59 pages • 1-hour read
Waverley
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Themes
Preserving Scottish Culture and Character
Early in the novel, Edward notices the national and regional prejudices espoused by many people around Great Britain. Before leaving Waverley-Honour, he is warned by its residents that in Scotland he will be exposed to “unhallowed and pernicious doctrines in church and state” (142). However, Scott takes pains to show the nuance and diversity of the people and cultures of Scotland, negating many long-held prejudices against his countrymen and humanizing them for his non-Scottish readers. Edward begins his stay in Scotland believing many common stereotypes about the Scots. He is at first unnerved by Bradwardine’s dinner party, but he quickly grows fond of the Baron and his company, recognizing that despite his political differences he is still treated warmly at Tully-Veolan. When he first enters the Highlands and meets Donald Bean Lean and his companions, he assumes the secret cave he is taken to will be the dwelling of wild and savage thieves. He is surprised when Donald greets him in his French military uniform and begins to talk politics with him. In this and many other ways throughout the novel, Scott emphasizes that Scottish people and culture are far more nuanced than many of the contemporary assumptions made about them.
In the postscript to Waverley, Scott argues that “There is no European nation which, within the course of half a century or little more, has undergone so complete a change as this kingdom of Scotland” (634). In the over 60 years since the events of the novel took place, much of Scottish culture has been lost. Scott’s novel seeks to remedy this by portraying the Scots “not by a caricatured and exaggerated use of the national dialect, but by their habits, manners, and feelings” (636). Edward begins the novel with preconceived notions about Scottish culture, but along with the readers of Waverley, he is exposed to more varied and detailed accounts of the national character. Edward’s romantic mind leads him to be inquisitive, and he often asks his Scottish hosts about the history behind their customs and practices. For example, when Edward is first invited to a feast at Glennaquoich, he observes the way a poet mentions the names of many people in attendance, and he later learns from Flora that this is a common practice that pays homage to the heroes and families of the clan. Additionally, though the novel focuses on a time of war, the Scots are not always portrayed in battle. Scott includes scenes that show Scots engaging in domestic, artistic, and scholarly activities as well. As a whole, Waverley is Scott’s attempt to preserve the Scotland of 60 years since and to make sure it would not be forgotten after the defeat at Culloden.
Tolerance and Understanding in the Face of Political Upheaval
Though Edward’s lack of firm conviction often proves to be challenging for him, it allows him to see things from multiple perspectives and sympathize with the thoughts and experiences of others. Through Edward and others, Scott highlights the importance of tolerance, particularly during a divisive time. Growing up at Waverley-Honour, Edward is exposed to the political intolerance of his father and uncle, who reject each other’s points of view. He sees this too within his military regiment at Dundee, where his fellow soldiers complain about the people of the region. In turn, the “gentry of the neighbourhood [...] showed little hospitality to the military guests; and the people of the town [...] were not such as Waverley chose to associate with” (148). When he realizes he is in the company of Jacobites at Tully-Veolan and is attacked for being a Hanoverian by Balmawhapple, Edward is surprised to see his host defend him. Their friendship grows despite their political disagreements thanks to each man’s tolerance. Edward faces varying levels of tolerance and intolerance throughout the novel, yet it is notable which characters choose to be kind to him despite his nationality, military status, and beliefs. For example, many of the Jacobites such as Bradwardine, the Mac-Ivors, and Donald Bean Lean treat Edward kindly even though they know he is involved with the army that is actively fighting against them. Contrary to this, certain Hanoverians, such as Gilfillan’s regiment and the people of Cairnvreckan, treat him cruelly just because he came from the Highlands.
As Edward begins to question his political sympathies, tolerance becomes more important to him than ideology. Eventually, his example influences some of his more politically rigid friends to become more tolerant. Colonel Talbot, for instance, enters the narrative with strong prejudices against Highlanders and Jacobites that turn toward tolerance toward the end of the novel. Unlike Edward, Talbot cannot sympathize with any of the Scots when the two men meet. Even when he is treated well as Fergus’s prisoner of war, Talbot clings to his prejudices against him. Upon learning he can return to England, Talbot berates the Highlanders as ignorant and barbaric, asking Edward, “what business have they to come where people wear breeches, and speak an intelligible language?” (512). Though his opinions of the Jacobites and Highlanders do not shift by the end of the novel, Talbot learns to be more tolerant of the Scots in general. He recognizes the humanity and nobility of the Scottish people and even helps to repair some of the damage that the war did. His restoration of the Tully-Veolan mansion to Bradwardine at the end of the novel symbolizes the healing of the wounds between the English and Scottish after the uprising. Talbot even has a portrait of Fergus and Edward in his Mac-Ivor tartan installed in the mansion, showing the importance of tolerance in restoring the relationship between Scotland and England.
Experience and Education
As a passive hero, Waverley focuses less on how Edward’s actions impact the plot than on how the events and people he encounters impact Edward. Waverley is an account of Edward’s education through experience. The novel follows him as he grows from someone ignorant of the world to someone with a better understanding of how it works. Scott emphasizes Edward’s lack of a strict formal education early in his life. The combination of a lack of guidance and indulgence of his romantic tendencies results in Edward entering adulthood without any firm convictions. Once Edward leaves his fairly sheltered life at Waverley-Honour and is thrust into the real world of the military, the narrator notes how the lack of discipline in his childhood education continues to affect him: “the vague and unsatisfactory course of reading which he had pursued, working upon a temper naturally retired and abstracted, had given him that wavering and unsettled habit of mind which is most averse to study and riveted attention” (147). Though Scott does not denounce learning from books in general, he shows how Edward only begins to grow once he starts to experience the world and learn from those experiences. Exposed to new cultures, beliefs, and characters in Scotland, Edward begins to form ideas of his own for the first time. Though he romanticizes his experience in the Highlands, it is here that Edward begins to question what he was taught and the authority he had previously obeyed.
As Edward is discharged from the army, faces imprisonment and abduction, becomes involved in activities considered treasonous by the government, and faces battle for the first time, he learns about the cruelty, kindness, privilege, and injustice of the world—things he never experienced at Waverley-Honour nor read about in his beloved novels. After he is lost in battle and must hide from the British army, the narrator poignantly says that “the romance of his life was ended, and that its real history had now commenced. He was soon called upon to justify his pretensions by reason and philosophy” (543). Only once Edward begins to view the world through the lens of his experience rather than that of romance does he begin his true education. Yet even before this, once Edward begins to have new experiences in Scotland, he becomes curious about everything around him that challenges his previous beliefs. He frequently questions everyone around him, trying to figure out the nuances of and reasoning behind anything new he sees. Through Edward, the novel suggests that while a lack of focused formal education may put a person at a disadvantage, it also prepares them to be receptive to the lessons that experience has to offer.
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