Study Guide

Treasure Island Quotes

  • Language and Communication

    Chapter 1


    It's only appropriate, given that Robert Louis Stevenson is a writer, that he assigns so much magical power to language and storytelling. Billy Bones is charismatic and exciting because he tells amazing pirate stories – ones much like the one we are reading. Billy Bones foreshadows what's coming down the road for Jim. By placing this outlandish, larger-than-life pirate in the middle of quiet English society, Stevenson is really highlighting how different Jim's future with the pirates will be from the quiet life he's led up until now.

    Chapter 5


    This amazing outburst of hatred for his fellow pirates emerges from Pew, the blind man who comes looking for Billy Bones after Bones chased off Black Dog with his sword. The "it" Pew is talking about is, of course, Flint's treasure. We can see what's wrong with pirate society in the way Pew addresses his fellow pirates: it's all about personal gain rather than teamwork. Pew is filled with loathing for the other pirates, who lack "the pluck of a weevil in a biscuit." He cares only about "[his] chance" to be "rolling in a coach" and has no patience for any man who stands in the way of his personal ambition.

    Chapter 6


    Doctor Livesey is opening the packet of papers that Jim found in Billy Bones's sea chest. They find a few bits of writing that catch Jim's interest and imagination. As Jim speculates about "who it was that had 'got itt,' and what 'itt' was that he got, he is encouraging us to imagine along with him what this could mean. But by putting Billy Bones's spelling of "itt" in quotation marks, Jim is also pointing out the odd and uneducated way Billy Bones expresses himself. Language becomes another way for Stevenson to suggest the wacky, alien world of pirate society for his readers.

    Chapter 7


    This is an excerpt from Squire Trelawney's letter to Doctor Livesey. Unlike Doctor Livesey's three chapters of first-person narration, which don't seem that different in tone from Jim's, Squire Trelawney really sounds like a different character. His use of language helps characterize him, cluing us in to his misplaced overconfidence. His language is full of emphatic statements like, "I declare we could fight a frigate" (a kind of ship). He says he has found "the toughest old salts imaginable," fellows "of the most indomitable spirit." Well, of course they're tough – they're pirates.

    Chapter 12


    This sneering stranger is Black Dog, and he's trying to ambush his former shipmate Billy Bones at the Admiral Benbow Inn. Black Dog is like a pale imitation of Long John Silver. And like Israel Hands, he is unable to keep his "sneering" manner off his face, so even his flattery rings false. These efforts to get on Jim's good side prove that Black Dog isn't stupid, but he's not as smart as the real thing, Long John Silver.

    Chapter 15
    Ben Gunn


    So he kept talking as I ran, neither expecting nor receiving any answer. (15.54-5)

    As Ben Gunn and Jim travel across the island, Gunn keeps narrating as though he is alone and doesn't expect a response from his audience. He is clearly used to talking to himself, which reminds us that he has been alone for three years. Stevenson is amazingly skilled at using language to suggest character. Here, we definitely get the sense that Ben Gunn has gotten a little weird during his years of solitude.

    Chapter 20
    Long John Silver


    Long John Silver is offering Captain Smollett a deal. (The Captain, of course, will have none of it.) We find this an interesting example of Long John Silver's unusual speech, which is a weird mix of slang and officialese. He promises to "clap" them somewhere safe or else to hail a boat and "send 'em here to pick you up." But at the same time, he also promises his "affy-davy" (affidavit, which means oath) to abide by any deal they strike. Long John Silver's language is a puzzle, just like his character: he's got this odd mix of highfalutin' words ("affy-davy") and slang ("clap") that makes it difficult to place him.

    Chapter 29
    Long John Silver

    "The black spot! I thought so," [Long John Silver] observed. "Where might you have got the paper? Why, hillo! Look here, now; this ain't lucky! You've gone and cut this out of a Bible. What fool's cut a Bible?" (29.10)

    Of all the people we might think would respect a Bible, Long John Silver would be the last. As usual, his motives are unclear. We know he is frightened of what appears to be a ghost (but is actually Ben Gunn) later on in the chapter, so he is at least a little bit superstitious. But he's also clearly using this Bible thing to tease poor young, feverish Dick Johnson unmercifully about being cursed. Long John Silver is punishing Dick for giving him the black spot by frightening him half to death.

