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| Stevenson, Robert Louis Balfour (1850-1894) and hi
Stevenson, Robert Louis Balfour (1850-1894) and hi
Preparation of the special field of
Simone Kofler 8.C-1997/98
ROBERT LOUIS
STEVENSON
THE AUTHOR:
Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on the 13th of
November in 1850. The son of a successful civil engineer, he was expected to
follow the family profession, but finally was allowed to study law at Edinburgh
University. Stevenson reacted violently against the
Presbyterian[1]
respectability of the city´s professional classes and this led to painful
clashes with his parents. In his early twenties he became afflicted with a
severe respiratory illness from which he was to suffer for the rest of his life;
it was at this time that he determined to become a professional writer. In 1879
he nearly killed himself travelling to California to marryy Fanny Osbourne, an
American ten years senior. Together they continued his search for a climate kind
to his fragile health, eventually settling in Samoa, where he died of cerebral
haemorrhage[2] on the third
of December in 1894.
Stevenson´s
Calvinistic[3] upbringing
gave him a preoccupation with predestination and a fascination with the presence
of the evil. In "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886) he explores the darker
side of the human psyche, and the character of the Master in "The Master of
Ballantrae"(1889) was intended to be "all I know of the devil".
Stevenson began his literary career as an essayist and travel-writer, but the
success of "Treasure Island"(1883) and "Kidnapped" (1886)
established his reputation for tales of action and adventure. As Walter Allen
comments in The English Novel: "His rediscovery of the art of narrative,
of conscious and cunning calculation in telling a story so that the maximum
effect of clarity and suspense is achieved, meant the birth of the novel of
action as we know it." "Kidnapped" and "The Master of Ballantrae" also reveal
his knowledge and feeling for the Scottish cultural past. During the last years
of his life Robert Louis Stevenson´s creative range developed considerably.
At the time of his death he was working on "Weir of Hermiston", at once a
romantic historical novel and an emotional reworking of one of his most
distressing experience, the conflict between father and son.
THE BOOKS:
1.) Treasure Island:
-Narrative process:
During the whole book Jim Hawkins is the narrator of the
adventures on Treasure Island, except Doctor Livesey´s narrative from the
chapters XVI to XVIII. The young narrator enables the boy-reader to become
involved in those crucial experiences of ”fear and danger” by which
the author set such store. He has been asked by the Squire and the Doctor to
provide a record of all that had happened, to keep nothing back but the exact
location of the Island, all the treasure not having been lifted. He is trusted
to provide a reliable report: this trust that the adult world places in the
narrator is, as has been pointed out, part of the boy-reader´s day-
dream.
Jim as a narrator has two apparently paradoxical attitudes
to his own story: on the one hand he thought that the journey to seek for buried
treasure would be a delightful
dream[4] but on the
other hand he wrote that in all his fancies nothing has occured to him so
strange and tragic[5]
as their actual adventures.
Jim´s viewpoint varies between two poles: at one time,
he is the hero of his own dream, a good day-dream of a quest for treasure; at
another he is the narrator of a strange and tragic
story.[6]
-Characters:
àJim
Hawkins: He both as boy-within-the-story and as narrator of the tale in
retrospect, became the hero of his own text. The adult characters relied on him
and were right to do so. His heroic role was summed up in the Doctor´s
comment: ”Every step, it´s you that saves our
lives!”[7] But
ultimately the dream had to end: as Captain Smollett said that Jim was too much
the born favourite for them to go to sea again
together[8]. The young Jim
Hawkins had to grow up, but, before this came to be, he was a ”sharer in
the alarms”[9] of the
story and of its characters.
Jim´s neutrality means that he was effective as the
type of narrator who allowed a maximum concentration on the incidents of the
author´s romance.
When young Hawkins came to Bristol with his experience of
Black Dog and Blind Pew he thought that he knew what a buccaneer was like - a
very different creature, according to him, from this clean and pleasant-tempered
landlord.
àJ.
