History Characters / TreasureIsland

* ImprobableAimingSkills: Squire Trelawney may be a bit of a stereotypical landed-gentry Englishman, but he's also a crack shot. At one point, the mutineers' gunner -- his intended target -- is roughly a hundred yards away, on the deck of the ship, stooping over a cannon muzzle. Trelawney himself is seated in an 18-foot "jolly boat," which is overloaded with 4 other men and a ton of supplies. And he's armed with a ''musket''. Despite all this, only a CoincidentalDodge saves the intended target's life -- and Trelawney still picks off one of the other villains.

* TheDrunkenSailor: Implied. Silver claims that Flint "died o' rum at Savannah" - he drank himself to death.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Pew leads the men to find the treasure map in the ''Admiral Benbow'', ordering the men to burn the place down later. He gets so angry that all the other pirates run away while he screams at them - at which point a soldier patrol arrives on horse, accidentally running over Pew.

* ObfuscatingDisability: Pew ''is'' blind, but he is also a lot more capable than what he initially seems to be. There's a reason why nearly all the other pirates are afraid of him.
* VillainousBreakdown: Once he realizes that Jim has escaped with the map and the authorities are on their way, he starts yelling at own pirates' cowardice, then beats with his stick one of them, who've suggested to just take the valuables they've found.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Pirate, mutineer and murderer Long John Silver may be, but he bends over backwards, even risking the Black Spot, to [[WouldntHurtAChild keep Jim Hawkins alive]] at all costs. Him sparing Jim makes his TheDreaded status disappear from mutineers's eyes, putting him in danger.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Israel Hands was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Hands a real-life pirate]], and a member of UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}'s crew. Supposedly he died in the 1720s, but he would only have been in his mid-twenties at the time. Presumably in-story, he actually survived and went on to join Flint's crew (though, alternatively, it may simply be a case of NamedAfterSomebodyFamous).

* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: Maroon a pirate on a small island with treasure hidden on it, give him reason to make your life difficult if you try and come back for it, and leave him with nothing else to do? [[spoiler: He's going to find as much of it as possible, dig it up, and move it.]]

* ChildrenForcedToKill: Jim kills Israel Hands in self-defense, though it should be noted in the most involuntary way possible: Hands nails his shoulder with his knife, and Jim involuntarily pulls both triggers without aiming.
* ComingOfAgeStory: For Jim Hawkins. He starts as just an assistant innkeeper working for his parents, and learns to confront betrayal and violence in the quest for treasure. Ultimately, he decides that even the promise of ''more'' treasure would not entice him to revisit the adventure.
* DeconstructedTrope: Of the KidHero trope. Young Jim Hawkins has a roaring adventure, fighting pirates and claiming a fabulous treasure... and the experience of seeing so many men die (and killing some himself) leaves him so utterly traumatized that he has nightmares for some time afterward.

* MeaningfulName: '''Live'''sey is quite a fitting name for a doctor.

* BewareTheSillyOnes: Squire Trelawney is a textbook UpperClassTwit and a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter, but absolutely ''lethal'' with any firearm he can lay his hands on.

* ImprobableAimingSkills: Squire Trelawney may be a bit of a stereotypical landed-gentry Englishman, but he's also a crack shot. After all, landed-gentry often found they had nothing better to do than hunt all the time. At one point, the mutineers' gunner -- his intended target -- is roughly a hundred yards away, on the deck of the ship, stooping over a cannon muzzle. Trelawney himself is seated in an 18-foot "jolly boat," which is overloaded with 4 other men and a ton of supplies. And he's armed with a ''musket''. Despite all this, only a CoincidentalDodge saves the intended target's life -- and Trelawney still picks off one of the other villains.
* LooseLips: Trelawney is utterly incapable of keeping any sensitive information to himself. Despite the fact that Livesey '''explicitly''' warns him to keep his mouth shut about the map and the treasure, by the time the ''Hispaniola'' is ready to sail everybody in Bristol knows everything there is to know about the expedition. Some of the crew even know the latitude and longitude of the island. In Captain Smollett's words, even ''the parrot'' knows.