    Chapter 31


    As Long John Silver, George Merry, Tom Morgan, Dick Johnson, some nameless dude, and Jim all go searching for treasure, they stumble across a skeleton, which morbidly turns out to be pointing directly toward the treasure. This skeleton is the most literal example of the way that the island itself has become a kind of language. As the pirates and the good guys attempt to find the treasure and fight one another, they keep trying to read the island's clues to find its riches. In this particular language, Ben Gunn proves the only true expert. He's not courageous or intelligent, but he's the only one who knows the island's secrets well enough to have found the treasure on his own.

  • Criminality

    Chapter 1
    Doctor Livesey


    Doctor Livesey is a local judge as well as a doctor. In that capacity, he has words with Billy Bones after a run-in at the Admiral Benbow Inn. Because they operate at sea, we rarely see pirates coming up against actual agents of the law. Who in this novel seems most afraid of legal punishment? Why?

    Chapter 6
    Squire Trelawney


    One odd historical detail of piracy in the 17th and 18th centuries is that, far from being outside the law, pirates were often secretly sponsored by governments of opposing European powers. So English pirates would board Spanish, French, and Dutch ships in the hopes of ruining their foreign trade. This is why a rabid patriot like Squire Trelawney can admit to admiring a pirate like Captain Flint.

    Chapter 8


    Ah, Long John Silver, what a master conman he is. When Jim observes known pirate Black Dog in Long John Silver's establishment, he immediately assumes LJS is also a pirate. But LJS is so skilled at pretending to be a gentleman that Jim is taken in immediately. Do you think Long John Silver would really be able to retire into an ordinary gentleman's life, as he claims to want to do after pulling this job? Can you imagine him settling down as the owner of a bar somewhere, just hanging out and pouring other people rum?

    Chapter 11


    It's because pirates have so little trust among themselves that they are constantly ruining their own plans: witness O'Brien the pirate, killed by one of his own comrades. This is why pirate "democracy" can be possible in name only; the most feared pirate will always be elected captain, regardless of merit.

    Long John Silver


    This is the key point that distinguishes Long John Silver from other pirates: he has vision for the future. He puts aside money to keep himself financially secure. In what other ways does Long John Silver's unusual ability to plan demonstrate itself?





    Long John Silver is also the only pirate in the novel who is not alone in the world: his "old missis," his wife, is helping him take his money out of Bristol to some unknown location. We would give a million dollars to meet the woman who married Long John Silver. She must be amazingly patient. Do we see any signs of Long John Silver's personal loyalty or ability to form emotional attachments beyond these vague references to his "old missis"?

    Chapter 13



    Chapter 26
    Israel Hands



    Chapter 28
    Long John Silver




    The pirates have rules, and this pirate calls on one of these to demand that Long John Silver await the decision of a council of his crewmen. But these rules seem to apply irregularly. They aren't really rules at all; they only come up when it suits the pirates to change the way things are going. Again, this raises the question of how you can ever hope to rule a bunch of outlaws.

  • Appearances

    Chapter 1


    The captain in this passage is Billy Bones. The funny thing about his appearance is that he's living this incredibly miserly existence and trying to keep a low profile. But how much more obvious can you be as the only sailor in a small town? Of course his buddies are going to find him.

    Chapter 3


    Jim's observations of people's appearances are intriguing because they are often indecisive. How can a man be both sailorly and not sailorly at the same time? This kind of description engages our curiosity and keeps us reading.

    Chapter 4


    Jim can see Billy Bones's material possessions, but he can't see inside his head. By focusing on appearances instead of on psychology, Jim's narration is leaving much more room for the reader's imagination to work. It's pretty exciting to join Jim in wondering why Billy Bones carried these shells with him "in his wandering, guilty, and hunted life."

