A Scots Quair: Analysis of Major Characters
"A Scots Quair" is a trilogy that intricately examines the lives and struggles of various characters in early 20th-century Scotland, focusing on themes of love, loss, and the impacts of war. Central to the narrative is Chris Guthrie, a resilient crofter's daughter and later a wife, whose dual identity reflects her deep connection to both Scottish and English cultures. Chris's journey through personal tragedy, including the loss of her family members to the ravages of World War I, shapes her as a representative of the Scottish landscape she so passionately loves.
Other key figures include John Guthrie, Chris’s hardworking father whose bitterness leads to his demise, and Jean Murdoch Guthrie, Chris's mother, whose struggles culminate in a tragic end. The men in Chris's life—her husbands Ewan Tavendale and Robert Colquohoun, along with neighbors like Long Rob and Chae Strahan—illustrate the varied responses to the challenges posed by war and societal expectations. Through these characters, the narrative explores themes of resilience, sacrifice, and the harsh realities of rural life, while also critiquing the hypocrisy often present in social and religious institutions. The interplay of personal and collective histories in "A Scots Quair" offers a poignant reflection on the broader themes of identity and belonging in a rapidly changing world.
A Scots Quair: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Lewis Grassic Gibbon
First published: 1946 (includes Sunset Song, 1932; Cloud Howe, 1933; and Grey Granite, 1934)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Northeastern Scotland
Plot: Social
Time: 1911 to the Great Depression
Chris Guthrie, a crofter's (farmer's) daughter, crofter's wife, farmer, mother, and minister's wife, twice a widow, and the principal character of the trilogy. With her high cheekbones, long, finely spun red-brown hair, and bright, piercing brown eyes, Chris is a striking Scotswoman who catches the attention of men and women alike. From childhood, Chris feels like two people: one an English Chris who loves books and genteel culture and the other a Scottish Chris who eschews English bourgeois pretensions and believes only in the immortality of the Scottish land and sky. Chris's early recognition that nothing human lasts becomes a lifelong conviction and provides comfort to her in the worst times of her life. By the end of the third volume, the thirty-eight-year-old Chris seems herself to be an extension of the Scottish countryside she has lived on and loved.
John Guthrie, Chris's father, a crofter. Hardy, firm, red-haired, and red-bearded, John Guthrie strives with the beautiful but harsh farmland of Kincardineshire with undying energy. The incessant struggle finally embitters this fiercely independent man, who dies enraged, paralyzed by a stroke.
Jean Murdoch Guthrie, Chris's mother. By nature blithe and vigorous, Jean is lovely and sensual with her fine, long, golden hair. Worn down by childbearing, a farm wife's duties, and an unexpected seventh pregnancy, the despondent Jean takes her own life as well as those of her young twins.
Will Guthrie, the oldest of the Guthrie children. Resembling his mother in his natural temperament and full head of red-gold hair, Will is the too-frequent recipient of his dour father's stern, even vicious, discipline. Hating his father and unwilling to endure him any longer, Will runs away to Argentina. Will visits Chris several years later, on his way to the trench warfare of World War I. He is killed in action.
Ewan Tavendale, Chris's first husband, a farmer from the Highlands. Tall, agile, and powerful, Ewan is depicted with his dark features and black hair as one of the ancient Scots, the Picts, older than the Celtic peoples who later came to Scotland. The natural energy and harmony of Ewan's life as a farmer is perverted by the violence of World War I. Ewan enlists in a Highland regiment and returns only briefly to Chris and his son, Ewan; he is now drunk, coarse, and corrupted. He is executed in France when he comes to his senses and deserts, trying to return to Scotland, the land, and Chris.
Robert (Rob) Duncan, called Long Rob of the Mill, a miller, wit, horse lover, and neighbor of the Guthries. Tall and sinewy, with flaxen-gold hair and mustache and smoky blue eyes, Rob strikes his neighbors as coming from Viking stock. Rob exhibits the Scots independence and self-reliance exalted in the novel: He goes to jail rather than be conscripted into the military. He helps Chris tend the crops in Ewan's absence, and they become one-time lovers when he tells her that he will enlist in the army. Capitulating to the societal blood-thirstiness of the war, Rob joins a Highland regiment. He dies a hero and is posthumously awarded a medal for bravery.
