My favorite lesson of any semester is showing the molding life of Bilbo Baggins by the house he lives in.
The first image Tolkien gives us is a hole:
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the
ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down
on or to eat: it was a hobbithole, and that means comfort " (Tolkien 1).
We are given the symbol of a hole. Tolkien explains that it is not "oozy" or "dry" but that it clearly "comfortable" (Tolkien 1). We go onto read more:
"It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob
in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tubeshaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable
tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls, and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished
chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats the hobbit was fond of visitors" (Tolkien 1).
Without too much ado Tolkien places no hierarchy to the landscape. This hobbit does in fact live in or under the earth. His house has lots of furnishings, but Tolkien clearly inserts that the Hobbit clearly likes visitors which will go on to later bite the Hobbit in the ass in the form of the dwarves. As well the house is filled with lots of maticulous furnishings--clearly the kind that need upkeep and maintenance.
The tunnel
wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill The Hill, as all the
people for many miles round called it and many little round doors opened out of it, first on
one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars,
pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens,
dining rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms
were all on the lefthand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows,
deepset round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the
river" (Tolkien 1).
At first glance the house reads as oppulant and lavish, and interestingly enough, people are caught up in the rustic idea of the Hobbit Hole House. But a deep reading of this house is that it is an excessive place, filled with excess. The fact that Tolkien uses plural nouns to describe what Bilbo has--he has multiple rooms and most people are lucky to have one bathroom, one dining room or one cellar.
Bilbo Baggins has so much stuff--he even has whole, plural "rooms devoted to clothing" which apart from being a male is quite excessive. You also might notice there is no heirarchy of the rooms.
All rooms are on the same floor--meaning Bilbo has so much stuff that it is all the same to him. None of it is really his--which you later find out was all built by his parents and gifted to him.
Bilbo's true heart looks beyond the Hobbit hole. "The best rooms were all on the left hand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deepset round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river" (Tolkien 1).
Tolkien shows us a man living in a house that is actually in the ground. In a sense, this place is a grave, filled with stuff. The Hobbit longs for escape from the place by his affinity for visitors and his yearning to go beyond is garden to the "meadow beyond, sloping down to the river" (Tolkien 1).
Again the house was his father's dream, all of which was bought by his Father,(using his mother's money) and if one even watches the movie, you see Bilbo sits here daily stagnating. The movie has an air of high fantasy, but if there's one things that Peter Jackson does well, its showing that Bilbo's a bit of a sissy, and Gandalf calls him on it. Bilbo hides in his own house from any adventure.
In the paragraph about Bilbo's Mother we are given quite a bit about her which tells us a lot about Bilbo. "The mother of our particular hobbit … what is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some
description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us.
They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves.
Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday
sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me
come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off" (Tolkien 1).
We can see quite clearly that Hobbits are pretty boring.
"They are
inclined to be at in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear
no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the
stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, goodnatured faces, and
laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can
get it). Now you know enough to go on with" (Tolkien 1).
As we can also see Hobbits are garish. They remind meof people that dress extravagantly but eat far too much.
"As I was saying, the mother of this hobbit of
Bilbo Baggins, that is was the fabulous Belladonna Took, one of the three remarkable
daughters of the Old Took, head of the hobbits who lived across The Water, the small river that
ran at the foot of The Hill. It was often said (in other families) that long ago one of the Took
ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but certainly there was
still something not entirely hobbitlike about them, and once in a while members of the
Tookclan would go and have adventures. They discreetly disappeared, and the family hushed
it up; but the fact remained that the Tooks were not as respectable as the Bagginses, though
they were undoubtedly richer. Not that Belladonna Took ever had any adventures after she
became Mrs. Bungo Baggins. Bungo, that was Bilbo's father, built the most luxurious
hobbithole for her (and partly with her money) that was to be found either under The Hill or
over The Hill or across The Water, and there they remained to the end of their days. Still it is
probable that Bilbo, her only son, although he looked and behaved exactly like a second edition
of his solid and comfortable father, got something a bit queer in his makeup from the Took
side, something that only waited for a chance to come out. The chance never arrived, until
Bilbo Baggins was grown up, being about fifty years old or so, and living in the beautiful
hobbithole built by his father, which I have just described for you, until he had in fact
apparently settled down immovably" (Tolkien 1).
