“… he was like a tree still straight, still showing green leaves; but underground death was creeping along the roots.”
- Here we see Duror’s jealousy as he cannot climb like Calum can. The natural imagery highlights that although Duror can still put on a good face, he sees himself as corrupted from within.
“Now when she saw it [the doll], naked, without its gay frilly clothes, squirming one-legged in Duror’s huge lustful fist, it seemed to her that her daughter’s innocence was somehow being publicly outraged… In his [Mr Tulloch’s] hand it was innocent again.”
- The word choice of “naked”, “squirming” and “lustful” highlight that in Duror’s hands, the doll has been corrupted. In contrast, the word choice of “innocent” emphasises that in Tulloch’s hands the doll is no longer corrupted – he wants to give it to his daughter as a gift.
“To hate the hunchback… was reasonable; but to… covet his hump, his deformed body… was, in fact, already to have begun the exchange.”
- It makes sense to Duror for him to hate Calum. However, we see here (through the word choice of ‘covet’) that he is actually jealous of Calum’s hump and wants it for himself. They are opposites. Duror is corrupt on the inside, beautiful on the outside. Calum is pure on the inside and deformed on the outside.
“… the Germans were putting idiots and cripples to death in gas chambers. Outwardly, as everyone expected, he condemned such barbarity; inwardly… he had profoundly approved.”
- To everybody else, Duror acts like he doesn’t like what the Nazi’s are doing to disabled people (killing them). Secretly, he actually agrees with what they are doing.
“Other boys had stripped the wings off flies, he had been compelled to squash the desecrated remains…”
- This tells us Duror’s motivation. Even as a child, he felt he had to destroy anything that was imperfect. “Compelled” suggests he had no choice. “Desecrated” suggests he felt the remains had been ruined.
“…overspreading tree of revulsion in him…”
- Duror’s tree becomes a motif throughout the novel. This is natural imagery but it has been corrupted. His “revulsion” (disgust) is inspired by Calum but he cannot control its growth within him. - Metaphor
Duror about John Farquarson (“soldiering in Africa”): “The envy that he felt, corrosive and agonising, was again reduced outwardly to a faint smile.”
- Duror is burning up with jealousy as he wants to fight in the war. The contrast between ‘smile’ and ‘envy’ highlights that he is masking his emotions – this will not be helping his mental health.
Duror: “felt in a mood for murder, rape, or suicide.”
- At the doctor’s Duror drank whisky (something that was very rare during the war) so his inhibitions have been lowered. These three options symbolise the three potential escapes Duror sees: murdering Calum, release of sexual frustration or ending his own life.
“other women… religious acceptance… and of course there’s always the old stand-by… endurance…”
- The Doctor gives Duror three options to improve his mental health. Duror rejected ‘other women’ when he rejected Effie.
- He cannot rely on religious acceptance as he does not believe in God. So, he is left with only endurance.
- Before Calum, Duror was enduring but he no longer can. The doctor lists Duror’s symptoms that highlight that he is not coping, but he does not see the true depths of his depravity.
- The doctor has also fallen victim to believing Duror’s outward image of strength.
“The hunchback’s not right in the head… The papers are often full of what such misbegotten beasts have done… I’m referring, of course, to assaults on wee lassies.”
- The word choice of ‘beasts’ relates to the motif in the novel where Duror suggests Calum is animal-like. Here he is capitalising on the widely-believed (but obviously false) idea at the time that there is a link between learning-difficulties and sexual assaults. He is suggesting that Calum is a risk for this.
“The doctor about Duror: “God knew how many inhibitions, repressions, and complexes were twisting and coiling there, like the snakes of damnation.”
“Inhibitions” denotes things that hold people back. “Repressions” suggests pushing away emotions and feelings.
- “Complexes” suggests issues for which there is no easy answer. The simile highlights the negative nature of Duror’s thoughts as snakes are often a symbol of evil and Jenkins specifically references the snakes of hell.
- The snake in Genesis (the first book of the Bible) was the Devil. He tempted Eve to eat the apple and therefore cursed humanity with free will.
- Thus, Duror represents the true evil in the forest. Importantly, this is the diagnosis of a doctor.
