Literature as a Doorway to Life
Q was later to relate, in his Cambridge lectures, that literature is a doorway to life because it deals through the imagination with direct human experience, free from dogma and theory. The Bible is literature in its highest form and should not be used as a theological or moral textbook, nor to induce states of consciousness such as fear, conviction, or exaltation. Jasper reads the Bible and Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress. Jasper and Margery find little solace from the exposition of scripture in the meetinghouse.
Childhood and the Child as Narrator
Q frequently used a child as narrator or as commentator, as with Jasper in Dead Man’s Rock and Harry Revel in the novel carrying his name. This often exposes the hypocrisy of adult speech and behaviour.
Good and Evil
Q presents us with many evil characters, such as Simon Colliver and John Railton, but they are never pure evil, and their destructiveness is always for a reason. As Q believed Man to be good by nature, he did not explain goodness as other than the natural development of the child. Jasper is good because he has not had evil imposed upon him. The belief of Augustine and Aquinas that evil is the deprivation of good must have proved attractive to Q: but not their doctrines of ‘original sin’.
The Wronged Woman
The vulnerability of women in a male dominated society is a central theme. It is found in ‘Hetty Wesley’ and in ‘Lady Good-for-Nothing’. Margery Trenoweth, Lucy Railton, and Clarissa Lambert are examples from Dead Man’s Rock.
Medicine
Dr Loveday is the first of a series of doctors found in Q’s novels.
Theatre
Q loved the theatre from an early age and describes theatrical performances in a number of novels. He wrote plays himself.
Chance, Fate and Providence
Both Amos and Ezekiel Trenoweth meet Simon Colliver by chance in Plymouth. By chance, Jasper Trenoweth meets Simon’s mother in a London gaming hall. Chance plays a central role in the novel. Q appears to see chance as governed by the good and evil actions of his characters; it is an aspect of fate and providence. Because Jasper is innocent he is rescued from death on Dead Man’s Rock through the providential intervention of Dr Loveday. Yet Ezekiel, inheriting the evil fortune of Amos, is knifed by Railton within sight of his home at Lantrig, and Railton is knifed by Colliver. However, even the innocent suffer from association with evil. The treasure leads to the death through grief of Margery Trenoweth, even though she is innocent. Redemption is still possible, even for the grossly culpable. Amos does not find this in the meetinghouse with its preaching of redemption. But Simon Colliver and his mother find redemption of a sort in the asylum at Bodmin where innocence is restored, although through madness.
The Sea
Q can equal Joseph Conrad as a writer of the sea. Cornwall is a maritime county and Q had the sea in his veins. Some of the finest passages in Dead Man’s Rock, and in his later novels, describe the sea, the coast and boats.