One thing that the gentry have, which the pirates don’t, is a strong sense of duty “to king, country, professional ethics, and moral principle.” Point out instances in Treasure Island where members of the gentry do their duty, even though it appears to handicap them in their conflict with the pirates. Does their devotion to duty in fact cost the gentry something, strategically? Or does it turn out to be an advantage over the undutiful pirates?
This is an interesting and complex question. There are moments, episodes in the novel, where the devotion to duty shown by the gentry does cost them a brief strategic disadvantage, but in the long run the gentry are victorious and the pirates are defeated. However, this whole question is complicated by two facts: firstly, the gentry are not really successful because of their devotion to duty: they succeed because of the private courage of Jim Hawkins – who disobeys orders, acts on his own initiative and acts, in many ways, like a pirate himself – without ever losing his overall loyalty to Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey and Captain Smollot. The second complication is the character of Long John Silver – who is one of the most immoral of the pirates (simply motivated by highly personal and selfish motives), but who is a charming, magnetic and charismatic man. It is significant that Long John tells Jim that Jim reminds him of himself at that age. There appears to be genuine affection between Jim and Long John Silver. Towards the end of the novel when Dr Livesey comes to the pirate stockade to treat the wounded pirates is an interesting episode to examine. The very fact that Dr Livesey is prepared to treat the wounded pirates is a clear sign of his devotion to a higher morality: it is actually against his self-interest, because a recovered pirate may be able to fight against them. However, during his visit Jin manages to tell him what has happened to the ‘Hispaniola’ – which is a vital piece of information; at the same time, when Dr Livesey suggests that Jim runs away to re-join the gentry, Jim refuses, because he has given his word to Long John Silver that he will remain. How are we to interpret this? Although morally inferior to the gentry, the pirates do have a code of conduct – and Jim, in a strange way, is showing his respect for it, and also perhaps his subconscious admiration for Silver, by keeping his word to him.
Earlier the gentry’s decision to leave the ‘Hispaniola’ in the charge of the pirates is not an act of duty or devotion to “king, country, professional ethics, or moral principle,” but happens because of carelessness and forgetfulness. In fact, during this episode, Trelawney’s attempt to shoot some pirates on board the ‘Hispaniola’ shows an indifference to human life that the pirates would understand. It should not be forgotten either, that Livesey, Trelawney and Smollot are where they are because they too – like the pirates – want to find the buried treasure. Their manners and sense of self-control might be better than the pirates’, but their motivation is very similar: simple greed.
The gentry know about the presence of pirates on the ‘Hispaniola’ because of the conversation that Jim had overheard in the apple barrel. The reason they do nothing when they hear about this is purely pragmatic: they are on the open seas and are out-numbered. Their hesitation has little to do any sense of duty, but merely common sense.
Jim is constantly flouting his own sense of duty to Dr Livesey, Squire Trelawney and Captain Smollett, by disappearing without telling anyone and acting on his own initiative rather than following orders or, as we have seen, keeping his word to Silver, when duty dictates that he should return to the side of the gentry. However, what Jim achieves is important and ensures the success of the gentry. He is aided in this by the pirates’ lack of self-control. When he first boards the ‘Hispaniola’ he overhears the pirates arguing amongst themselves and a few hours later, Israel Hands is the only man on board who is not comatose with alcohol. Even he is very drunk and Jim finds it easy to overpower him. Hands later dies after falling overboard during a failed attack on Jim.
When the treasure is found by the pirates – or rather when they find the empty hole – Dr Livesey and Ben Gunn open fire on the pirates, who run away. Gunn takes Livesey, Silver and Jim to his cave where he has kept the treasure after digging it up. It is revealed that Silver has been working for the gentry, but Jim is riddled with doubts. He strongly suspects that Silver’s only loyalty is to himself and the side most likely to find the treasure and successfully take it back to England.
In conclusion, therefore, it has to be said that there are hardly any moments when the superior morality of the gentry leads them to a disadvantage with the pirates. The pirates’ behaviour – like their drunkenness and their readiness to suspect each other of betrayal does help cause their downfall. Ironically too, for all his undoubted loyalty to the gentry, it is when Jim Hawkins acts most like a pirate in his reckless, independent and irresponsible actions, that he achieves the best success. At th heart of the novel too is Long John Silver – immoral, corrupt, untrustworthy – but filled with charisma and charm. Treasure Island is a novel which, to a certain extent, challenges our assumptions about duty.
