Settings
Setting is a major component to Treasure Island, whether it be the Admiral Benbow, the Hispaniola, ot Treasure Island itself there is always opportunity for adventure around every corner. The story takes place in the 18th century, during this time piracy was common among trading routes and there where many opportunities for adventure for those willing for long sea voyage.
In Bristol, England Jim is exposed to the pirate culture in his father's buisness, The Admiral Benbow Inn. England is the perfect starting point for the novel because it is a large island, meaning it requires a ocean voyage to progress the novel and create excitement of a great adventure. The location changes when Jim sets out on open ocean on the Hispaniola. This creates a more isolated setting, allowing the tension build between the pirates and the rest of the crew. Jim describes the great ship "rolling scuppers under in the ocean swell. The booms were tearing at the blocks, the rudder was banging to and fro, and the whole ship creaking, groaning, and jumping like a manufactory. I had to cling tight to the backstay" (120-21).
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Squire Trelawney describes the Hispaniola "as a sweeter schooner--a child might sail her--two hundred tons" (132). The ship is the location for many important scenes such as when Jim overhears Silver's plan for mutiny as well as Jim's recapturing the ship and his battle with Israel Hands.
The journey on the Hispaniola takes place on the Atlantic Ocean, which is known for high piracy activity during the 18th century. The ocean between Europe and the Americas was call The Middle Passage and often trade vessels where captured by pirates who would escape easily to many locations on the coasts of either continent. Finally Jim and his crew mate's reach their final location, Treasure Island. Although it is the location of wondrous wealth, the island itself is nothing special in itself. The island is a small and presumably deserted, Jim has mentioned that the island is rumored to contain wild beasts and cannibals creating a veil of dangerous mystery more frightening than the island itself.
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Jim describes that the "Grey-coloured woods covered a large part of the surface...the general colouring was uniform and sad. The hills ran up clear above the vegetation in spires of naked rock. All were strangely shaped, and the Spy-glass... was likewise the strangest in configuration, running up sheer from almost every side and then suddenly cut off at the top like a pedestal to put a statue on" (120). Treasure Island is a rather odd and mysterious island based on the diction of which it is detailed, it is more than likely that Jim being young and untraveled would think the islands landmarks are exceptionally strange. There is a sense of foreboding when the ship first reaches the shores of Treasure Island, "There was not a breath of air moving, nor a sound but that of the surf booming half a mile away along the beaches and against the rocks outside. A peculiar stagnant smell hung over the anchorage—a smell of sodden leaves and rotting tree trunks" (123). The island has a deathly quality to it that possibly foreshadows the death that will ensue from the battle between the mutineers and Captain Smollett's crew.
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