    Chapter 6


    The Squire's temper is indeed "quick and high": look how quickly he takes against Captain Smollett when he perceives that the captain is disagreeing with his judgment. Here we find a character who looks exactly like what he is: a feisty, temperamental man. What are the limits of Jim's abilities of observation? Are there characters (besides Long John Silver) who Jim can't read?

    Chapter 7


    Squire Trelawney is such an easy mark: tell him a sob story about a veteran with no pension and he'll hire him on the spot. Why does Stevenson decide to include Squire Trelawney's lengthy letter in the body of Jim's narration? What effect does this have on the tone of this section of the novel?


    This is a moment of casual racism from Squire Trelawney. Long John Silver's wife is a woman of color, which appears to be the reason (according to Trelawney) that Long John Silver might want to leave home. First of all, the joke's on Trelawney: Long John Silver's wife is going to help him set up comfortably somewhere once he retires from pirating. Long John Silver is actually earning money so that he can get back to her. Second, Squire Trelawney's prejudices are a large part of what gets him and his friends into trouble in the first place: it's his assumptions about veterans that make him initially trust Long John Silver, much to his distress later on in the novel. So to conclude: Squire Trelawney is an idiot.

    Chapter 8


    "I thought I knew what a buccaneer was like": famous last words. There is some irony to the fact that we get our modern image of pirates precisely from this "clean and pleasant-tempered landlord," Long John Silver. What does this description suggest about the appearance of the other pirates like Black Dog? How do they differ from Long John Silver?

    Chapter 10
    Tom Redruth, Richard Joyce, John Hunter, and Mr. Blandly


    We discuss Long John Silver's moral lessons using Captain Flint the parrot in "Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory." What also strikes us about this passage is Jim's final sentence: "John would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had that made me think he was the best of men." Does the tone of this reflection sound angry at his younger self? Regretful? What do you think Future Jim's feelings are about his past self's faith in Long John Silver?

    Chapter 12


    Jim's new knowledge of what a complicated man Long John Silver really is seems to magnify his power over him. We find it fascinating that Jim succeeds in tricking even an arch-conman like Long John Silver: he says he can "scarce conceal a shudder," but Jim does conceal it. Jim really seems to have the makings of a conman himself. For more on the curious similarities we find between Jim and Long John Silver, see "Characters: Long John Silver" for more.

    Chapter 15


    Jim is describing his first meeting with Ben Gunn, who is looking about as tattered and tragic as possible. Jim is incapable of judging Ben's appearance correctly because Ben is so far outside Jim's personal experience of people. This is one problem with judging by appearances: you can only do so when you have a wide range of experience to use as comparisons.

    Chapter 30


    While Jim is Long John Silver's hostage, Doctor Livesey comes by to treat the sick pirates. He does this out of kindness, at risk to his own life. It seems believable that Doctor Livesey has a professional manner he can just fall into automatically, as though treating these pirates is like treating "a quiet English family." It's also interesting that one man's behavior can shape the behavior of those around him, further proof of Long John Silver's point that you have to be careful who you hang around with because they will rub off on you.

    Chapter 33


    Long John Silver's "bland, polite" manner seems to be a bit like Doctor Livesey's professional behavior with the pirates: something he can switch on and off depending on the situation. But this leaves us wondering what's going on underneath that bland manner, a question Stevenson never answers.

  • Drugs and Alcohol

    Chapter 3
    Billy Bones


    Billy Bones has spent many evenings shocking and impressing the quiet country folk of Jim's town with his tales of distant places and adventures. Here, after his stroke, we get the full story: he's lived through terrible situations and has used rum to drown his sorrows. Now he's become so dependent on rum that he demands it even though it will kill him. This contrast between how fun pirate adventures sound and how awful they really are may explain why we can enjoy the story of Treasure Island even as Jim ends the novel swearing that it was horrible and he would never repeat his adventures. (Btw, "Yellow Jack" is yellow fever.)

    Chapter 10


    Mr. Arrow can't maintain discipline with the crew because he's drunk all the time. Long John Silver clearly has no trouble identifying and manipulating Mr. Arrow's weakness, just like he exploits Squire Trelawney's blind patriotism and Jim's vanity. Mr. Arrow's weakness isn't so different from the others'; it's just more visible and difficult to ignore. This is why we find Jim's contemptuous conclusion that Mr. Arrow is better off dead a little bit hard to take: it's not like Jim has been so perfect.

