[Novel] Commodity Fetishism Reflected in "The Hobbit"

 

The Hobbit is a novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. The story of The Hobbit revolves around the hobbit, the dwarves, the elves, the wizards, goblins, trolls, and other fantasy creatures. Even though the characters in the hobbit are not played by humans, but they possess feelings and behavior as human beings in general.  In The Hobbit wealth and social position are very influential.  These proved by a storyline that tells the story of the seizure of gold so it can rebuild the city that has been destroyed and also achieving high positions in society. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit in a difficult situation in England. The book itself was first published on September 21, 1937. After World War I Britain experienced Great Depression. Where social, political and economic development in Britain was not good.  The Hobbit mirroring the condition of that time where businesses went bankrupt and caused the unemployment increased. In such circumstances there would be a lot of people looking for property to improve their lives. They would appreciate money or other valuable things to sustain their lives. This is an overview of capitalism and commodity fetishism. In capitalism system individual can be measured by their wealth. As depicted in the novel how important the golds are, how a valuable object can determine a person's social class and how people are treated by their class.

Karl Marx adapted the term of fetishism from anthropology then relates it to socio-economic structure to become commodity fetishism. Marx assumed that people fetishes to commodity and money so that most of the times they don’t see the truth about economics and society. There will be particular class of people who utilize other people. As written on Sparknotes

“Marx believed that commodities and money are fetishes that prevent people from seeing the truth about economics and society: that one class of people is exploiting another. In capitalism, the production of commodities is based on an exploitative economic relationship between owners of factories and the workers who produce the commodities. In everyday life, we think only of the market value of a commodity—in other words, its price. But this monetary value simultaneously depends on and masks the fact that someone was exploited to make that commodity.” (SparkNotes Editors)

The Hobbit shows that there are some characters who are confronted with obsessions toward a commodity. First, we can take a look at Smaug, who stole the dwarves’ treasure and hoarded it for many long years. His lust for gold, and the greed and madness that accompanies it, as Tolkien calls it dragon sickness. Dragons are essentially greed personified and given wings and fiery breath in Tolkien's world- they are powerful, mythical creatures who can practically live forever, clad in armored scales, with great wings, and who are just as intelligent as they are deadly and there is nothing that they love more than gold. “Dragons steal gold and jewels, as you know, from men and elves and dwarves, wherever they can find them;” as Thorin Oakenshield tells Bilbo Baggins in his hobbit hole that first evening, “They guard their plunder as long as they live – and they never enjoy a brass ring of it. Indeed they hardly know a good bit of work from a bad, though they usually have a good notion of the current market value” (Hobbit, pg. 23). Dragons covet gold though they have no practical use for it, and derive no intrinsic benefit from its possession- yet they defend it with their lives and visit a fiery death upon all those who threaten their hoard. Though the quest of Thorin Oakenshield and company begins ostensibly as a quest to reclaim their lost homeland from Smaug, the dragon, their real purpose for the venture becomes alarmingly clear by the change of the dwarves' demeanor upon entering the mountain at last.

Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of the company of dwarves is another eaxample. His tenacity and passion to reclaim the dragon golds gradually builds in him a violent temper. Although Thorin does not have the fierce look of a monster like Smaug, his attitude towards others reminds us of the image of the dragon. He is a couragous and stern dwarf who shows sufficient leadership during the quest, but he is also a self-conceited person and with strong pride, that already tarnishes his sense of morality. He clings to the glorious days of his family, which have been destroyed by Smaug, and he desires to rebuild the peaceful kingdom that has lost.

Thorin obsessed with the Arkenstone, the most precious item in Middle Earth. The power of the Arkenstone corrupts Thorin Oakenshield, changing him and making him a greedy dwarf, unlike the long-winded yet sensible leader of the party of fourteen that set out for the Lonely Mountain in a noble quest to defeat a dragon and reclaim the homeland of the Dwarves. He is terse and quick to anger, making threats of violence to whomever has hidden the Arkenstone from him and the host that waits outside the entrance to the mountain- which includes many of those who came to his aid with food, shelter, and supplies not so long ago in Laketown. Thorin curses Bilbo when it is revealed that he has stolen the Arkenstone, and after lowering him down the wall to join the opposing army, he cries out, “Be off! You have mail upon you, which was made by my folk, and it is too good for you. It cannot be pierced by arrows; but if you do not hasten, I will sting your miserable feet. So be swift!” (Hobbit, pg 252). Even after all they have been through together, and the numerous times in which Bilbo has saved all their lives, the powerful greed for the Arkenstone is enough cause for Thorin to renounce their friendship in one moment.

Other character who is fetished to commodity is The Master of Lake-town. He (which is also known as Esgaroth) is like the mayor of the town. Lake-town is the last town near the Lonely Mountain, and it sits on Long Lake. When the war ended. He received many riches from Bard after Smaug's death, but "he fell under the dragon-sickness" (Hobbit, pg 276). In other words, he gets really greedy, runs away with as much gold as he can snatch, and dies alone of starvation in the wilderness. It proves that he is too obsessed with gold until it makes him doesn’t want to do anything because he thought that he had what is precious to him.

Tolkien gives realization of a key feature of capitalism that remain relevant. He wants to show that even some characters in the hobbit have fetishism to a commodity. Tolkien portrays the features of the dragon Smaug in detail, and emphasizes Smaug’s brutal and selfish nature and his clinging to treasure. Then, he analogizes the possessiveness of Thorin and The Master of Lake-town with the dragon. In ‘The Hobbit’ the objects emerge as a commodity that has been assigned a monetary value for equivalent universal exchange. Smaug, Thorin and The Master of Lake-town believe that the objects have intrinsic value in and of itself, in this case the objects are golds and arkenstone. Tolkien paints each other character who is obsessed with treasure, and the image of dragon stresses their greedy disposition and their bestiality which is caused by the excessive desires. By depicting Smaug, Thorin and The Master of Lake-town this way, Tolkien shows that excessive Possessiveness narrows one’s vision, makes one lose sight of morality, and causes a harmful influence over others. Tolkien illustrates that commodity fetishism is not good and brought us into destruction. Because the three characters have ended up with no good in the end of the story.