Kidnapped

“The pride of life seemed to mount into my brain at the sight of the red coats and the hearing of that merry music.”

David’s swell of patriotism at the sight of British troops and the sound of their marching music creates an ironic contrast that highlights his transformation. In later chapters, he comes to dread the sight of redcoats as he flees the British authorities.

“I was young and spirited, and like most lads that have been country-bred, I had a great opinion of my shrewdness.”

Presented as a memoir, Kidnapped embraces many stylistic conventions of that genre including highly subjective narrative reflection. The first-person narrator, presumably the older and wiser Lord David Balfour, often frames the events of the novel and the actions of his youth through a critical lens. Though it is written in the first person, temporal distance gives room for the novel’s speaker to critique his own actions and attitudes.

“No class of man is altogether bad, but each has its own faults and virtues; and these shipmates of mine were no exception to the rule. Rough they were, sure enough; and bad, I suppose; but they had many virtues.”

Occurring shortly after David’s kidnapping, this quote acts as a thesis for the novel’s thematic interest in The Duality of Human Nature. Though the crew of the Covenant just robbed David of his prospects, money, and freedom, he sees them as morally complex people who were equally capable of good.

“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.”

The quote reflects the novel’s thematic interest in The Duality of Human Nature by contrasting Riach and Shaun. Shaun, who abhors violence when sober, will go on to beat Ransome to death when he is drunk. Conversely, Riach, who is kind, thoughtful, and generous to David when drunk, is miserable and mean when sober. Each man is a different sort of person when under the influence of alcohol, expressing a contrary side of himself that is repressed when sober.

“He was smallish in stature, but well set and as nimble as a goat; […] his eyes were unusually light and had a kind of dancing madness in them, that was both engaging and alarming; and when he took off his great-coat, he laid a pair of fine silver-mounted pistols on the table, and I saw that he was belted with a great sword. His manners, besides, were elegant, and he pledged the captain handsomely. Altogether I thought of him, at the first sight, that here was a man I would rather call my friend than my enemy.”

Coming shortly after Alan’s arrival on the Covenant, this description paints him as an archetypical hero of the sort that Stevenson’s audience would likely find admirable and familiar. David is still young and impressionable and has yet to take steps on his journey to adulthood. As David matures and becomes closer with Alan, he will come to see the man’s faults and vices. For now, though, Alan seems to be an unambiguous hero.

“They stripped him of his powers; they stripped him of his lands; they plucked the weapons from the hands of his clansmen, that had borne arms for thirty centuries; ay, and the very clothes off their backs—so that it’s now a sin to wear a tartan plaid, and a man may be cast into a gaol if he has but a kilt about his legs. One thing they couldnae kill. That was the love the clansmen bore their chief.”

Alan’s description of the oppression of the Highlanders by the British crown parallels David’s disinherited state, and as he journeys across Scotland, he will see further similarities between his situation and that of the Highlanders. Both have been deprived of land, title, and power. Despite this, the Highlanders remain committed to their people and traditions, and David will take a lesson from them in tenacity and loyalty that will help him regain his estate.

“Charles the Second declared a man could stay outdoors more days in the year in the climate of England than in any other. This was very like a king, with a palace at his back and changes of dry clothes.”

The Highland landscape of Kidnapped is harsh and unforgiving, particularly to those unfamiliar with it. While this quote makes a small jab at those who speak from a place of comfort about the ease of outdoor living, it also underlines the differences between England and the Scottish Highlands. David witnesses the political, cultural, and ethical differences between the two lands.

“I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both; and I believe they both get paid in the end; but the fools first.”

Folly costs David his freedom, his birthright, and nearly his life. This quote comes after he escapes from being marooned in the cold and rain after the Covenant sinks. David’s coming-of-age journey carries him through a harsh and politically complicated landscape. He must outgrow his youthful folly and learn from his mistakes to make his way back home. 

“Thought I to myself: ‘If these are the wild Highlanders, I could wish my own folk wilder.’”

David’s assumptions about the Highlanders led him to believe that the fishermen who laughed at him while he was marooned did so out of cruelty rather than simple misunderstanding. However, he quickly finds the Highlanders to be kind, generous, and helpful to strangers. This quote reflects his changing opinion about people whom he will gradually come to respect and admire.

“It was not very easy to apologise; for I could scarce tell him (what was the truth) that I had never dreamed he would set up to be a gentleman until he told me so.”

David has biases about class that make it hard for him to recognize northern gentry. His ignorance leads him to clumsily insult a Highland gentleman by trying to bribe him for information as if he were a peasant. A common motif throughout Kidnapped is the general (though not universal) association of upper-class people with moral integrity. By failing to recognize the gentleman’s class status, David symbolically fails to recognize his honor and virtue.

“[T]here’s love too, and self-denial that should put the like of you and me to shame. There’s something fine about it; no perhaps Christian, but humanly fine. […] There’s many a lying sneck-draw sits close in kirk in our own part of the country, and stands well in the world’s eye, and maybe is a far worse man, Mr. Balfour, than yon misguided shedder of man’s blood.”

David has a growing sympathy for the Highlanders. This speech by Henderland articulates the lesson that David will take with him: the moral difference between Whigs and Jacobites is not a matter of simple right and wrong. People can hold contrary political and moral positions and still be honorable, virtuous, and just, illustrating the theme of The Validity of Diverse Ethical Positions.

“‘O!’ says I, willing to give him a little lesson, ‘I have no fear of the justice of my country.’

‘As if this was your country!’ said he.”

David lost his birthright and freedom due to his naïve trust in authority. Now, despite having fought the sailors of the Covenant, escaped shipwreck, and made his way to Alan, the young man shows that he has much to learn about justice and power. David retains his childhood assumption that the legal system is just. His time among the Highlanders will show the limits of this view.