    Chapter 11
    Long John Silver


    Long John Silver offers this diatribe to Israel Hands when Hands tries to hurry him into mutinying before they reach the island. He points out that he's got experience and a plan on his side, but the other pirates are so impatient that they want everything right now. Long John Silver's go-to symbol for this self-indulgence is their "mouthful of rum tomorrow": they would rather have a shot of rum tomorrow than carriages in the future. And Silver proves correct: as soon as they fall to open warfare with the good guys, all the pirates get drunk, leaving them vulnerable to more sober minds.

    Chapter 12
    Captain Smollett


    Captain Smollett tricks the pirates into holding off their mutiny temporarily in the simplest way possible: he offers them a round of drinks in the name of Squire Trelawney, and they are so cheerful that they wait to rise up against their leaders. The thing that surprises us to no end about this book is that the pirates are so cheap! They are like children, easily bought off. Their willingness to get drunk at a moment's notice allows Captain Smollett and Squire Trelawney to get the drop on the mutineers and take the Hispaniola for themselves before rowing to the island fort.

    Chapter 15
    Ben Gunn


    Ben Gunn has spent three years on Treasure Island, and all this time alone has made him decide to go back to God (he's "back on piety"). But we can already see signs that he's just waiting for the chance to go back to his old ways. Even though he swears that "you don't catch me tasting rum so much," he'd take "a thimbleful for luck [...] the first chance [he has]." And indeed, the first chance Gunn has to drink a thimbleful of rum, he doesn't stop there: he goes on a nineteen-day bender that leaves him penniless. We find the foreshadowing of this future self-indulgence right here in his speech on the island.

    Chapter 20
    Long John Silver


    Long John Silver comes to make a deal with Captain Smollett (which Captain Smollett promptly rejects) in response to an incident that has "shook" all of his men, even the unshakeable Long John Silver. While all his men were drunk on rum the night before, someone crept into their camp and killed one of them. Even the disciplined Long John Silver can't keep his men sober enough to stand guard. This inability to keep watch because of drunkenness proves to be a repeated theme: not only does Ben Gunn come around and kill a pirate their first night on the island, but Jim Hawkins walks right into their fort unnoticed. It's lucky for the pirates that Jim has no clue what he is doing.

    Chapter 25
    Jim Hawkins


    He rolled his eyes round heavily, but he was too far gone to express surprise. All he could do was to utter one word, "Brandy." (25.11-2)

    Like Billy Bones, Israel Hands is physically badly off (from a stab wound rather than a stroke) but he still wants nothing more than alcohol. The dependence on alcohol leaves all of these characters in a sorry state not only because they're drunk all the time, and therefore careless, but also because when they're sick or injured, they become totally dependent on whoever is nearest to them. In both Billy Bones and Israel Hands's cases, that would be Jim.


    When Jim takes control of the Hispaniola once more, he discovers what's been pretty clear from the pirates' behavior (their singing on the beach, their inability to keep watch): they've been drunk pretty much this whole time. We have to wonder, if the pirates had been at all sober during their time on Treasure Island, would the outcome of the novel have been entirely different?

    Chapter 34
    Doctor Livesey

    "Drunk or raving," said [Doctor Livesey].



    In our discussion of "Quotes: Duty," we use this passage to explore Doctor Livesey's dedication to treating the pirates even at the risk of his own life. Here we will focus on the fact that the three remaining pirates on Treasure Island are either drunk or crazed (or both). Now that these pirates have lost the treasure, the ship, and their leaders, their drunkenness is perhaps like Billy Bones's: an effort to avoid acknowledging a horrible reality. We find their descent into total drunkenness and/or sickness both pitiful and tragic. This detail makes the decision of the good guys to leave them behind on Treasure Island seem all the more cruel and ethically problematic to us. What do you think?