Hawkins´ parents: His Father kept the "Admiral Benbow" inn in
Bristol. The inn had very little company so it was very quiet. He was very ill
and died shortly after the arrival of Billy Bones.
The Mother was a very kind woman. She cooked the food
for the inn, which tasted delicious. When the Father was ill she nursed him and
still kept the inn open. She thought of herself that she would be an honest
woman but once (when they got the money which Billy Bones owed the Father out of
his room) Jim blamed her for her honesty but also for her greed, for her past
foolhardness and present weakness.
àDr.
Livesey: He was the doctor of Jim´s Father. When Billy Bones fell down
after the fight with Black Dog he helped the "Captain".
He was not a doctor only but also a
magistrate[10] and in
this duties he was respected by everyone, especially by Billy Bones and other
shady figures.
From chapter XVI to chapter XVIII the narrative is continued
by the doctor. This part of the book is brisk, lively and rather bluffly
dismissive about the facts of death and violence. The doctor had a low opinion
of pirates. He was a good friend of ...
àSquire[11]
John Trelawney: Looked for a ship in Bristol to go and search for the
treasure and found the Hispaniola. As he stood on the dock he started
talking to an old sailor, who kept a public house and knew all seafaring men in
Bristol. This man wanted a job as a seacook. His name was Long John Silver and
this man helped him to get other men to go to sea with them. He was initially
prepared to trust...
àLong
John
Silver[12]: He
had a banker´s account which had never been overdrawn and he was a man of
substance. He had lost one leg and he left his wife to manage the public house.
On the journey to "Treasure Island" he was the sea cook of the
crew.
àCaptain
Smollett: He is the lesser figure in Treasure Island, who clings to the
conventions of a rigid morality and a narrow realism, a scheme in which he
believes that the Author is firmly on the side of the good. The Captain held
tenaciously to his position in the fable.
He was a sharp-looking man who seemed angry with everything
on board and was soon to tell them why. He didn´t like that cruise, he
didn´t like the men on board and he didn´t like his officer. He had a
bit of feeling what the seamen were like. He was responsible for the ship´s
safety and everymen´slife. Dr. Livesey thought that he has been a very
honest men.He has put doubts about Long John Silver.
-Plot:
The novel "Treasure Island" is about a young boy, Jim
Hawkins, who finds a map of a treasure island in a room of one of their guests
who didn´t pay. Dr. Livesey, Squire Trelawney, Tom Redruth and Jim went to
Bristol to get a crew and a ship for the journey. After they had found it they
went to sea. The crew was full of rough buccaneers and pirates. One of them was
Long John Silver. He was the sea cook but he seemed to lead the
group.
One day young Hawkins listened to a discussion between
Silver and one of his mate. They said that they wanted to overtake the ship as
soon as they reached the island. Of course Jim told it Dr. Livesey and so they
were prepared for the attack just in front of the island. But the pirates were
better than the gentlemen and they were all arrested except Jim who could
escape. On the island he found shipwrecked Ben Gunn who helped him to fool the
bad crew and there was a big fight on the island where a few people died. At the
end even Long John Silver helped them to seek for the treasure and after they
had found it they went back on their boat and wanted to go home again. They
arrived at the port of Spanish America and were happy to be on the country
again.
-Time:
Robert Louis Stevenson´s first novel "Treasure Island"
was started in August 1881 when he found a map drawn by his 12-year-old stepson,
Lloyd Osbourne, just to Lloyd´s amusement. During late August and September
15 chapters were written at the rate of each day, the remainder of the text
completed at Davos later in 1881. It was published in 1883.
The time span is about four weeks but the time is compressed
because everything is happening so fast.
-Space:
There are several settings and places. First it all starts
at the "Admiral Benbow" inn of Jim Hawkins´ parents. There they find the
map and also a lot of money. After that they change the setting to Dr.
Livesey´s house to show him the map and to ask what they should
do.
After their decision to seek for the treasure they go to
Bristol to look for a boat and also a crew to help the
gentlemen.
