History Literature / TreasureIsland

--->'''Jim:''' It was a strange collection, like Billy Bones’s hoard for the diversity of coinage, but so much larger and so much more varied that I think I never had more pleasure than in sorting them. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Georges, and Louises, doubloons and double guineas and moidores and sequins, the pictures of all the kings of Europe for the last hundred years, strange Oriental pieces stamped with what looked like wisps of string or bits of spider’s web, round pieces and square pieces, and pieces bored through the middle, as if to wear them round your neck—nearly every variety of money in the world must, I think, have found a place in that collection; and for number, I am sure they were like autumn leaves, so that my back ached with stooping and my fingers with sorting them out."

* {{Foreshadowing}}: when Jim meets Ben Gunn for the first time, Ben encourages Jim to help him by pointing out that he's rich and can pay for his passage off the island, and later on Dr. Livesey is stated to have willingly given Silver the treasure map while telling him that he's already lost. [[spoiler: When the pirates finally reach where the treasure was buried, it's gone: Ben found it a long time ago and moved it to his cave, and Livesey of course knew this after meeting up with him]].

* {{Greed}}: The main flaw that causes the pirates and mutineers trouble; Silver actually has a pretty good plan for getting the treasure (let Trelawney, Livesey and the loyalists basically do all the hard work of finding and securing the treasure, then mutiny and kill them all to steal it on the way back), and they're all experienced and ruthless men, so should have no trouble with taking care of the loyalists. But the men he sways over to follow him are blinded by greed and thus become impatient and single-minded, resulting in things spiralling out of control far too quickly.

* A [[SeadogPegLeg peg leg]] and a [[PirateParrot parrot]] as the [[DressedToPlunder standard pirate look]] (despite Silver not having a peg leg in the original book).

* AdultsAreUseless: {{Averted}}. Jim does his share of actions to stop the pirates, but Captain Smollett, Doctor Livesey and Squire Trelawney act competently within their ability to do so [[spoiler:and Ben Gunn saved the day by moving the treasure from the place it was buried, allowing the loyalists to lay an ambush on the pirates]].

By chance, Jim [[ExactEavesdropping overhears]] Long John's plotting, and warns his friends, just as they arrive at the island. Over the next few days, Jim repeatedly wanders into danger, meets a scary hermit and kills a pirate by himself, while Long John keeps switching sides, and the treasure is found.

Jim and his friends return home rich, Long John escapes with some of the treasure, and the rest of the pirates get marooned on the island or killed.

* {{Main/Foreshadowing}}: when Jim meets Ben Gunn for the first time, Ben encourages Jim to help him by pointing out that he's rich and can pay for his passage off the island, and later on Dr. Livesey is stated to have willingly given Silver the treasure map while telling him that he's already lost. [[spoiler: When the pirates finally reach where the treasure was buried, it's gone: Ben found it a long time ago and moved it to his cave, and Livesey of course knew this after meeting up with him]].

* AffablyEvil: Long John is a lying, thieving, murdering scumbag pirate... but he's also lovable and charismatic. And, despite everything, his affection and respect for Jim are completely genuine.

* TheAloner: Ben Gunn, who was marooned on the island by his mates after a failed search for the treasure.

* ArbitrarilyLargeBankAccount: Trelawney is a mere country squire, but he is rich enough to buy outright a 200-ton schooner, outfit it for a voyage and hire a crew, all out of pocket and without the slightest hint that doing so has put any strain on his finances. On top of that, he paid to have the "Admiral Benbow" repaired after Pew’s raid.

* BadassBoast:
** Silver sways one of the honest sailors into joining the rebellion with one.
---> '''Silver:''' There was some that was feared of [[AxCrazy Pew]], and some that was feared of [[TheDreaded Flint]]; but Flint his own self was feared of ''me.'' Feared he was, and proud.
** Silver is so badass he even gets boasts by proxy.
---> '''Israel Hands:''' A lion's nothing alongside of Long John! I seen him grapple four and knock their heads together--him unarmed.
** Jim Hawkins, caught by the pirates and facing death, delivers one.
--->"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."
* BadassBookworm: Doctor Livesey is also an ex-British Army soldier and law officer who is a good shot with a smoothbore and stares down the pirate Billy Bones, who had intimidated everyone else in the story up to that point.
* 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.
* BewareTheSillyOnes:
** Ben Gunn may be addled and harmless-seeming, but he sailed with the most evil-minded band of brigands that ever sailed the seas, and to prove his loyalty to the doctor he sneaks into the pirates' camp and bludgeons one of them to death in their sleep without being detected.
** Squire Trelawney is a textbook UpperClassTwit and a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter, but absolutely ''lethal'' with any firearm he can lay his hands on.