* BadassCrew: The crew of the ''Walrus'' prior to the events of the novel. With Flint as captain, Billy Bones as first mate, Long John Silver as quartermaster, and seamen such as Israel Hands, Ben Gunn, and Pew, it's no wonder they were able to amass such a huge hoard of treasure.

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Atfer Black Dog comes to the inn, behind the locked door Jim can only hear some sword fighting. Next, a wounded Black Dog runs away.

* ImprobableAimingSkills: Squire Trelawney may be a bit of a stereotypical landed-gentry Englishman, but he's also a crack shot. At one point, the mutineers' gunner -- his intended target -- is roughly a hundred yards away, on the deck of the ship, stooping over a cannon muzzle. Trelawney himself is seated in an 18-foot "jolly boat," which is overloaded with 4 other men and a ton of supplies. And he's armed with a ''musket''. Despite all this, only a CoincidentalDodge saves the intended target's life -- and Trelawney still picks off one of the other villains.

The son of "Admiral Benbow"'s innkeeper who gets involved with treasure-hunting adventurers.

* TheDreaded: Flint was one of the most notorious pirates of all time. Just hearing that Jim's family has a problem somehow related to him instantly turns the entire neighbourhood into ApatheticCitizens, though on Jim's mother's pleading they give them a gun, a horse and contact Livesey. Billy Bones, his first mate, still has nightmares about him. And at a point in the novel where it appears that he might be NotQuiteDead, all of them are overcome with terror at the prospect of encountering him again.

* KarmaHoudini: Ben Gunn's crimes as a pirate are pardoned after he pretty much saves the day [[spoiler:by hiding the treasure away.]] Nobody seems particularly bothered that he was a part of one of the most feared pirate crews that ever sailed, and he gets a larger share of the treasure than Silver did (which he manages to blow in three weeks, at which point he is given a pension). Presumably, the characters and readers consider his time marooned on the island punishment enough (not to mention it mellowed him out considerably).

* JerkassHasAPoint: Smollet is a stern, blunt man who is concerned with doing his duty, whether people like or not. Squire Trelawney finds his blunt honesty unbearable and irritant, calling him "intolerable humbug" who is "unmanly, unsailorly and downright un-English", but when Smollett's paranoia regarding the sailors plotting a mutiny, Trelawney admits Smollet was right (and he himself had been an ass).

* FauxAffablyEvil: He intrduces himself to Jim as a polite poor man an a war veteran. When he asks Jim to take him to Billy and he refused, Pew threaten to break Jim's hand right there and never put up the facade again.

** He gives one to both Dick and Israel Hands in Chapter 11, railing against the impatience, greed and lack of foresight that has sent every other pirate to their deaths.
--->'''Long John Silver''': I seen a thing or two at sea, I have. If you would on'y lay your course, and a p'int to windward, you would ride in carriages, you would. But not you! I know you. You'll have your mouthful of rum to-morrow, and go hang.

* TheAlcoholic: Implied. Silver claims that Flint "died o' rum at Savannah" - he drank himself to death.

* TheAlcoholic: His defining characteristic is drinking little but rum during his time at the ''Admiral Benbow''. It comes back to bite him when he suffers a stroke following his encounter with Black Dog, and Doctor Livesey bluntly tells him that if he keeps it up it'll kill him. Which it does.

** He gives an earlier one to both Dick and Israel Hands in Chapter 11, railing against the impatience, greed and lack of foresight that has sent every other pirate to their deaths.

* MyWayOrTheHighway: During an argument with his crew, Long John Silver angrily says to them that they have two options: obeying his orders or a duel to the dead.

One of the Flint's pirates. He finds Billy Jones at the inn and tries to get information out of him, but Billy almost kills him in defense.