Most of the action happens on "Treasure Island" until the
final chapter when they ship back home and arrive at a port of Spanish
America.
-Language:
The use of non-standard language is a recurrent problem in
children´s or juvenile fiction. Stevenson, as a Scots writer, was to come
up against it. In certain cases he makes the speech of his characters more
colloquial and less standard than in the serialization if the novel. But this is
not so with Long John Silver: when it comes to rewrite his speech Stevenson
makes him more refined and genteel.
Traditionally in the 19th century children´s
fiction non-standard language is a sign of a bad character or the language of
one who is a periphal actor in the story.
Two linguistic points are important in terms of texture of
the narrative in "Treasure Island". First, Silver´s more standard speech
singles him out from the rest of the pirates and mutineers. It makes him not
only appear better educated than them but also more complex morally; and this
affects both the reader´s and Jim´s apprehension of
him.
Second, it makes those occasions when he does use
non-standard speech more empathic.
The pattern of standard and non-standard speech in the text
makes a difference between the pirates and the faithful party. The non-standard
speech becomes the mark of "illegality".
Linked to the textual contrast between legal, standard
English and non-standard pirates´ speech, are the amendments the author
made to Dr. Livesey´s narrative.
This is more lively, brisk and rather bluffly dismissive
about the facts of death and violence.
-Symbolism:
The most characteristic leitmotif is that there are two
different characters in all of us: the good and the evil. The best example is
Long John Silver: first he seems to be rough and untouchable seacook who just
wants the treasure and the money. But in the course of the action he starts to
be freindly and understanding.
Nevertheless, he wanted to show his mates that he is a
strong and rough pirate.
At the end there is a real friendship between Jim and
Silver.
For me it was a thrilling book especially at the end when
Jim and the gentlemen fought against the other buccaneers. Nevertheless, I think
that it is a book for men to make one feel a boy again but also that it is a
good report of a frightening journey.
2.) The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde:
-Narrative process:
Firts there´s a third-person narrator until the end
where Dr. Lanyon and Dr. Henry Jekyll give their full statement of the strange
case. All of the narrators seem to be reliable because they are highly educated
lawyers and doctors and in this jobs they have to be honest and
reliable.
-Characters:
All the characters in the story are sense-isolated. They
have no wives, no families and no close friendships. They have servants and they
have acquaintances, but that is all.
àDr.
Henry Jekyll: He is an apparently respectable man who contains within him a
potential for profound wickedness, released in the shape of Mr. Hyde. He is a
moral and decent man but he has always been leading a double life and he is
doing that because he has aimed so high. He wanted respect, honour and
distinction, to be highly regarded in society, and thus felt that he had to
conceal any irregularities in his life. In the last phase of the story he takes
over as narrator and tells us about himself. He is seen as a respectable man
engaged in a worthy profession. He has tried so hard to be good - he has led a
life "of effort, virtue and control" - the undeveloped evil side of his nature
is what is set free.
àMr.
Edward Hyde: Dr. Jekyll ,in becoming Mr. Hyde, is liberating himself. He
sets himself free from moral restraint and becomes beast-like,
brutish[13], sub-human
and pure evil. He shows that there´s the potential for evil within us
all.
After the change he was slighter, smaller and younger than
Jekyll and he had full liberty and power in Jekyll´s house. Hyde had his
own room in Soho, his own clothes and even his own bank
account.
His leading characteristics were complete moral
insensibility and insenste readiness to evil.
àMr.Utterson:
The lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile;
cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long,
dusty, dreary and somehow lovable.
His friendships seemed to be founded in a similar
catholicity of good-nature. His friends were those of his own blood or those
whom he had known longest and this united him to them. His relationship to
Enfield is cool and distant and there is no real intimacy.
àMr.
Richard Enfield: Utterson´s distant cousin and the well-known man about
town.
He and Mr. Utterson go for walks every Sunday and people
report that they don´t say a word and looked absolutely
dull.