Charles “Chae” Strahan, another crofter, a neighbor of the Guthries and later of Chris and Ewan. Tall, broadshouldered, and ruggedly handsome with his prominent nose, fair hair, and waxed mustache, Chae combines personal strength and a crofter's independent mind to stand as one of the pillars of the farm community. Like Rob, Chae is reminiscent of the traditional Scots, who both define and are defined by the land and the tilling of it. A favorite with Chris, Chae is a loyal friend and neighbor. He too is killed in battle in France, one hour before the armistice is effected.
The Reverend Stuart Gibbon, the minister of the Kirk at Kinraddie. With his booming voice, large physique, red face, and black hair, Gibbon looks the role of minister of the Kirk. He proves, however, to be vain, hypocritical, and lecherous. He fights the war ferociously from his pulpit, wearing a military chaplain's dashing uniform. Others hating the war discredit Gibbon by marching off quietly to die in the trenches.
McIvor, Ewan's best man at his wedding and a fellow Highlander. A towering man, redheaded and red-faced, McIvor is a haunting, enigmatic figure. He disappears from the narrative until the end, when he reappears in kilts to play a Highland dirge on bagpipes as he paces slowly around a memorial commemorating the battle deaths of Ewan, Long Rob, Chae, and another man from Kinraddie. McIvor contributes a powerful sense of ancientness and continuity to the dramatic ending of the novel.
Robert Colquohoun (ka-HEWN), Chris's second husband, a veteran of World War I and minister of the Kirk. He is fair-haired and fair-complexioned, tall, and thin. Although his lungs were injured by mustard gas during combat, he still possesses athletic skills. He attempts to rekindle civic compassion and duty among the complacent middle class of Segget. He becomes involved with local labor leaders and organizers, but his dream of a revivified new world after the upheaval of World War I is shattered by the postnatal death of his and Chris's newborn son, Michael, and by the horrible suffering of laborers and their families. Robert dies in the pulpit, alienated from Chris, his health broken and his dream shattered.
Young Ewan Tavendale, Chris's son, who grows from early childhood to adolescence. Ewan bears a startling resemblance to his father: He is dark-haired and dark-complexioned, intense, self-possessed, and mysterious. Intelligent and inquisitive, Ewan distinguishes himself academically and intellectually, immersing himself in the history and archaeology of the ancient Picts and Scots. At times, Chris worries that Ewan is too aloof, disinterested in and disconnected from his fellows. Her concern is warranted: By the end of the third volume of the trilogy, Ewan has become a cold, vindictive, and ruthless Communist labor organizer and agitator.
Else Queen, Chris and Robert's housekeeper, also an employee and mistress of a local landowner. Large, buxom, hearty, and vigorous, Else comes to love the Colquohouns after working for and living with them. When she is fired after Robert catches her with her lover in the manse kitchen, she moves in with her lover and bears him an out-of-wedlock child. When Chris's life is threatened by premature childbirth, Else comes back to nurse her back to health and remains with the Colquohouns until Robert's death.
Dalziel of Meiklebogs, a local landowner, Else Queen's lover and, for a time, her common-law husband. Dalziel acts shy in public and speaks quietly, but his burly size, red features, and unshaven face remind Chris of a deceptive Highland bull. Dalziel reveals his true nature by allowing a mortally injured draft horse to suffer so that he can collect insurance money, and by refusing to acknowledge his natural son, born to Else Queen.
Stephen Mowat, the owner of the local textile mills, a libertine and dilettante. In his early or mid-twenties, Mowat is short, curly haired, bespectacled, and ingratiating. Mowat plays at being the laird (lord) of Segget, talking of what he will do for the local mill economy. In fact, however, he is but one more profligate aristocrat, squandering money gotten from mistreated workers. Mowat secures a bank loan under false pretenses and flees Segget, knowing that the bank will seize and shut down the mills, thus leaving Segget's workers destitute and desperate.
