Distribution of Speakers Time in Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel trilogy written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Until today, it is one of the most popular and influential works of fantasy literature, and has been adapted into several films, video games, and other media. The story follows a group of characters as they embark on a quest to destroy a powerful ring that has the potential to enslave the world.

In this analysis, we will explore the distribution of speakers time in Lord of the Rings. For that, not the minutes of speaking in the movies, but the number of words spoken by each character in the three books will be used as a proxy for the time spent speaking (with some tweaking to include movie-only characters). This is due to practical reasons (data availability), as well as the fact that the movies are an adaption of the three books, making the novels the source material. We will analyze the amount of time each character spends speaking in the novel, and how it is distributed among the different characters.

This analysis will help us understand which characters have the most dialogue and how the speaking time is distributed among the characters in the story. We will also explore any patterns or trends in the distribution of speakers time, and how it may relate to the overall narrative of the novel. This also in light of the gender representation in the novel, as the movies are often criticized for their lack of diverse representation, like not passing the Bechdel-Wallace Test.

Data

The data used for this analysis will consist of two datasets.

Words by Character

This dataset is concerned with the number of words spoken contains the number of words spoken by each character in all three volumes of Lord of the Rings. The dataset was created by counting the number of words spoken by each character in the novels, and is available in the project folder under the name WordsByCharacter.csv.

The creator of this dataset is FSharpAdvent (on GitHub). All information about it, as well as the original dataset can be found here: https://github.com/MokoSan/FSharpAdvent/blob/master/Data.

The data is organized in a tabular format, with each row representing a character and the number of words they spoke in a particular chapter of the novel. The columns include the name of the film (book), the chapter, the character’s name, race and the number of words spoken by them:

Film	Chapter	Character	Race	Words
The Fellowship of the Ring	01: Prologue	Bilbo	Hobbit	4
The Fellowship of the Ring	01: Prologue	Elrond	Elf	5
The Fellowship of the Ring	01: Prologue	Galadriel	Elf	460

The columns are defined as follows:

Film: The Name of the individual novel (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King).
Chapter: The chapter of the specified novel in which the character speaks.
Character: The name of the character who speaks.
Race: The Race (Species) of the specified character.
Words: The number of words spoken by the specified character in the specified chapter within the specified book.

Character Information

The second dataset contains information about the characters in Lord of the Rings, including their name, race, gender and realm.

The dataset is available in the project folder under the name InformationByCharacter.csv. The creator of this dataset is me, Emily. The data was collected and compiled by me, based on information from the novels and other sources, such as the LOTR-Wiki.

The data is organized in a tabular format, with each row representing a character:

Character	Race	Gender	Realm
Aragorn	Men	Male	Gondor
Arwen	Elf	Female	Rivendell
Bilbo	Hobbit	Male	The Shire

The columns are defined as follows:

name: The name of the specified character.
race: The race (species) of the specified character.
gender: The gender of the specified character.
realm: The realm (location) of which the specified character is mainly associated with.

Disclaimer: The data used in this analysis is not official data, but rather data that has been collected and compiled by fans of the Lord of the Rings series (and me). Therefore, there may be inaccuracies or inconsistencies in the data, and it should be interpreted with caution. However, it is still a valuable resource for analyzing the characteristics of speakers time in the novels.

Tasks

1. Data import

The first step in the analysis is to import the data from the two datasets into R. As the data is split into two different files, we will need to import both datasets and then merge them together based on the character’s name. This will allow us to have all the relevant information about each character in one dataset, which will make it easier to analyze the distribution of speakers time.

Hint: Only merge the two datasets based on the character’s name, after summarizing the number of words by character (Step 2.2. of Data Analysis).

Please note, that characters can appear multiple times in the WordsByCharacter dataset, as they can speak in multiple chapters across the three books. In the InformationByCharacter dataset, each character appears only once, as it contains general information about the characters.

Please check:

Is every data record complete (no missing values)?
- If not, can the missing values be reasonably filled in (i.e. gender = “Unknown”?).
- The corresponding rows should NOT be removed.
Are there any inconsistencies in the data (e.g. different spellings of the same character’s name)?
- In the event of a mismatch in the Character or Race column between the two datasets, the corresponding rows should be merged based on the content of dataset 1 (WordsByCharacter).

2. Data Analysis & Visualization

Once the data is imported, we can begin analyzing the distribution of speakers time.

2.1. Speakers Time by Volume

The first step is to calculate the total number of words spoken in each of the three books. For that, create a new table that includes:

What is the total number of words spoken?
Which book has the highest number of words spoken?
Which book has the lowest number of words spoken?

Please visualize the distribution of the total number of words across the three volumes, using a pie chart similar to this:

2.2. Speakers Time by Character

The next step is to calculate the total number of words spoken by each character across all three books. For that create a new table that summarizes the total number of words across all volumes spoken by each character.

Answer these questions:

Which character has the most speaking time?
Which character has the least speaking time?
How is the distribution of speakers time among the characters?
- Is the distribution of speakers time among the characters skewed (i.e. a few characters speak a lot, while most characters speak very little)?

Please visualize this distribution using a pie chart, similar to this:

2.3. Speakers Time by Characteristics

Next, we can analyze the distribution of speakers time based on different characteristics of the characters. Summarize the number of words spoken by characters based on gender, realm and race.

Answer these questions:

Which gender has the most/least speaking time?
- How is it distributed?
Which race has the most/least speaking time?
- How is it distributed?
Which realm are characters with the most/least speaking time associated with?

Please visualize each of these distributions using a donut chart, similar to the one above.

2.4. Speakers Time of Frodo

Finally, we can analyze the speaking time of Frodo, the main character of the story

Calculate the total number of words spoken by Frodo across all three books.
- Compare his total number of words to the total number of words spoken by all characters.
- Visualize this in a pie chart, similar to the one below:
Calculate the number of chapters in which Frodo speaks.
- Compare the number of chapters in which Frodo speaks to the total number of chapters in the three books.
- Visualize this in a pie chart, similar to the one below: