this, it would be a very confusing text for the reader.
The fact that he could solve all of those riddles also shows that Bilbo is a quick thinker and smart. The fact that Bilbo doesn’t kill Gollum at the beginning Just when they met shows that Bilbo is a kind person But yet again, in the with the very last riddle, Bilbo did cheat Gollum – even though it was by an accident in the beginning, Bilbo stood by it later, well aware that it really wasn’t fair, but he could see that Gollum would let him do it. This shows that even though Bilbo is kind, he is not stupid and when it really matters he is not afraid to cheat a little to secure his survival.
