C & N Are Gathering Cones for Mr Tulloch on the Runcie-Campbell Estate

Context / Quotation / Comment
C & N are gathering cones for Mr Tulloch on the Runcie-Campbell estate / “For Calum the tree-top was interest enough; in it he was as indigenous as squirrel or bird. His black curly hair was speckled with orange needles; his torn jacket was stained green” p1 / Entirely at one with nature. The word ‘Indigenous’ suggests that he belongs to this world. C is described almost in animal terms and the orange needles and grass stain suggest that nature is literally part of him/engrained in him.
“His face was chuckling to them and his sunburnt face was alert and beautiful with trust” p1 / Suggests happiness/happy in his surroundings
C’s innocence is emphasised. Suggests he will be easily exploited.
Contrast between beauty of face and deformed body.
“He suffered in the ineluctable predicament of necessary pain and death” p2/3 / ‘Suffered’ emphasises his deep pain when witnessing what he sees as the horrors of the animal world.
Shows C can’t stand pain.
“This was the terrible mystery, why creatures he loved should kill one another” p 3 / Can’t understand the necessary pain of the animal world.
“But why shouldn’t we be called monkeys” p3 / Shows C’s affinity with nature. He sees this as a positive comparison. Reflects that he is so at5 home in the trees.
“We’re human beings just like them. We need space to live and breathe in.”p3
C&N discuss war and death and the destruction of the trees / “Calum shivered: he knew and feared death” p4 / ‘Shivered’ is an action that we associate with fear. Indeed later in the novel, C
reacts to Duror in this way showing that he fears him. Links to his ultimate fate.
Cone gatherers are descending down a tree and C’s actions are described. / “with consummate confidence and grace” p 5 / Direct contrast with his cumbersome and clumsy movement on the ground. Alliteration Emphasises how assured he is in the environment of the trees.
Description of C’s reaction to Duror confronting them about the rabbit traps. / “Calum, demoralised as always by hatred, had cowered against the hut, hiding his face.” P 5 / Signposts C’s innate goodness and fear of Duror. Always cowering away from Duror.
C decides to free an injured rabbit from a trap despite the warnings / He remembered his solemn promise; he remembered too the cold hatred of the gamekeeper; he knew that the penalty for interfering might be expulsion from the wood where he loved to work; but above all he shared the suffering of the rabbit.” P 6 / Shows that he is willing to sacrifice his own happiness. The sentence structure builds up to the most important thing for c – sharing and relieving the suffering of his fellow creature.
“He had not decided in terms of right and wrong, humanity and cruelty; he had merely yielded to instinct.” P 6 / Sentence structure in three parts – highlights that C’s actions are not based on rational decision making. ‘instinct’ suggests that it was not a conscious decision and this propensity to do good highlights his innate goodness.
“Sobbing in his quandary” p 6 / Animal like noises – onomatopoeia – used to show C’s hurt and sadness for the animals. Shows he’s fragile. Effective in highlighting how traumatic the deer hunt may be for him.
“Calum whimpered” p 7 / ‘whimpered’ is a word we would more usually associate with animals. It also indicates the depth of Calum’s distress and his powerlessness.
“Calum represented, pity so meek as to be paralysed by the suffering that provoked it, ought to be regretted but never despised.” P7 / Paralysed shows the extent of C’s reaction to suffering. Highlights that his actions may get him into trouble but establishes that what he does is through his goodness.
“He was humpbacked, with one shoulder higher than the other; he had no neck, and on the misshapen lump of his body sat a face so beautiful and guileless as to be a diabolical joke.” P 10 / Sharp contrast between deformed body and beautiful face – Duror can’t stand this.
Context / Quotation / Comment
While C is rescuing the rabbit, Duror is watching. This sums up his hatred towards them. / “in an icy sweat of hatred, with his gun aimed all the time at the feeble minded hunchback grovelling over the rabbit. To pull the trigger, requiring far less force than to break the rabbit’s neck, and then to hear simultaneously the clean report of the gun and the last obscene squeal of the killed dwarf would have been for him, he thought, release too, from the noose of disgust and despair drawn, these past few days, so much tighter.” P 9 / ‘icy sweat of hatred’ Duror’s feelings for Calum seem almost overwhelming here. The word ‘grovelling’ suggests Calum is crawling around on the ground and has connotations of abasement. The ‘clean’ report of the gun suggests Duror wants to remove something dirty or obscene. The metaphor ‘noose of disgust and despair’ suggests Duror is choking, that his feelings about Calum are destroying him.
