Are Hobbits capable of evil?

[Kalimac]

Kalessin, eesh, you keep beating me to the punch [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]. All I'll say is that hobbits being related to Men were probably as capable of evil as anyone, they just were living on a scale (and on a level of comfort) which made tendencies that in a Gondor man might have led to betrayal and the fall of a city instead work themselves out in stealing silver spoons and spreading unpleasant stories about the odd Mr. Baggins (How DO you think he got his money anyway, eh? [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]). Their evil, like their good, is acted out on a much smaller scale.

[Birdland]

I've been trying very hard to pin down a definition of true "evil".

Since I'm pretty much raised in a Eurocentric, Christian/Judaic culture, I first looked at the "Seven Deadly Sins":

Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, Sloth.

Welllll...you can easily find hobbits committing at least five of the seven just by reading "A Long-expected Party". We have a bunch of prideful, envious, gluttonous, greedy, and slothful hobbits running around, but for some reason, you don't get a feeling of evil. More like a "Hey, they're just like us" feeling.

Lust is missing, but hey, this started out as a children's book, so we won't go there. (But, in fact, I can only think of one Tolkien character guilty of Lust, and that was Wormtongue.) Also Anger, if you define anger as Wrath or Rage. Hobbits get miffed, huffy, snitty, put-out, but you never see a demonstration of true rage in a hobbit, except when under the influence of the Ring.

Looking at the Seven Heavenly Virtues:

Faith, Hope, Charity, Fortitude, Justice, Temperance, Prudence. (Good judgement)

These virtues seem only to describe "the best" of the hobbits, Frodo, Bilbo, Sam, though we see flashes of them in most of the other hobbit characters. Fortitude particularly seems to be a virtue that most Hobbits are known for. They all seem to have the ability to call on it in times of need.

Hmmmm, where am I going with this? It has always seemed to me that the two Deadly Sins that would lead to acts of true Evil are Anger and Lust (if you define this as a lust for power) Hobbits seem to be in short supply when it come to these two sins. Look at the true abhorance they have to the idea of "hobbits killing other hobbits" Murderous rage is almost foreign to their nature. And murder for gain? Well, we only know of one hobbit that succumbed to that, and look how he wound up.

And it is important to note that a Hobbit's strongest virtue is Fortitude, which is a most necessary virtue if one is to resist the temptation of influences which lead to acts of evil.

My own opinion is that while there are exceptions to every rule, Hobbits as a race would be very unlikely candidates for acts of True Evil. They can be cantankerous and fallible, as we all are, but "Evil"?...Nah!

OK, you can tear it apart, now. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

[Aosama, the Wandering Star]

Like all mortal (and often immortal) beings, hobbits are capable of evil. As Tolkien says, they just follow the rules because they're just "the rules". can you get any simpler than that?
two of the main motives for evil-doing are a) greed and b) lust. Greed rarely pokes his head in, except among a few (Ted SAndyman comes to mind, good pick) and lust?!? Excuse me! Agree with me or not, sex is one of the very last things on a hobbit's mind. Sam blushes to think of Rosie! (ah, the days of innocence...)
But most hobbits, if you told them to rob a bank or kill someone, they'd be all 'huh? why?' becasue they don't really have any reasons to be evil. THe only hobbit i know who could be called evil were a) the S-Bs, b) Ted S. and c) Gollum. The S-Bs were put out because they wanted Bilbo's money. Ted wanted money to, but personally I think he's just a weirdo. And Gollum killed Deagol for the ring. So all in all, hobbits can be bad. they just don't see why.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Mr Frodo -- thank you for resurrecting this earlier thread. It's very interesting to read, both the section on hobbits and the more general discussion.

Yes, like others I agree that hobbits can commit evil. One proof of this is actually what happened at Mount Doom. First of all, the author states several times in his personal writings that hobbits are related to man, sharing many characeristics of man in all but size. When explaining Frodo's failure to freely destroy the Ring, Tolkien also notes in his Letters that it was impossible for him to succeed in doing this of his own free will because he was flawed. Only a being who was perfect could have succeeded in this task. Now, any being who is flawed would certainly have the ability to fall into or commit evil. So if Frodo, who was arguably one of the most spiritually advanced of the hobbits, fell into this group, certainly all of his neighbors--who seem to have been much into gossip and other minor vices--would also have been corruptible in the right circumstances. For the most part, however, hobbit society did not seem to encourage or reward certain forms of evil such as the desire for power or dominion. And hobbit society seems to discourage the "killing" of their own kind in a way that was not true of Man (the one exception being Smeagol/Gollum).


As far as the nature of evil, the situation in Middle-earth was different than the situation today for one reason. Tolkien states that the Third Age was the last one in which all evil was incarnate in one person (i.e. Sauron) or thing (i.e. the Ring). It is for this reason, he explains, that beings in Middle-earth did not have a formal religion or means of worship. In a world where evil is incarnate, the best means of worship is to physically confront the evil. Today, we seemingly have a more difficult task. We are faced with multiple Sarumans, many of whom also have intriguing and seductive voices, and it is sometimes difficult to tell parts of the good from parts of the evil. There are situations where we can see clear evidence of evil that totally outweighs good, but in many other circumstances, the two are mixed and mingled to a greater degree, I think. By the end of the LOTR, I had actually grown to dislike Saruman as much or more than Sauron, since I feel we are still dealing with his ilk today. sharon, the 7th age hobbit

[Amarinth]

cogent as usual, child [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] after reading the arguments above, i get the impression that the hobbits' inclination for so-called "evil" equates nicely with either the capacity for "mischief" (from the mercenary s-b.s to gollum's sneaking around) or a "yielding" to evil (frodo's fall at the crack of doom).

following the incomparable kalessin's train of thought about evil not being a distinction for a form of action, but rather a natural or essential state of BEING, it then seems reasonable to conclude that hobbits ARE capable of evil, but are NOT. i think birdland put that more nicely [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Enedhil]

Hmm, many many good comments made here, it's hard for me to think of something else to say!

But I think although it is possible for the nature of every being in every race to be[come] evil, something or someone has to lead them astray in the first place, or something has to happen to cause it.


Aaag, too much noise around me right now...can't think... [img]smilies/redface.gif[/img]