Singles Without Stigma

Bilbo remains single. So does Frodo. Sam gets married. 

Leslie A. Fiedler spent a lifetime as a critic claiming that while European and British literature is suffuse with romance, American writers (of the classic novel variety) spent their careers running from the female. 

Like most theories about anything, I think Fiedler has a tiny point that is blown way out of proportion. 

The tiny point is that American culture does seem to idealize marriage and worry incessantly about it while stigmatizing singles--all this in a way that the more outwardly romantic British do not. 

Of course, there is a historical-time-period issue here. Tolkien was born in the late 1800s. He was writing in the early to mid-twentieth century. In England. In a university town. 

In sum, Bilbo's singleness is VERY English. It also carries zero stigma. He is the classic bachelor, even more so than Wooster and, for that matter, his own nephew. Frodo is the Fisher King, the wounded hero who cannot stay in the village he saved. 

Bilbo, on the other hand, is part of his village. He has his books, his friends, his food, his wanderings (hikes), and, eventually, his beloved Frodo. 

And there's absolutely nothing more to be said about his lifestyle one way or the other, either from a conservative or progressive perspective. 

This view of singleness is, truly, quite lovely.