  • Youth

    Chapter 3
    Billy Bones


    There is a repeated theme in Treasure Island that illness makes us dependent and childlike. First there is Billy Bones's weakness, in which he takes his medicine "like a child." Then there is poor, feverish Dick Johnson, who begins babbling and clutching his Bible toward the end of the novel. He totally goes to pieces as he gets sick and follows the other pirates like a child. How does illness make us more childlike? What does this analogy suggest about how Stevenson feels about childhood?

    Chapter 4

    I lost no time, of course, in telling my mother all that I knew, and perhaps should have told her long before, and we saw ourselves at once in a difficult and dangerous position. Some of [Billy Bones's] money--if he had any--was certainly due to us, but it was not likely that our captain's shipmates, above all the two specimens seen by me, Black Dog and the blind beggar, would be inclined to give up their booty in payment of the dead man's debts. (4.1)

    As soon as Billy Bones enters the Admiral Benbow Inn, Jim shows signs of the secretiveness and independent thinking that will characterize his behavior on the island. Jim hasn't told his mother about Billy Bones's origins, although he thinks in passing that "perhaps [he] should have told her long before." This reflection sounds a lot like Jim's passing regret over leaving the fort without permission. Even in this tiny exchange, we can see foreshadowing of how Jim is going to develop as a character over the course of the novel.

    Chapter 7


    Jim is leaving the nest, and even though he's ready to go, he still regrets it a little bit once he realizes that it's actually happening. "This clumsy stranger," his mother's apprentice, is a symbol of Jim's own childhood, which he is now leaving behind to go on a treasure hunt. We wish our own transitions from childhood to adulthood had come with gold bars.

    Chapter 10


    It sounds like Jim is feeling a rush about the fact that "the lives of all the honest men aboard depended on [him] alone." Suddenly, he's going from cabin boy, the lowliest member of the crew, to the savior of all. One reason Jim always finds himself in the right place at the right time is because he's so young. He's small and childlike enough to climb right into an apple barrel and fall asleep, which sounds like something we would have done when we were kids. Jim childlike nature is the very thing that saves the "honest men" on board the Hispaniola (or at least, many of them) from death at the hands of the pirates.

    Chapter 15


    Jim is recalling tall tales and freaking himself out as he sees the then unknown Ben Gunn in the distance. But he suddenly remembers that he's not "defenceless" – he is armed – and he takes confidence. We can contrast Jim's ability to overcome his fear with the cowardice of the pirates, who believe the forests are haunted in the later chapters of the novel. Jim is slowly becoming more mature than full-grown men like Tom Morgan and George Merry. Something about pirate life seems to keep them from maturing. For all of their violence and toughness, they still seem like self-indulgent and easily frightened children.

    Chapter 22


    These guerilla actions against the pirates seem to come completely out of the blue. Sure, Jim says he "thought it would be a fine thing to prevent" the mutineers from escaping, but it's quite a jump from that to rowing out to the boat and setting it adrift. Do we see any signs that Jim is learning how to fight pirates from experience, or is he just naturally gifted at waging war against a small band of bloodthirsty criminals?


    There is only one other moment in the book we can think of when Jim tries to justify his actions – in a scene we discuss in the "Quotes: Friendship." He must feel that leaving his friends behind with no warning was the worst thing he did, because this is the one act he explains away as that of "a boy." Do you buy the explanation that Jim sneaks off because he is "only a boy"? Does it matter to you why he leaves his friends? By the way, taking "French leave" means abandoning your post without permission – a slur on French sailors, as you can imagine.


    This quote is one of the few moments when Jim alludes to his later life after the novel ("I have seen one since"). What on earth could Jim be doing with his time that he has now observed "a coracle, such as the ancient Britons made?" Why do you think Stevenson introduces this time lag between the Jim narrating Treasure Island and the Jim experiencing Treasure Island?


    It's a little unclear what Captain Smollett means by "the born favourite." Does he mean Jim is too lucky? Too independent? Too disobedient? Certainly we can see why a by-the-book captain like Smollett would find Jim too much of a handful to manage, but we're also intrigued by Captain Smollett's description of Jim as "a good boy in [his] line." This implies that there are other boys like Jim out there. Perhaps this is another subtle suggestion to us by Stevenson to imagine ourselves like Jim or in his place.