* BlackSpot:
** The old sea-dog at the Benbow is "tipped the Black Spot". Subverted when he dies of a heart attack straight after he's given it.
** Subsequently, Long John Silver himself is black-spotted twice: once "off-screen" when the ship arrives at the island and the pirates are eager for action at once, and later when they decide they want a new captain. The actual Spot ends up in Jim Hawkins's possession as a keepsake.

* TheCabinBoy: Jim serves as cabin boy on Captain Smollett's ship.
* CatapultNightmare: At the very end of the book, Jim Hawkins says that the worst dreams he ever has are when he "start[s] upright in bed with the sharp voice of Captain Flint [the parrot] still ringing in my ears."
* CatchPhrase: Silver had quite a few, including "You may lay to that!" ("You may depend on that"), "By the Powers"[=/=]"By the living thunder", and "Shiver my timbers!"
* 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 inn keeper 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.

* TheDreaded: Despite being dead for several years, most of the pirates still have a healthy respect for Captain Flint. 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.
* TheDrunkenSailor: Almost all of the pirates and Mr. Arrow. Further, [[AddledAddict Billy Bones's]] stroke at the beginning is attributed to drinking little but rum at the Benbow Inn, and [[TheAlcoholic Captain Flint]] was allegedly killed by rum as well.

* EnemyMine: Long John spells this out to Jim when Jim's captured by the pirates. Silver knows that Jim is the one who knows where the ship is, and torturing it out of him will satisfy his mutinous crew. However he also knows that the Captain's party ceding the stockade and stores and staying out of their way surely means that they know something he does not and have a plan, while at this point the other pirates are one disappointment from killing Silver too. If they find the treasure then he can ransom Jim, but if things do go bad Jim owes him for his protection and can vouch for him with his friends.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Pirate, mutineer and murderer Long John Silver may be, but he bends over backwards, even risking the Black Spot, to keep Jim Hawkins alive, even when he stands to gain nothing by it.

* EvilCripple:
** Pew is entirely blind, but still enough of an AxCrazy bastard that the remainder of Flint's crew still lives in fear of him, with only Silver and (possibly) Billy Bones being able to stand up to him.
** Silver is famously one-legged, but doesn't let that prevent him from organizing mutinies and committing murders.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:When Jim is captured by the pirates and is given the offer of joining them ''or else'', he delivers a defiant [[FacingTheBulletsOneLiner Facing The Bullets Speech]] outlining how it was him the whole time that [[DefiantToTheEnd kept screwing up their plans]], that the laugh's on his side and he no more fears them than he fears a fly,]] but he'll put in a word at court for them if they choose to spare him.

* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Being marooned in a desert island has turned Ben Gunn into a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}.
* GoodIsNotNice: Captain Smollett delivers a blunt assessment of his displeasure over the crew, expecting to be dismissed. Jim dislikes him from the beginning, and Trelawney comments on finding his behaviour "downright un-English;" however they soon discover that he was quite right, and he leads the party's resistance for most of the story.

* HandicappedBadass:
** Long John Silver killed an honest crewman who refused to join the pirates, by hurling his crutch at him, thus breaking his spine, and then hopping one-legged to him and slitting his throat.
** Pew is fully blind, yet most of the survivors of Flint's crew fear him only slightly less than Billy Bones or Silver.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Silver is an opportunist who will jump to any side if it seems to be the winning one.

* HollywoodHealing: Jim doesn't seem to suffer any long-term effects from being wounded and pinned to the mast by Israel Hands's dirk (which had previously been used to kill another pirate), or having to tear a bit of skin off of his shoulder to escape the pinning. It isn't even mentioned when [[TheMedic Doctor Livesey]] sees him again.

** Jim keeps his promise not to escape with the doctor even though his life is in danger if he stays, at the point where even the doctor himself is ready to break his word because he can't bear the thought of young Jim [[spoiler:being tortured to death]]. This is the turning point in Jim's ComingOfAgeStory.