On another walk he told his friend that he had a frightening
experience with a man looking like Satan who ran down a little girl. Mr. Enfield
and other passer-bies stopped him and told him to pay kind of compensation for
the girl´s family´s suffering. He gave them a cheque where the
honourable Dr. Jekyll had put his signature. Of course Enfield didn´t trust
him but on the next day the bank employee told him that the signature was not
forged.
àDr.
Hastie Lanyon: He was a good friend and collegue of Dr. Jekyll. Utterson,
Jekyll and Lanyon were very good friends.
When Jekyll was very ill Lanyon treated him and ther he
found out that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person. And this was his
death.
In a letter to Uttersonwhich had to be opened after his
death he told him the frightening story.
àPoole:
He was Dr. Jekyll´s devoted butler. When the strange actions around
Jekyll´s house started he always informed the loyal
friends.
-Plot:
The story "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is about a doctor who
creates a tincture which transfirmates your body and soul into your unknown evil
character.
He changed himself from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde. When he
was Mr. Hyde he could do all the things he cwasn´t allowed to do in his
moral and decent character of the doctor.
Nobody knows about the changes in Dr. Jekyll but suddenly
the "magic" tincture doesn´t really work any more. Over night he changes
from good to evil and he can´t return the transformation.
Dr. Lanyon, his friend, find sout about the strange and
wrote a letter to the lawyer Mr. Utterson . The next night Lanyon is dead and
shortly after that the evil Hyde kills himself.
-Time span:
The story plays in the 19th century. The first
three chapters happen about a year before all important actions. The time span
seems to be compressed because everything occures from October to January or
longer but it seems to be in a few days.
-Space:
The setting is London. But the ambience is without a doubt
Edinburgh, the Edinburgh of the Old Town´s dark wynds and closes, where the
turn of a corner could abruptly leave behind the world of surface
respectability, and the lingering shades of Burke and Hare, the grave-robbers,
and Deacon Brodie, cabinet maker by day, criminal by night, still flavoured the
atmosphere.
There are several places where the actions take place, for
example Jekyll´s house, the streets of London, Utterson´s bachelor
house and the homes of other characters.
-Language:
Although the characters are highly educated the language is
still easy to understand. They don´t use regional expressions and the
dialogues are not complex.
-Symbolism:
There are two messages within the book: firstly to beware
the hidden sin and secondly to beware tampering with nature.
Stevenson wants to show that even in an apparently
respectable man there is the potential of the evil and that nearly everyone is
leading a doublelife within oneself.
It is a frightening but also gripping book which can be read
easily in one day.
The reader can also learn something of this book: even the
best educated and politest men or women can sometimes have a day or a situation
where they want to show the evil just to be good again the next
time.
3.) Kidnapped:
-Narrative process:
There is a first-person narrator in the character of David
Balfour who is the hero of "Kidnapped". He is reliable because he is fully
involved in all the actions during the story.
-Characters:
àDavid
Balfour: David is representing lowland Scotland -
mercantile[14],
canny[15], Hanoverian and
Whiggish, law-abiding and Presbyterian. He seems to be the conventionalized
first-person narrator, the universal representative, the person for whom every
reader could substitute himself. He is a rationalist, an
endurer[16] and a
survivor. He never initiates action or ever consciously makes a decision. On the
one hand he can be very unpleasant but on the other hand David shows a
touchingly naive faith in the rule of law and an untouching belief in his own
rectitude[17].
àMr.
Campbell: he is the minister of Essendean,the place where Davie lived, and a
very close friend of his dead father. Before David leaves his home he gives him
a few presents, his father´s will and also good advices on the
journey.
àMr.
Ebenezer Balfour of Shaws: He is David´s uncle and a very rich, greedy
old man who was liked by none of his neighbours or folks.