“Mr. Henderland’s words came back to me: that we ourselves might take a lesson by these wild Highlanders. Well, here I had taken mine. Alan’s morals were all tail-first; but he was ready to give his life for them, such as they were.”

Despite the political and moral differences between David and Alan, they are bound by a shared sense of honor. Alan’s commitment to his values is admirable to David; it’s a lesson that David takes to heart and that comes into play in the novel’s final conflict as David decides whether to place himself at risk to clear James Stewart’s name. 

“‘I have often observed,’ says Alan, ‘that you Low-country bodies have no clear idea of what’s right and wrong.’”

As a first-person narrative, Kidnapped explores the contrast between David and Alan from David’s perspective. This quote is one of the few moments when Alan expresses his perspective on their differences. Mirroring David, Alan finds his friend’s ethical impulses backward and confusing at times. Both, however, develop respect for the other despite their contradictory senses of right and wrong and highlight The Validity of Diverse Ethical Positions.

“The business was the most wearing I had ever taken part in. A man had need of a hundred eyes in every part of him, to keep concealed in that uneven country and within cry of so many and scattered sentries.”

Weariness plays a large part in Kidnapped’s narrative. The rugged landscape is a metaphor for the struggle to come into adulthood. It is as much a part of the landscape as the rocks and the heather, and it is one of the greatest threats to Alan and David. Twice, it nearly leads to their capture (first on the rocks and then on the moors), and it is a cause of the rift that grows between them.

“He gave us the news of the country; that it was alive with red-coats; that arms were being found, and poor folk brought in trouble daily; and that James and some of his servants were already clapped in prison at Fort William, under strong suspicion of complicity.”

As James and Alan predicted, the courts are more interested in oppression and vengeance than justice. James is eventually executed for aiding the assassination of the Red Fox. This news not only re-establishes the threat that Alan and David fac, but it is also a reminder of the injustice of the Campbell government.

“[T]aking things in their proportion, Alan’s society was not only a peril to my life, but a burden on my purse. But there was no thought of the sort in the honest head of my companion. He believed he was serving, helping, and protecting me.”

As David travels with Alan, the dynamic of their relationship gradually shifts from mentor-student to friends on equal footing. The quote represents the moment David realizes that Alan is a responsibility and possibly even a burden. The acceptance of the responsibility of friendship marks David’s transition from adolescence to adulthood.

“Alan never referred to my estate without a touch of a sneer, when we were alone; but with strangers, he rang the words out like a herald.”

The quote captures the dual nature of Alan’s pride, which David finds both admirable and infuriating. Alan’s pride sometimes tips over the edge into vanity or leads to childish competition and easy offense. Yet the same sense of pride drives Alan’s more honorable and virtuous qualities. He is brave and self-sacrificing because of his pride in his clan and name. His pride is simultaneously a fault and a virtue.

“‘Alan,’ cried I, ‘what makes ye so good to me? What makes ye care for such a thankless fellow?’

‘‘Deed, and I don’t know,’ said Alan. ‘For just precisely what I thought I liked about ye, was that ye never quarrelled:—and now I like ye better!’”

Coming after Alan and David’s argument, this quote points to the novel’s thematic interest in the relationship between conflict and friendship. Kidnapped highlights the ethical and political differences between Alan and David; however, until this moment, the two never addressed their differences except in passing. Once David airs his grievances, their friendship grows stronger. Despite their contrary ethical and political ideas, they see the good in the other and like the other better for it.

“Other folk keep a secret among two or three near friends, and somehow it leaks out; but among these clansmen, it is told to a whole countryside, and they will keep it for a century.”

Secrecy and loyalty go hand-in-hand for the Highlanders. This quote comes as David recovers in Balquhidder. Though he was horrified by James Stewart and Alan’s willingness to hide the identity of the Red Fox’s assassin, David relies on the Highlander’s code of honor and secrecy to protect him. He suggests there is something admirable in their secrecy, harkening back to the novel’s thematic interest in The Validity of Diverse Ethical Positions.

“‘You are not to forget, sir,’ said I, ‘that I have already suffered by my trustfulness; and was shipped off to be a slave.’”

David presents his story to Rankeillor. After escaping his kidnappers, David sought Rankeillor as the one person who could help him prove his birthright and claim his inheritance and title. After his long road to the lawyer’s doorstep, David demonstrates the lessons he learned on his adventures by testing Rankeillor’s loyalties rather than simply presuming his goodwill. He is no longer a naïve, easily fooled country lad.

“[T]his piece of Quixotry on your father’s part, as it was unjust in itself, has brought forth a monstrous family of injustices. Your father and mother lived and died poor folk; you were poorly reared; and in the meanwhile, what a time it has been for the tenants on the estate of Shaws! And I might add […] what a time for Mr. Ebenezer!”

Rankeillor lays out an argument that the novel has been making symbolically. Justice and prosperity are only achieved when positions of leadership are filled by honorable people. When David’s father bargained away Shaws, he subjected himself and his progeny to lives of unjust trials. Even Ebenezer, the quote suggests, suffered from this bargain by being thrust into a role that he was unprepared to fulfill. As in the Highlands, where poverty and injustice abound due to corrupt leaders, the original sin of Shaws led to the delay of David’s birthright and the withering of the estate.

“Go and do your duty; and be hanged, if you must, like a gentleman. There are worse things in the world than to be hanged.”

David has become the Lord of Shaws, and with that birthright comes responsibility. In this quote, the novel answers the thematic tension it set up between justice and authority. Authority is a vehicle for justice when honorable and dutiful people are in positions of power. Having attained his title, David prepares to right the wrong done to James Stewart’s name.