  • Duty

    Chapter 4
    Jim Hawkins's Father and Mother




    Chapter 10
    Captain Smollett






    Chapter 11
    Long John Silver


    Here, Long John Silver is drastically redefining duty. His duty is to his pirate crewmates, which mean that he votes for killing Captain Smollett, Squire Trelawney and the other good guys. The problem with telling people to do their duty as a moral lesson is that we all have different notions of duty. To Long John Silver, apparently killing people for the profit of his pirate friends is a kind of duty.

    Chapter 12
    Captain Smollett




    "And to think that they're all Englishmen!" broke out the squire. "Sir, I could find it in my heart to blow the ship up." (12.37-40)

    Squire Trelawney's patriotism blinds his judgment. When Long John Silver tells Trelawney that he lost his leg in a battle under Admiral Hawke, Trelawney believes him. Here Squire Trelawney is disappointed in the pirates not just because they want to murder him, but because they are all Englishmen. Squire Trelawney's idealism makes him an easy mark for Long John Silver, which is perhaps meant to be a jab against idealism.

    Chapter 16
    Captain Smollett



    "I'm with you, sir," said he. (16.31-5)

    We find this description of Abraham Gray coming to Captain Smollett "like a dog to the whistle" oddly dismissive and jeering. Isn't it a good thing that Abraham Gray is remembering his duty? Is Stevenson making a subtle point that obedience for its own sake is cowardly? Or are we making a mountain out of a molehill with this line?

    Chapter 18


    Here, Doctor Livesey is describing Tom Redruth's death. All of Doctor Livesey's adjectives are pretty condescending: "poor old fellow," "he had followed every order," "sullen, old serviceable servant." The only thing he comments on is Redruth's value as a servant. There seems to be some subtle class prejudice in this description. What do you think of the way Stevenson depicts Squire Trelawney's three faithful, doomed servants?

    Chapter 21



    "I told you so!" cried the captain.

    "Thank you, sir," returned Joyce with the same quiet civility. (21.16-19)

    Speaking of condescending depictions of servants, Joyce is so well-trained and obedient that he has to double check with Captain Smollett to make sure he has permission to fire against the pirates who are trying to kill him. Is this just a moment of comic relief? Why include Redruth, Joyce, and Hunter in the novel at all when they have scarcely anything to do?

    Chapter 26


    Jim is now self-declared captain of the Hispaniola, with the very tricky Israel Hands as his crew. Hands is intriguing because he's almost as smart as Long John Silver, but he can't quite hide what he's thinking ("a grain of derision, a shadow of treachery"). Or is it that Jim is slowly getting better at reading people? Is Jim's taking possession of the Hispaniola a sign of growing maturity? Do you see signs that Jim's character changes over the course of the novel?

    Chapter 33
    Captain Smollett

    "Is that you, John Silver? What brings you here, man?"


    "Ah!" said the captain, and that was all he said (33.41-3)

    This moment is one of Long John Silver's rare missteps. He knows nobody believes in his humble, friendly act anymore, but he still puts it on. Why does he even bother to tell Captain Smollett that he has "come back to [his] dooty [duty]" in Chapter 33? What duty could Long John Silver mean here?

    Chapter 34
    Long John Silver


    Long John Silver is telling Doctor Livesey that to try to treat the sick pirates now would be madness – they would kill him in a second. But perhaps the most tragic thing about Long John Silver's comment is that the pirates "couldn't believe as [Doctor Livesey] could" keep his promise to help. In other words, they are so used to breaking promises that they can't imagine anyone being able to keep them. This is the key problem with the way pirates live in Stevenson's world: because they are violent and untrustworthy, they assume that everyone around them will be that way too, so they can't see or understand goodness anymore. Is Long John Silver any different? Do you see any good in his character?

