A Journey to Find Oneself: Tolkien and Wordsworth Anonymous 12th Grade

A mountain, dotted with fully bloomed flowers and orange-leaved trees in autumn, is left barren by the heavy snowfall endured during winter; however, when spring comes, the mountain is embellished with new flowers, its beauty greater than ever before. Similarly, the kunstlerroman quest follows a circular path with the journeyman ending in the same place they started but as a more idealized version of themselves. In The Prelude, William Wordsworth recounts his kunstlerroman journey. Wordsworth’s inner transformation is echoed by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Hobbit as he describes the adventure of the protagonist, Bilbo Baggins. Wordsworth and Tolkien both illustrate the four components of the kunstlerroman journey: confinement, challenge and inspiration, a peak realization, and confrontation. In the confinement stage, Bilbo and Wordsworth are seen as prisoners to their own environment, and both authors employ a circle motif to symbolize the restrictions on the undeveloped poets. In the stage of challenge and inspiration, Bilbo and Wordsworth adopt the persona of a culture warrior and begin to develop their Romantic side marked by the use of valleys to underscore their journey toward their idealized self. Next, the idealized identity is...