When David came to his house he wanted to get him away as
fast as he arrived there. He even tried to kill his nephew. After that they went
on a journey to the "Queens Ferry" and on this journey the evil side of his
uncle turned up again and he wanted to kidnapp the young man.+
àAlan
`Breck` Stewart: His character is in contrast of David´s. He is feudal,
romantic, proud to a fault, a lover of lost causes, Jacobite. He is lost between
a feudal system where the masters have deserted, or are about to betray, their
people and a square society for which he is unequipped and has, in any case,
little taste. It is easy to draw at the mistakes of his character - vainglorious
to an extreme, sentimental, cussedly out of touch with historical reality. He
becomes a real good friend of David.
-Plot:
The adventure story "Kidnapped" is about the young Lowlander
David Balfour who leaves his home after his father´s death to look for his
uncle. As he finds him the uncle is not pleased with the arrival of young David
and wants to get rid of him by using unfair methods like attempted murder or
kidnapping.
He kidnapped him on a ferry where other people were captured
as well and with another prsoner he tries to escape and they have done it. The
other prisoner is Alan `Breck` Stewart a Highlander who fought for his culture
and for his family.
After the fights on the ship they get shipwrecked and David
and Alan have lost eachother. After a struggle of life and a few hard actions
for both of them they find eachother in moment where a King´s servant was
murderered. The murderer escaped very fast and of course the two friends were
blamed for the case.
Both fled through the Highlands of the King´s
soldiers.
After two months they passed the forth and then he wantes to
look for Mr. Rankeillor who could have give him his property, namely the kingdom
of the Balfours of Shaw.
-Time span:
The story starts in June 1751 and end son August the
24th. Time seems to be expanded because everything is described very
detailed. If there wouldn´t be any date you would think that the actions
were happening ina year or more.
-Space:
Everything starts in Essendean where David, his parents and
the minister and his wife live. Then young Balfour goes to Cramond which is near
by Edinburgh. There he gets kidnapped and arrives shirwrecked on the south end
of the Isle of Mull. From there he goes through the Highland to Mr. Rankeillor
in Queensferry and then back to Edinburgh.
The settings change very fast and it is often very confusing
because of the difficult Scottish names. But with a map of Scotland you can
easily find the which Alan and David went.
-Language:
Also The Language is often very confusing. British English
and also Gaelic[18] are
mixed up and if you want the translation of the Gaelic expressions you loose the
flow of reading.
Regional expressions are used very frequently and it is
complex to read.
-Symbolism:
"Kidnapped" is in some ways a national epic of the
conflicting forces of "the dour and rational" against the "adventurous and
romantic" in post-Union Scotland. The book shows perfectly the differences
between Highlander and Lowlander and also their conflicts.
If someone reads the book it would be better to have some
background information of the most important historical actions and also a map
would be helpful.
The book offered me a gripping journey through Scotland
where I learned more about the mentality of the Scots.
4.) The Master of Ballantrae:
-Narrative process:
The narrator is the servant Mr. Mackellar, who enjoyed a lot
of confidence of all of the Duries. That´s why he seems to be really
reliable and also the fact that he was part of some of the actions makes the
impression that he writes the truth.
He shows that it is kind of a report of the actions at
Durrisdeer and that he wants to show the real characters of the
family.
In the second chapter Chevalier de Burke toook over the
narration and told the story of the supposed dead Master of
Ballantrae.
-Characters:
[1] = (a member) of a
Protestant church governed by a body of official people all of equal rank, as in
Scotland
[2] = a flow of blood in,
of or connected with the brain (Gehirnblutung)
[3] = having severe moral
standards and tending to disapprove of pleasure
[4] quotation p. 40:
While I was still in this delightful dream...
[5] quotation p.
36:Sometimes the isle was thick with savages...
[6] He refers again to
his tragical adventures on p. 144.
[7] quotation p. 168:
Every step...
[8] quotation p. 185:
”Come in, Jim,”...
[12] He was a smooth
and formidable adventurer of whom R.L.Stevenson was rightly proud and for whom
even he felt a little admiration.
[13] =tierisch, roh,
triebhaft
[18] ...is any of the
Celtic languages, especially that of Sotland, or those of Ireland and the Isle
of Man
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