“he had waited for over an hour there to see them pass. Every minute had been a purgatory of humiliation: it was as if he was in their service…” p 9
“He could have named, item by item, leaf and fruit and branch, the overspreading tree of revulsion in him; but he could not tell the force which made it grow.” P 9
“But now the wood was invaded and defiled; its cleansing and reviving virtues were gone. Into it crept this hunchback, himself one of nature’s freaks, whose abject acceptance of nature, like the whining prostrations of a heathen in front of an idol, had made acceptance no longer possible for Duror himself.” P10
“Duror was alone in his obsession” p10 / This tells us not everyone felt the same about the cone-gatherers. ‘obsession’ emphasises how out of control Duror’s feelings are.
“Since childhood Duror had been repelled by anything living that had an imperfection or deformity or lack: a cat with three legs had roused pity in other, in him an ungovernable disgust.” P 10/11 / Possible reason for the depth of feeling. ‘ungovernable disgust’ Duror is incapable of controlling this emotion
“nobody guessed he had been under a compulsion inexplicable then, and now in manhood, after the silent tribulation of the past twenty years, an accumulated horror, which the arrival of these cone-gatherers seemed at last about to let loose.” P 11
“what Duror heard was a roaring within him, as if that tree of hatred and revulsion was being tossed by a gale.” P 11
“outwardly, as everybody expected, he condemned such barbarity; inwardly, thinking of idiocy and crippledness not as abstractions but as embodied in the crouchbacked cone-gatherer, he had profoundly approved.” P 12/13
“those two sub-humans” p13 / Does not view them as human therefore they do not have the same rights – Link to Nazi Germany
Neil / “We’re human beings just like them. We need space to live and breathe in.” p 3 / Direct contrast to the way Duror sees them
“There’s no sense in being sorry for trees.” P 4
“To look after his brother, he had never got married, though once he had come very near it: that memory often revived to turn his heart melancholy.” P 4
Lady Runci-Campbell / “without seeing them…had issued an order…that they were to be treated with sympathy” p 10
Roderick / “They had only come once, and he had not minded their admiration.” P3
Context / Quotation / Comment
D talks about his mother-law’s attitude towards him. / “It doesn’t occur to her that I may be empty of affection altogether” P37 / Comment on relationship with his wife but represents the deeper hatred within him.
D describes where the cone-gatherers stay. / “in a hut as small as a rabbit hutch” / C&N live in small, cramped quarters. This leads to N’s resentment of LRC.
“searching for the words that would bind…him and the dwarf together in common defilement.” / D recognises that he is linked with C.
D lies about C / “Indecency’s not simple. The papers are often full of what such misbegotten beasts have done.’ P 38/39 / Shows the start of his manipulation/campaign against C
D uses dehumanising terms to show his contempt for C.
“He smiled marvelling at the steadiness of his hand holding the tea cup; within him was a roaring, like a storm through a tree. P 39 / Reflects that D is intent on concealing his feelings, hatred and evil.
The intensity of his feeling is shown through the simile.
“like a sunlit ride in a thick wood”
“You’re in danger too, John,’ she whispered, ‘of being destroyed completely.’ P40 / At the time, Effie doesn’t realise how true this is. She is talking about his marriage without knowledge of the deep hatred it has led to.
“I do need help, Effie” P40 / Interesting that D admits this.
Context / Quotation / Comment
D suggests that C & N should be beaters in the deer drive. / “It astonished Duror that she, so genuinely good, should be helping him in his evil plan.”P49 / Shows that he enjoys manipulating others and concealing the truth of his truly evil thoughts. We know he is evil as he knows how C feels about nature.
“they’re always together; even in a tree where there’s sometimes little room.” P50 / Manipulates brother’s close relationship to use against C to ensure that LRC makes him attend.