  • Friendship

    Chapter 10


    Obviously it's in Long John Silver's interests to have everybody like him. But does that negate the fact that he has "a way of talking to each" sailor that makes the ship seem like a better place? Even if Long John Silver has ulterior motives, he is still being nice. His ability to be kind, even if it's a mask for his true feelings, makes him a more likable character than pirates like Pew or Israel Hands, who are so cruel that they can't even pretend to be decent.

    Chapter 11
    Long John Silver



    Here's the moment when Jim realizes he's been tricked, when he sees Long John Silver use the same flattery ("you're as smart as paint") on Dick Johnson that he's been using on Jim. But how does Long John Silver know which words will charm each individual? What experiences have come together to forge such a gifted diplomat? Sure, even though this scene fills Jim with so much rage that he "would have killed [Long John Silver] through the barrel" if he could, seeing evidence of Long John Silver's craftiness in action only increases his interest to us.

    Chapter 22


    Here Jim has to justify the fact that he's leaving Squire Trelawney alone to guard the injured Captain Smollett. His explanation is that this second desertion (the first being when he slipped off the Hispaniola with the pirates and met Ben Gunn) turned out to be "a help towards saving all of us." But Jim couldn't have known that his desertion would prove so pivotal and beneficial at the time that he ran away. This is one of only two instances we can think of when Jim bothers to explain his actions from the more knowledgeable perspective of his adult self. (The other is discussed in "Quotes: Youth.") Is Jim's explanation sufficient to justify his abandonment of his friends? Why does he choose not to take his comrades into his confidence? If he had told them his plans, how would they have responded? How might things have turned out differently?

    Chapter 27


    The force of the Hispaniola's impact with the shore tips the ship at an angle so that O'Brien's dead body has fallen right against the sides of the ship. When Jim pushes his body into the water, it lands right on top of Israel Hands's. We put this in the "Friendship" section for the slightly morbid reason that the two men, who were such mortal enemies while alive, are lying together like friends in death. The significance of whatever argument drove Hands to murder O'Brien appears gone now that both are dead.

    Chapter 28
    Long John Silver


    It's impossible to rule pirates by friendship and decency because they don't trust each other. The only thing that will truly keep them in line is a show of force – and even that will only last for so long. In this scene, Long John Silver is responding to George Merry's claim that he is no longer fit to be captain now that they have lost the Hispaniola and have no treasure to show for it.

    Chapter 31


    We've already established that Long John Silver has no loyalty (except possibly to his wife and parrot), so Jim cannot rely on his friendship to keep him alive while he's a hostage of the pirates. Have you observed any signs of unmotivated affection or good feeling coming from Long John Silver? Is it possible to imagine a friend for this man? What does friendship require that Long John Silver does not have with either his pirate crew or with Jim?

    Chapter 33
    Doctor Livesey


    "Not a thought," replied Dr. Livesey cheerily. (33.30-1)

    But it's not jut Silver who has learned to be so practical about death. Doctor Livesey agrees that, if Jim had not been along on the final treasure hunt, he and the rest of his friends would have left Long John Silver to deal with the disappointed pirates by himself. Do you observe any changes in Doctor Livesey's moral compass over the course of the novel? Is he the same person at the end of the trip that he was at the beginning?

    Chapter 34


    This scene, in which the three remaining pirates are begging to be taken in by their enemies, is hard to read. We discuss the moral ambiguities of the scene in "What's Up with the Ending?" Here we want to ask why Stevenson elects to include the details that the men on the shore "continued to call [them] them by name and appeal to us, for God's sake, to be merciful"? What is the tone of this final chapter? Does the book offer us any thoughts on our responsibility to our fellow man, or does Stevenson leave us to draw our conclusions about the morality of this choice?

    Of Silver we have heard no more. That formidable seafaring man with one leg has at last gone clean out of my life. [...] It is to be hoped [that he lives in comfort], I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another world are very small. (34.25)

    Speaking of moral ambiguity at the end of the novel, despite all of Long John Silver's terrible deeds, the excitement he lends to the book buys him a reprieve. He disappears, and we have no idea what happens to him. But what do we make of Jim's final thought that "it is to be hoped" that Long John Silver has found comfort because "his chances for comfort in another world are very small"? In other words, Jim thinks Long John Silver is eventually going to hell, but before that he wants him to be happy. Where do we find signs of growing sympathy for Jim toward Long John Silver?