** Dr. Livesey is determined to heal the ill, even if they are ruthless pirates.
** In a lesser (but rather more baffling) case, Jim's mother, who rifles through the recently deceased Captain's sea chest but refuses to take any more money than what the Captain owed them for room and board. Which resulted in her doing arithmetic over the sea chest even when she knows that Pew's gang is coming at any minute to take the chest and slit everyone's throats.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Squire Trelawney unknowingly hires a bunch of pirates to sail his treasure-hunting vessel. He also mistakes Captain Smollett's plain speaking, sensible caution and firm-but-fair approach to discipline for "unmanly" character, until events prove that Smollett was right (or if anything ''under''-cautious).
* 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.
* InSeriesNickname: Long John Silver is often called "Barbecue" by his old shipmates.
* KarmaHoudini:
** For saving Jim, Trelawney and the others agree to bring Silver back to England with them, instead of abandoning him on the island, and don't seem to be too upset when Silver escapes with a few hundred pounds of the treasure (Jim notes that he hopes Silver lives a happy life, as he's not likely to have a happy ''afterlife''). Similarly, Ben Gunn's crimes as a pirate are pardoned and he is given a share of the treasure (and a job after he blows it all) after he pretty much saves the day [[spoiler:by hiding the treasure away.]]
** Ben Gunn. 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).
* KidHero: Jim does a good job of screwing up with the pirates' plans - starting with his taking the map and accidentally eavesdropping on Silver's mutiny plans.
* 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.
* LeaveNoWitnesses: Captain Flint killed the sailors who helped him bury the treasure. Considering that there were ''six'' of them, nobody has any idea how he managed it.
* LoopholeAbuse: During his confrontation with Israel Hands, Jim manages to prime his two pistols while Hands is still too far away to stab him with his dirk, and tells Hands in no uncertain terms that he'll shoot if Hands comes any closer. Hands responds by throwing his dirk at Jim.
* 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.
* LostAtSea: Fear of this fate is why Silver does his best to keep the pirates in hand until the treasure's on board and the ship is back into the familiar trade routes:
--->'''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.

* LovableTraitor: Long John Silver is a charismatic and likeable figure, who spends the entire book playing XanatosSpeedChess with both the mutineers and the loyalists to ensure that he comes away from the island with as large a cut of the money as he can manage.

* ManlyTears: Trelawney is not afraid to cry [[spoiler: when his servant Tom Redruth is dying]].
* TheMedic: Doctor Livesey spends significant time tending to injuries and diseases among the party, even treating the mutineers.
* 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.]]
* TheMole: Again, Silver. He ingratiates himself to Trelawney, and manages to hire as many of Flint's men on the voyage as possible.

* MundaneLuxury: Ben Gunn swears UndyingLoyalty to Dr. Livesey in exchange for a palm-sized piece of cheese (parmesan, to be precise), something he has craved for years.

* MyWayOrTheHighway: During an argument with his crew, Long John Silver angrily says them that they have two options: obeying his orders or a duel to the dead.
-->"Did any of you gentlemen want to have it out with me?" roared Silver, bending far forward from his position on the keg, with his pipe still glowing in his right hand. "Put a name on what you're at; you ain't dumb, I reckon. Him that wants shall get it. Have I lived this many years, and a son of a rum puncheon cock his hat athwart my hawse at the latter end of it? You know the way; you're all gentlemen o' fortune, by your account. Well, I'm ready. Take a cutlass, him that dares, and I'll see the colour of his inside, crutch and all, before that pipe's empty."\\
Not a man stirred; not a man answered.\\
"That's your sort, is it?" he added, returning his pipe to his mouth. "Well, you're a gay lot to look at, anyway. Not much worth to fight, you ain't. P'r'aps you can understand King George's English. I'm cap'n here by 'lection. I'm cap'n here because I'm the best man by a long sea-mile. You won't fight, as gentlemen o’ fortune should; then, by thunder, you'll obey, and you may lay to it!
* NamedAfterTheInjury: Blind Pew is a vicious, deadly, and sinister blind beggar who served as a member of Flint's crew.
* NotSoAboveItAll: Silver frequently boasts about how much better he is than the other pirates, ranging from being the only man that Captain Flint feared to not being as drunk or incompetent as they are. However throughout the story he is shown to be blind-drunk on numerous occasions, and to be in such mortal terror of Flint that he gets shaken up just by ''talking'' about him.
* 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.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: In a flashback, Captain Flint goes ashore with six crew members (all of them hardened pirates) to bury his treasure; later he comes back on board alone, having singlehandedly killed them all.

* PirateParrot: The TropeMaker. Although it's quite likely that real Caribbean pirates may have kept the occasional parrot, this is also true of monkeys and cats, and one of these animals is ''far'' more associated with pirates than the others.
* PosthumousCharacter: Captain Flint, who died prior to the events of the novel but whose actions are central to the plot.
* PreInsanityReveal: Ben Gunn was once a part of Captain Flint's crew, though unliked by his shipmates. He knows the location of Flint's treasure, but no one believes him. Marooned on a deserted island, he becomes more than a little addled, talks in the third person and has an obsessive craving for cheese.
* ProperlyParanoid: Captain Smollet mistrusts the crew from the very beginning, insisting on precautions that highly annoy Squire Trelawney. He turns out to be completely on the mark.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Silver delivers one to his crew when they try to depose him.
-->'''Long John Silver''': Why, I give you my word, I'm sick to speak to you. You've neither sense nor memory, and I leave it to fancy where your mothers was that let you come to sea. Sea! Gentlemen o' fortune! I reckon tailors is your trade.

