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Masculinity In Treasure Island Essay

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Robert Louis Stevenson Uses His Novel Treasure Island to Present the Crisis in Masculinity and Fears Regarding Degeneration in Victorian Britain During the reign of Queen Victoria, from 1837 to 1901, there were certain social expectations that the each gender was expected to conform to. Women were expected to look after the marital home and family and also engage in philanthropic activities; men were expected to provide for the family, whilst also pursuing a social life (Hughes, n,d ). It was at this time that masculinity changed from its traditional “heroic” script. Bachelorhood and the escape from the family home became more popular as men preferred spending their time with other men rather than being at home with their loved ones (Hughes, …show more content…

In the inn that was owned by Jim’s father, there lived a pirate known as Billy Bones (Stevenson, 1884). Billy was criminal and crass, and his stories were always frightening to Jim, “His stories were what frightened people worst of all” (Stevenson, 1884, p. 8). The character traits of Billy Bones were in conflict with those of Jim’s father. This brought about a certain duality in Jim’s growth and development. He was torn between the characters to emulate; should he follow Billy or his father? Jim chose to live to the expectations of Victorian society’s masculinity standards and emulated the character of Billy Bones. Jim considered his biological father weak in the face of the real pirates. Mr Hawkins could not cope with the problems that were brought about by the pirates but Jim could. Even after his father’s death, Jim incessantly sought the company of characters who exhibited traits different from his father: the pirates, who led a life that was threatening, “In many occasions, Jim chooses to seek, instead, the company of men as different from his father as he can find” (Stevenson, 1884, p. 36). From this, readers can see how Stevenson illustrates the weaknesses of biological fathers as crumbling failures of masculinity in Victorian Britain (Gray,

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