* FauxAffablyEvil: He talks politely to Jim and Billy, but doesn't hide his threatening demeanor, and gets hostile the moment he gets a response he doesn't like. Not to mention his idea of a "surprize welcome" is to wait behind the door with a knife in hand.

* AuthorityInNameOnly: He's Captain Flint first mate and by the start of the novel technically the leader of the ''Walrus'' pirates. However, by then every other pirate was already in Blind Pew's or Long John Silver's teams and Billy gets marked for death.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Atfer Black Dog comes to the inn, behind the locked door Jim can only hear some swordfighting. Next, wounded Black Dog runs away.

* ImDyingPleaseTakeMyMacGuffin: In case he get gets marked with BlackSpot and dies, he asks Jim to deliver the TreasureMap to Livesey and deal with the pirates in any way he'd see fit.
* InVinoVeritas: During his stay at ''Admiral Benbow'' he sometimes sings sea songs or told gruesome stories from his sea experiences to other customers' joy, though everyone have thought he's just a badass sailor and not a pirate.

* PlotTriggeringDeath: As soon as he dies, Jim becomes the owner of [[MacGuffin Flint's map]] and Blind Pew with other pirates approach the inn looking for it, the story's action starts from there.
* ProperlyParanoid: He pays Jim extra to watch for any "seafaring man with one leg", who is Long John Silver. While Silver never came, other of his co-pirates did and are after him.
* TheQuietOne: After his introduction he's described as not very talkative for the longest time, at ''Admiral Benbow'' he either left to look at the sea or is drinking.

* TattooedCrook: He has a lot of pirate tattoos on himself, including his own name.
* WithholdingTheirName: He only asks Jim and his father to call him "captain". Technically, he is the current captain of ''Walrus'' pirates. His [[GivenNameReveal name is revealed]] when Blind Dog calls him out.

One of the Flint's pirates. He finds Billy Jones at the inn and triest to get information out of him, but Billy almost kills him in defense.

* TheDreaded: Flint was one of the most notorious pirates of all time. Just hearing that Jim's family has a problem somehow related to him instantly turns the entire neighbourhood into ApatheticCitizens, though on Jim's mother plead they give them a gun, a horse and contact Livesey. Billy Bones, his first mate, still has nightmares about him. And at a point in the novel where it appears that he might be NotQuiteDead, all of them are overcome with terror at the prospect of encountering him again.

* ThreatBackfire: Billy Bones threatens him with a knife for giving him a health advice. The doctor, without flinching, threatens him in return to take him to court and hang him. The captain sits down grumbling.

* MeaningfulName: '''Live''sey is quite a fitting name for a doctor.

---> '''Silver:''' We can steer a course, but who's to set one? That's what all you gentlemen split on, first and last. If I had my way, I'd have Cap'n Smollett work us back into the trades at least; then we'd have no blessed miscalculations and a spoonful of water a day.

--->"Let the worst come to the worst, it's little I care. I've seen too many die since I fell in with you. But there's a thing or two I have to tell you," I said, and by this time I was quite excited; "and the first is this: here you are, in a bad way--ship lost, treasure lost, men lost, your whole business gone to wreck; and if you want to know who did it--it was I! I was in the apple barrel the night we sighted land, and I heard you, John, and you, Dick Johnson, and Hands, who is now at the bottom of the sea, and told every word you said before the hour was out. And as for the schooner, it was I who cut her cable, and it was I that killed the men you had aboard of her, and it was I who brought her where you'll never see her more, not one of you. The laugh's on my side; I've had the top of this business from the first; I no more fear you than I fear a fly."

--> '''Billy Bones''': Fifteen man on the dead man's chest-- Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Pirate, mutineer and murderer Long John Silver may be, but he bends over backwards, even risking the Black Spot, to [[WouldntHurtAChild keep Jim Hawkins alive]], even when he stands to gain nothing by it. Him sparing Jim makes his TheDreaded status disappear from mutineers's eyes, putting him in danger.