Context / Quotation / Comment
C&N collecting cones / “they seemed to be plucking nuts of sunshine” P52 / Suggests how happy they are until this is interrupted by D. He is again on the periphery.
D approaches their tree to tell them that they must take part in the deer drive. / “Among those hindrances to happiness had been the big gamekeeper. He could not forget Duror’s quiet inconceivable hatred” P52
“The constant sight of the mansion house chimneys, reminding him of their hut, which to him remained a symbol of humiliation.” P52 / Neil is insulted by their living quarters and the unfairness of the class divide. This is heightened by LRC’s treatment of him later in the novel.
“In the tree here was Calum’s happiness.” P54 / Happy in the tree until Duror interrupts this by climbing into C’s domain to give the message.
“He became like an animal in danger with no way of escape” P55 / C’s react to D’s presence. C, like an animal can sense D’s evil and he fears him. He is right to do so. C’s innocence and fragility means that, ultimately, he will not be able to protect himself against D.
“he still whimpered and cowered…” P55 / Fear shown through animal like sounds (onomatopoeia) and actions
“Maybe he’ll shoot at us” P56 / C predicts what will happen later.
“He had thought how gratifying it would be to deliver the deadly message in the eyrie where they fancied themselves safe.”
p 58 / Suggests the joy he gains from hurting them.
He knows the likely consequences of this – all part of his plan.
Shows his evil in that the message was not enough and he wanted to pollute the sanctity of the tree too.
“He was like a tree, still showing green leaves; but underground death was creeping along the roots.” P59 / Duror compared to a tree. Metaphor for the evil that lurks beneath the surface. Analyse in more detail.
“It was enough for them to sense that he was ill; they did not analyse the nature of that illness.” P60 / The dogs sense D’s illness just as C does. Other characters are fooled by his deception at this stage.
Context / Quotation / Comment
Duror has a nightmare about Peggy. / “It was Spring, for the gean tree in the corner by the elm was in glorious white blossom, and many birds were singing…handling with care and love her legs pale and swollen like monstrous slugs.” P 63 / Surrounding start idyllic – representative of the idea that what happens would be ideal for D?
Peggy physical appearance described with words to allow us to understand D’s revulsion. Analyse connotations
“they were round her as multitudinous as midges…it was in the terror of that paralysis that he had weakened.” P 64 / Alliteration to emphasise noise and amount of birds attacking Peggy in this nightmare.
“Could that dream have any meaning? Thought Duror. Was Peggy dead? Suddenly it was as if the burden of misery was lifted from him. He began to laugh.” P65 / He finds happiness in the idea of his wife dead. Indicates how tormented he feels by his sad existence.
“Calum no longer was one of the beaters; he too was a dear hunted by remorseless men. Moaning and gasping, he fled after them, with no hope of saving them from slaughter.” P69 / C at one with nature. Determined to save the dear and hurt by the cruelty of the deer drive. Analyses word choice.
“Screaming in sympathy, heedless of the danger of being shot, Calum flung himself upon the deer, clasped it round the neck, and tried to comfort it.” P70 / Again, C tries to comfort nature – innate goodness shown.
Duror jumps out and cuts the deer’s throat. / “rushing upon the stricken deer and the frantic hunchback, he threw the latter off with furious force, and then, seizing the former’s head with one hand cut its throat savagely with the other. Blood spouted.” P70 / D’s evil shown in this attack where he seems to lose control. Analyses word choice to convey the brutality of this. He later reveals that he imagines it to be his wife.
Tulloch’s opinion of Duror following the deer drive. / “Duror had the appearance of a drunk man, unshaven, slack-mouthed, mumbling, rather glaikit.”
P71 / Descriptions of Duror’s appearance are often used to show his descent into madness. Indeed, when LRC becomes aware that D’s sickness, she sees similar physical manifestations.
Speech lacks control
He looked senseless
His appearance is unkempt = losing control, can’t maintain his tidy outward appearance just as he struggles to conceal his hatred and evil.
“…there by the dead deer he understood…why he hated the hunchback so profoundly and yet was so fascinated by him. For many years his life had been stunted, mishappen, obscene, and hideous; and this misbegotten creature was its personification. P73 / He sees C as representative of his wife and his miserable life in general.