    Jim's reluctant admiration for his main antagonist, Long John Silver, is really a testament to the strength of Silver's character. Stevenson is working hard to give us a wicked character that we can still (perhaps reluctantly) root for, and he succeeds in part by representing Jim's sympathy for the man. After all, if we identify with Jim, then we should share his sympathies too, right?

  • Exploration

    Chapter 10
    Long John Silver


    Here, the tales Long John Silver is spinning are all about his delightful parrot, Captain Flint. Silver uses his tales of derring-do to keep Jim Hawkins interested and to persuade Jim to sympathize with him. It's interesting, though: these tales are meant to distract and intrigue Jim, but they work on us, too. It's partly Long John Silver's gift with language that makes him so appealing to the reader, no matter the terrible things he does over the course of the novel.

    Chapter 13
    Doctor Livesey


    "I don't know about treasure," he said, "but I'll stake my wig there's fever here." (13.10-12)

    According to 18th century medicine, fever is mostly caused by bad air, hence Doctor Livesey's concerns. There is foreshadowing here in the fact that the first glimpse of the island is automatically associated with sickness. It's as though the treasure itself were making people sick – certainly, it's going to make people crazy. The "fever" the doctor smells could just as easily be gold fever, which will drive nearly everyone on the island to madness and murder before the novel ends.

    Chapter 14


    The only time Jim seems to really be having fun on the trip is when he's off by himself in the forest. We're also intrigued that this is one of the few times when the island appears benign and pleasant. But much like Long John Silver, that appearance is deceptive. Being from England, Jim doesn't realize that the snakes he observes are rattlesnakes, a "deadly enemy." The island's geography is intimately tied to the plot's development – check out our section on "Setting" for further reflections on this.

    Chapter 15


    As we soon find out, this figure is neither bear nor monkey, but Ben Gunn. Here Stevenson is recreating the first-contact scene popular in earlier sea-voyage stories like Robinson Crusoe: Jim is meeting what might be a Native American, and he's terrified by the prospect. But of course, it's not actually a new kind of person at all: it's yet another pirate, the pathetic, marooned Ben Gunn.

    Chapter 30
    Long John Silver


    Long John Silver doesn't fear any kind of battle, nor does he fear his fellow men. But he's afraid of exploring that final horizon, death – specifically death at the hands of the law. Does this suggest some kind of fear of religious judgment? We can't be sure, but we have some thoughts on the subject in our "Character Analysis" of the pirate crew.

    Chapter 33


    Robert Louis Stevenson died on the island of Samoa at the age of 44 ( You can visit his grave and museum there). He had a longtime passion for the South Seas and made his home there as an adult, but he was also a socially conscious guy. Jim's meditation on the enormous cost of the treasure Captain Flint has hoarded presents the unromantic, dark side of exploration and acquisition of wealth. "Exploration," in many cases, was synonymous with violence and exploitation.

    Chapter 34


    After their awful time on Treasure Island, Jim, Doctor Livesey, and Squire Trelawney hang out for an evening in a port in "Spanish America" (which we assume means Central America or the Caribbean). This scene, richly peopled with non-pirates, presents a huge contrast to the island . It also demonstrates biases in the way Stevenson describes people of color. He is setting the scene with a variety of people to show the broadness of Central American/Caribbean culture as compared to orderly, monochromatic English life. But even so, he uses terminology that we find unacceptable in this day and age. While we have said before that Treasure Island seems timeless, when we hit a passage like this, we suddenly come crashing into the realization that it was written in the 1880s and has the racial politics to match.


    But even if exploration has a dark side, treasure is still awesome and exciting. Treasure Island never lets us forget this joy in seeing and touching new stuff. In this case, the things are new and strange kinds of coins. This is also a nice piece of narrative closure, because we have come full circle from the small bag of coins in Billy Bones's chest to the giant hoard in Ben Gunn's cave. The foreshadowing of Jim's future quest in the early chapters of the novel has come to pass by the final chapter.