Someone said once we live in dreams, that when we are young we ache for travel and adventure, but when we get old we desire comfort and security. Bilbo is the expression of that, he is dead and if you read the first four paragraphs of the Hobbit, you get the idea that that the adventure is what he yearns for, what changes him and what brings him to life.
Today I want to show you the power of landscape at the beginning of something. Bear in mind most movies start with Landscape, and all the best writers, translate for you when you start a movie what is going to happen.
The landscape here is more than just trees and vistas...In this example, we don't start with Trees and views, we start with Darkness. Landscape can be more than just land views. It can be rooms, objects, desks, and people, and the landscape you are going to see here is going to be more than that. I'm going to show you how landscape in the hands of great writers will always reveal something about character and the story to come.
If you haven't read the four opening paragraphs of the Hobbit, please do, it is one of the most amazing revealing sections of writing about a character and about a story ever. Here it is.
As an example, The Hobbit movie starts with Darkness, to which a older, refined Bilbo lights a match. We then see the old Bilbo walking down the tunnel of his house, the solitary candle his light. The music is upbeat, and we get a few images. A Sword. A Red journal which he opens to a picture of what he looked like when younger. In bold words, "I am old now Frodo. I'm not the same Hobbit I once was." Here we clearly see the onder, wiser man reflecting on what he was. What we're going to understand soon is that he was dying...a stagnant man more concerned with food and his mother's antiques than any kind of life. If one reads the 4th Paragraph of The Hobbit, we find out so much about his Momma, who by the way, is mentioned directly by Gandalf and then shown at the end of the film.
Bilbo's next words are, "I think it is time for you know what really happened." The Camera then pulls away from him as he starts to relay the story of the "Dwarves of Erabor." As any young person, the excitement of the story of Erabor is just that exciting, but the power of The Hobbit, (book and movie) is really the strength of the story of Bilbo, a man who has never really known life, and he is about to relay how he had an amazing journey, but the journey we should connect to is his. The opening of this movie is about him. Sure, we get Kings, we get elves, we get dragons, but this book, and its deeper meaning, is about Bilbo. The Camera moves from him and we get his take on the lost kingdom of Erebor. We see fantastic stuff, but the power of the opening will always be Bilbo and here are a few examples of this. These are my favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5k3X9huWVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_cwRqXBR4Q
And the One that warms my heart:
I'm going to give you another example here of how landscape reveals character. This is from Wuthering Heights
1801. - I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with. This is certainly a beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society. A perfect misanthropist's heaven: and Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us. A capital fellow! He little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows, as I rode up, and when his fingers sheltered themselves, with a jealous resolution, still further in his waistcoat, as I announced my name. 'Mr. Heathcliff?' I said.
A nod was the answer.
'Mr. Lockwood, your new tenant, sir. I do myself the honour of calling as soon as possible after my arrival, to express the hope that I have not inconvenienced you by my perseverance in soliciting the occupation of Thrushcross Grange: I heard yesterday you had had some thoughts - '
'Thrushcross Grange is my own, sir,' he interrupted, wincing. 'I should not allow any one to inconvenience me, if I could hinder it - walk in!'
(Notice right here, what Heathcliff means. You are insignificant to me, and though you are renting my property, it is not yours, it's mine. There's a warning here that passes over Lockwood's head. Nobody hurts me. i allow you to rent the property, but guess what, it's mine.)
The 'walk in' was uttered with closed teeth, and expressed the sentiment, 'Go to the Deuce:' even the gate over which he leant manifested no sympathising movement to the words; and I think that circumstance determined me to accept the invitation: I felt interested in a man who seemed more exaggeratedly reserved than myself.
(It also completely passes over Lockwood's head that Heathcliff doesn't really want to be bothered by Lockwood...)
