Treasure Island 1031extraordinary acts of heroism that cannot be experi-
enced in ordinary life. What is more, while Treasure
Island is a place isolated from the rest of the world,
it also represents a moment in time: The tale is set
in the 18th century, and Jim narrates the story from
a perspective of completion—the story is over. These
facts confirm that heroism is a thing of the past. If
the “hesitating purchaser” and “the wiser young-
sters” of Stevenson’s day—and of our own—do not
appreciate Treasure Island, it only proves that such
romances—these stories of courage and derring-
do—belong to a bygone era.
Katherine Ashley
IdentIty in Treasure Island
Treasure Island demonstrates that, for good or ill,
identity is fluid and people are rarely what they
seem. The novel recounts the formative events that
contribute to Jim Hawkins’s identity. He does not
become a man overnight; rather, his personality
develops in fits and starts. He is at once brave and
scared, cautious and adventurous. Other characters
are just as capricious. Doctor Livesey, for example,
tries to make Jim go back on his word, and Long
John Silver befriends Jim, saving his life at one
point. No one, not even Jim’s mother, is all good (he
bemoans both her “honesty” and her “greed).”
Physical appearance is not a reliable index of
character in Treasure Island. When Jim is paid by
Billy Bones to keep watch for a “seafaring man
with one leg,” he expects the worst and is therefore
surprised to find that Silver is “clean and pleasant-
tempered.” He describes Silver as “one of the best
of possible shipmates.” Jim’s initial assessment of
Ben Gunn is also wrong. Gunn has been on the
island for so long that he no longer looks like a
civilized man. Jim describes him as a “lurking non-
descript” who appears inhuman: he is a “creature of
the woods,” “unlike any man.” Despite this, Gunn,
“the half-idiot maroon,” turns out to be an ally.
While physical appearance can mask a character’s
true identity, it can also reveal their inner thoughts.
Thus, when Jim confronts Israel Hands, the lat-
ter’s duplicitous intentions are not revealed in his
eyes—he refuses to look directly at Jim—but in his
smile, which contains “pain and weakness” as well as
a “shadow of treachery.”
In Treasure Island, names and titles seem to
distinguish friends from foes, good from bad. Titles
emphasize the authority of characters who dis-
play primarily positive qualities: Captain Smollett,
Squire Trelawney, and Doctor Livesey, for example,
all act according to their station. The pirates and
sailors, on the other hand, are most often referred
to by menacing, aggressive nicknames designed
to instill fear and identify them with lawlessness:
Billy Bones, Black Dog, Dirk (a Scottish word for
dagger), Arrow, and finally Long John Silver (also
known as Barbecue). Our expectations, however,
are sometimes overturned. For example, the name
Pew has religious connotations, but the individual in
question proves to be anything but a saint.
Of all the characters in the novel, Long John Sil-
ver’s identity is the most ambiguous. Silver is both a
“bland, polite, obsequious seaman” and a “prodigious
villain and impostor.” Even though he is the leader
of the mutiny against Trelawney’s group, Stevenson
does not portray him in an entirely negative light.
His chameleonic nature means that he lurches from
pure evil (acts of cold-blooded murder) to compas-
sion and understanding (as evidenced most clearly
in his relationship with Jim). From the outset, there
are suggestions that Silver is an actor seasoned in
deception: He gives such a “show of excitement”
when Black Dog leaves without paying that Jim
is convinced of Silver’s innocence and is happy to
laugh with him at the incident. Such is Silver’s cun-
ning that the doctor himself is fooled by his act.
Livesey worries over the possibility of a mutiny but
mistakenly believes that Silver is one of only “two
honest men on board.” Shortly before the mutiny,
Silver is “all smiles to everyone” and outstrips him-
self in “willingness and civility”; almost as soon as he
is ashore, however, he murders Alan and Tom.
Silver’s mastery of language enables him to
manipulate others. He addresses Jim in a “friendly
and familiar tone,” but speaks to the doctor more
formally in chapter 30. As Israel Hands informs Jim,
“when so minded,” Silver “can speak like a book.”
With his crew, however, and when he seeks to play
the honest or humble fool, he is a different man.
His pronunciation changes, and his speech becomes
more colloquial; he says things like “ampytated,”
“jine,” and “dooty is dooty,” as well as “I calls” and