* RetiredMonster:
** Flint, the captain who murdered a good chunk of his own crew to hide the treasure's location, was afraid of Silver. Silver has been peacefully running an inn and living happily with his wife for some years when the story begins, and he continues this after making off with a part of the treasure in the end.
** Billy Bones had also settled down quite comfortably at the "Admiral Benbow" and was quite content to drink and eat away his share of the plunder before his past caught up with him.
* {{Robinsonade}}: Ben Gunn has been marooned on the island.

* SpannerInTheWorks: Ben Gunn's presence in the island completely derails Silver's plans in various ways:
** [[spoiler:His coracle allows Jim to steal back the ''Hispaniola''.]]
** [[spoiler:He kills one of Silver's men while they sleep, prompting a costly assault on the stockade.]]
** [[spoiler:He provides invaluable aid to the loyalists.]]
** [[spoiler:He has long since found and moved the treasure.]]

* SurroundedByIdiots: Silver actually has a rather simple plan: Let Captain Smollett get the ship to the island, let Trelawney and Livesey find and dig up the treasure, and then kill them on the way back to England and take the treasure. Unfortunately the rest of the pirates can't figure out why they shouldn't kill the honest crew ''now'', and by the time they reach the island it's all Silver can do to stop them from breaking out into open mutiny before they get any clue as to where the treasure is hidden.

* TrojanPrisoner: Long John Silver pulls this with Jim, who'd been genuinely captured by Silver and the other pirates earlier. Silver's practical reason for keeping Jim alive is that he's his best chance to escape the gallows if things go south, as Silver suspects they might, and an extra gun hand against the pirates who'll inevitably turn on them once that happens. However, it's never entirely clear whether Silver would have kept his word to keep Jim alive if things had gone according to plan...

* UpperClassTwit: Squire Trelawney to an extent, although he himself had followed the sea at one point and, as noted above, he does have some skills.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Black Dog's fate after being chased out of Silver's inn is never revealed.

* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: Captain Silver has a parrot named Cap'n Flint, named after his former, late captain.

* The "Black Spot" as a death sentence handed out to traitors by pirates. (Though historically this ''may'' have been done with the Ace of Spades).

* DeconstructedTrope: 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.

---> '''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.

* PublicDomainCharacter: Due to the novel being published entire centuries ago, ''all'' of the characters featured in the book are now in the public domain.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The year is given as [[YearX "17--"]] and King George is mentioned without clarifying which King George it is, so the setting could theoretically be anywhere from 1714 to 1799. Some textual evidence does allow us to narrow it down further, however - the suggestion that England is at war with France would imply a range of 1740-63. Bow Street Runners are mentioned, dating it to after 1749. Stevenson's treasure map includes a date of 1754, and Flint has been dead at least three years, so it must be after 1757. And since they visit a friendly port in Spanish America, it's presumably before Spain entered the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar in 1762, so it most likely takes place in the last years of the 1750s or the early years of the '60s. (The [[Film/TreasureIsland1950 Disney version]] sets it in 1765, for example.)

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Silver’s crew has numbers and experience on their side against the loyalists... but if you attack a fortified position defended by men with guns, you are going to take heavy casualties and get you ass kicked. In general, the mutineers have a bit of a problem with this trope; they outnumber the loyal sailors and are mostly experienced and ruthless men, so should find their mission easy sailing, but greed for the treasure makes them impatient, narrow-sighted and short-tempered at any delays and setbacks, leading them into reckless actions that often set themselves back.

* LeftStuckAfterAttack: In the Soviet animated adaptation, a drunken fight between Israel Hands and O'Brian starts with them angrily bashing on a table. Hands bashes through the table, and O'Brian uses it to bitch-slap him, only to run away in terror when Hands ''lifts'' the table and chases him waving it over his head. He quickly gets stuck in a door and O'Brian again scores some free kicks, until Hands finally breaks the table.

* GenreBlind: Crewing out a ship for a secret mission in search of buried treasure, the characters hire a one-legged, tattooed old sea-dog with a Bristol accent and a parrot. But then, [[UnbuiltTrope Long John Silver is the one who made all these traits stock attributes of pirates in the first place.]] Jim Hawkins still might have known better since he was specifically warned by Billy Bones to beware of "a one-legged sea-faring man" -- they just [[IdiotBall decide he couldn't possibly have meant this particular one-legged sea-faring man]] (but then again, considering England's history in naval warfare and amputation being the ''safest'' medical practice of the day, a one-legged old sailor wasn't exactly rare either).

* TheAlcoholic: Almost all of the pirates and Mr. Arrow. Billy Bones's stroke at the beginning is attributed to drinking little but rum at the Benbow Inn, and Captain Flint was allegedly killed by rum as well.

* DeconstructedTrope: 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 the rest of his life.

* X marks the spot on a TreasureMap to show where the PirateBooty is hidden.