When he saw my horse's breast fairly pushing the barrier, he did put out his hand to unchain it, and then sullenly preceded me up the causeway, calling, as we entered the court, - 'Joseph, take Mr. Lockwood's horse; and bring up some wine.'
(Heathcliff only reacts here to the horse because Animals to him are purer than humans and the only reason he opens the gate is because Lockwood is too dense to see that Heathcliff DOES NOT WANT TO BE BOTHERED!)
'Here we have the whole establishment of domestics, I suppose,' was the reflection suggested by this compound order. 'No wonder the grass grows up between the flags, and cattle are the only hedge- cutters.'
Ultimately, here is what I have marked for you. This opens with two men. One renting a house in Northern England who is interested to meet his landlord.
Heathcliff, his landlord isn't interested in his renter Lockwood other than to say, where's the rent? Also, he's pretty clear the man is "Renting," not "leasing" the property. In fact, what is clearly shown here is I guess you can come in, and then Heathcliff DOESN'T open the gate for him, until he sees the man might be so dense as to literally drive his horse through the gate.
Lockwood makes particular note here of how unkept, Heathcliff's property is, and he attributes it to a whimsicality, or rusticness of his landlord. But Heathcliff isn't whimsical, he's cold, hard and blunt.
The house, that Lockwood is renting is beautiful, its a large amazing house. Later we will see that Heathcliff, the landlord lives in Wuthering Heights-- a smaller more natural house.
This story that spans several years is told through several sources, but it involves Heathcliff, and the servants Heathcliff "keeps," around him. All of this is filtered through Lockwood, an upbeat man who is about to learn the extent of Heathcliff's heartbreak, his cruelty and his drive.
Heathcliff is a man who has weathered the years and now finds himself master of both houses, and the servants and tennants of each are a mixture of both houses, offspring of each charcter.
Heathcliff owns both houses where our past story takes place, rents out the nicer, larger, cleaner and opulant house and lives in the rustically, less grand house. Hevprefers it because it represents his connection to a younger, more gentle, less superficial Cathy who we are about to meet through stories and her ghost.
Heathcliff, is a bitter angry man, and as you can see, he only pauses for a minute to protect the horse, a creature with less than complex emotions.
Still, we will learn much about both Lockwood and Heathcliff in the book to come, and the type of person they are and ultimately what kid of man Heathcliff could have been,
Now bear in mind, none of this is guess work. None. I have read the whole book, and i know the ending of both the Hobbit and Wuthering Heights, so in order to draw these conclusions, i have read the whole book.
Everything we see in the opening paragraphs, alludes to what we will learn in the book, and i never make assumptions without all the information. So, listen closely, you must never assume you can analyze something from the beginning without reading all the way through and knowing the ending.
That is the first key to analysis, when you read this remember that, you analyze the beginning with the full knowledge of the whole story.
If you read the whole book and find out what happens to Heathcliff, Cathy and their children, you discover that the opening landscape is very telling. That between these two places, far from england, and far from prying eyes, all manor of inhumanity, love and tragedy happens--marked by the presence of unspoiled nature and kept secret from the prying eyes of the world.
Heathcliff is a very blunt, hard man and he knows very little of civilized society. Lockwood is a good man who believes in good living, fairness and treating people well, but Heathcliff knows none of that. He's had to claw his way up the ladder of success and when he's told someone he loves them, he's been told that they cannot be together--the love of his life chose the wealthy man of Thrushcross Grange, rather than him. For Heathcliff the only pure things are natural, unspoiled, like childhood, animals and hunting. He's a bit of a permanent hunter with people because he is a predator, and he applies his natural hunting ability to how he controls people and animals and how he aquired Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff doesn't respond to Lockwood, because Heathcliff is a closed off emotionless man. He has conquered all his enemies. Anyone who has wronged him is either dead, or in his servitude. He lets, however, things respond naturally as they do, and ultimately, refuses to be troubled with even better living.
Heathcliff is a very troubled man--and here it is, all set up for you in the opening moments of the book, between Thrushcross Grange and Weathering Heights, and perhaps through the eyes of Lockwood, we will learn all of Heathcliff's secrets and the secrets of the supernatural.