Alec “Ake” Ogilvie, a joiner (carpenter), World War I veteran, amateur poet, and Chris's third husband. Another big Scotsman, Ake has twinkling green eyes, a long mustache, and unapologetically country mannerisms that cast him as one more ancient Scot, so much so that his age is indeterminate. Chris marries Ake in the third volume of the trilogy, but when Ake cannot awaken Chris's passionate nature, he abruptly leaves her to become a ship's carpenter.
Sim Leslie, nicknamed “Feet,” a constable in Segget, later a police sergeant in Duncairn in the third volume. Dull-witted, large, and oafish, Leslie is one of the police officers who hound and then persecute striking laborers. Leslie arrests Chris's son, Ewan, and is involved in his torture in jail.
Ma Cleghorn, Chris's partner and boardinghouse co-owner, a widow. Large, brisk, competent, and plain-spoken, she comforts the recently widowed Chris and earns her affection. When Mrs. Cleghorn dies toward the end of the novel, Chris imagines her declining the passive Heaven of which the ministers speak, choosing instead the Scottish mountaintops.
Neil Quaritch, a boarder in the rooming house, a newspaper copy editor and book reviewer. Although he is small and dominated by red features (beard, hair, eyes, and nose), Quaritch is spunky, skeptical, and urbane. At the end of the novel, after Ake has left Chris, Quaritch makes a halfhearted proposal to Chris, which she rejects.
Meg Watson, a maid at the boardinghouse, the sister of Alick Watson. Thin, pale, and sly, Meg combines the general unhealthiness of the laborers with their survivors' cunning. She becomes pregnant out of wedlock by one of the Communist organizers.
Alick Watson, a foundry worker, initially Ewan's enemy, then his friend and follower. As with most of the laborers in Duncairn, Alick is pale, sour-looking, and violent, tall but not healthy. Alick becomes Ewan's friend after the two have a bloody fistfight. After betraying Ewan to the police on false charges, the despondent Alick joins a Highland regiment, whose harsh discipline prompts Alick to lead an uprising of enlisted men. For this act, he is court-martialed and severely disciplined, a final degradation in a brutish life.
Ellen Johns, a middle-class teacher, Socialist, and activist. She is Ewan's lover. Pretty and fair-skinned, catlike, and blue-eyed like Ewan, Ellen strikes Chris as being almost a natural mate of Ewan with her ancient Scots appearance and air of mystery. Ellen's love supersedes her social activism and is rebuked by Ewan's “grey granite” commitment to his Communist Party responsibilities. Ewan ends the relationship.
Big Jim Trease, a key Communist organizer in Scotland and, eventually, Ewan's mentor. Large and plump, with small twinkling eyes, forbearing of laborers' suspicions, patient, and cunning, Trease bides his time, making what use he can of police violence, whether provoked or premeditated, to advance his cause. Trease combines steely purpose with delayed gratification, smiling at laborers' fearful insults, confident that eventually workers will rise against their masters, united and ready for vengeance.
Bailie Brown, an elected official of Duncairn's Labour Party. An object of satire, Brown represents the muted voice of laborers, toned down by being assimilated into the power structure. The irony is that Brown has as much vested interest in maintaining the status quo as do the Conservative members of the council. For all intents and purposes, he is merely one more ineffectual bourgeois gentleman, unsupportive and un-sympathetic to the plight of the workers.
Jimmy Speight, the lord provost of Duncairn, a childhood sidekick of Ake Ogilvie. Long-faced and big-nosed, wizened, and small-statured, Speight has learned the grand airs to accompany his gains in power and status. Goaded by Ake's recollection of a rape Speight committed in his youth, however, the lord provost agrees to two favors Ake needs in exchange for Ake's promise of secrecy about the rape.
The Reverend Edward MacShilluck, a prominent Duncairn minister, a lecher, and a hypocrite. Pompous and vain, this complacent minister of the Kirk appears intermittently, preaching only what his affluent congregation wishes to hear and practicing venality at home with his intimidated working-class housekeeper. Although not much developed as a character, MacShilluck adds to the satirical tone that builds as the narrative develops. Significantly, at the end of the novel, MacShilluck preaches a sermon defending the actions of the police, the attitudes of his affluent congregation, and the useful discipline of wartime. He returns to the manse only to find that the housekeeper has taken money and silver (as partial payment for her forced sexual favors) and left. One working-class character thus has her revenge at last.