Were the dwarfs in The Hobbit good or evil?

Answer 1

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkein, has many themes in it, these include adventure, wealth, greed, good and evil.

Tolkien shows the battle between good and evil, through the different characterizations and details of various things in the world of middle earth.

The Hobbit is based around the journey of Bilbo Baggins, as he goes with dwarves to the Lonely Mountain to recapture it and the hordes of treasure that lies underneath it. The Lonely Mountain had been a city of the dwarves. They had lived there for centuries and carved into it great halls to live in.

And being dwarves that found and created treasure, this was what caught the interest of Smaug. When Smaug arrived at there, the dragon killed all but a few dwarves, and believing that he had killed them all, he lived with in the mountain in confidence that he could never be killed.

The local villages and towns, such as Dale and The Lake Town sent men onto the mountain to kill the dragon, but Smaug ate them and decided to attack the villages that had set men to kill him.

In such attacks the only warning that many had of their impending deaths was either a large shadow over them or a glitter of red coming from Smaug's scales.

Smaug in The Hobbit is the epitome of evil, as he kills relentlessly and all he lives for is greed and the treasures that he can not use.

Another thing which can be considered evil is the creature 'Gollum' who lived in the lower caves of the misty mountains. He dwelt underneath the goblins that had attacked the group of dwarves and Bilbo.

When Bilbo escaped he was led down a wrong path and got lost, there he met Gollum, and found a ring (which we find to be of importance in The Lord of Rings, as it is The One Rings, created by Sauron and is most definitely evil ). Gollum is a creature which has been consumed by guilt, power, evil and immense hate that he changes physically, he is no more like The Hobbit-folk of which he was once similar to, but instead he is a creature twisted by the ring and evil and all he wants is to inflict pain, and death onto anyone that takes his 'precious' or comes into his path.

Bilbo in 'The Hobbit' is the epitome of good, as though he would rather not be in danger he is still kind, generous and goodly. He is loyal to his friends and he is sacrificing as he foes on an adventure to help the dwarves even though it is of no importance to him.

During the story Bilbo makes many friends, including Dwarves and Elves, and later on in his life, though the adventure was over they still remained in touch.

Answer 2

For the most part they are good. There are certain evil aspects of their lust for gold, but they overcome that at the end.