How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Indeed, I found there was a strange peculiarity about our two mates: that Mr. Riach was sullen, unkind, and harsh when he was sober, and Mr. Shuan would not hurt a fly except when he was drinking. I asked about the captain; but I was told drink made no difference upon that man of iron. (7.32)
Drinking isn't a major problem for most of the characters here, but Stevenson seems to associate it very strongly with life aboard ship. Is this one of those "faults" that he ascribes to sailors generally? Or is drinking just a problem on this particular ship? And you know the saying in vino veritas ("in wine, truth)? Does this mean that Shuan's violence when he's drunk is his true nature, while Riach is, at his drunken heart, a big sweetie pie?
Quote #5
As for Mr. Shuan, the drink or his crime, or the two together, had certainly troubled his mind. I cannot say I ever saw him in his proper wits. He never grew used to my being there, stared at me continually (sometimes, I could have thought, with terror), and more than once drew back from my hand when I was serving him. I was pretty sure from the first that he had no clear mind of what he had done, and on my second day in the round-house I had the proof of it. We were alone, and he had been staring at me a long time, when all at once, up he got, as pale as death, and came close up to me, to my great terror. But I had no cause to be afraid of him.
"You were not here before?" he asked.
"No, sir," said I."
"There was another boy?" he asked again; and when I had answered him, "Ah!" says he, "I thought that," and went and sat down, without another word, except to call for brandy.
You may think it strange, but for all the horror I had, I was still sorry for him. He was a married man, with a wife in Leith; but whether or no he had a family, I have now forgotten; I hope not. (8.23-26)
Like the gun salute for Hoseason's mother at Dysart, this information about Shuan's wife in Leith seems designed to make us feel for him even after he has murdered Ransome. And his complete mental breakdown over the murder, as he confuses Davie with Ransome and appears unclear about what has happened, appears further meant to fill us with pity. Does it work? Do you have any strong judgment of Shuan and his behavior by the time he meets his fate in the roundhouse?
Quote #6
"Why, David," said [Alan], "the innocent have aye a chance to get assoiled in court; but for the lad that shot the bullet, I think the best place for him will be the heather. Them that havenae dipped their hands in any little difficulty, should be very mindful of the case of them that have. And that is the good Christianity. For if it was the other way round about, and the lad whom I couldnae just clearly see had been in our shoes, and we in his (as might very well have been), I think we would be a good deal obliged to him oursel's if he would draw the soldiers." (18.27)
This is Alan's logic about why they can't go to the police with their testimony about who actually shot Colin Roy: because an innocent party might get acquitted. But the guilty party will definitely be convicted. So he should be allowed to go free on the heather. What do you think of the morality of this argument?