49 pages • 1 hour read
His Bloody Project: A Historical Thriller
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Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Preface-Statements
The Account of Roderick Macrae, Pages 15-37
The Account of Roderick Macrae, Pages 37-59
The Account of Roderick Macrae, Pages 59-83
The Account of Roderick Macrae, Pages 83-96
The Account of Roderick Macrae, Pages 96-112
The Account of Roderick Macrae, Pages 112-126
The Account of Roderick Macrae, Pages 126-133 and Medical Reports
Extract from Travels in the Border-Lands of Lunacy by J. Bruce Thomson
The Trial, First and Second Day
The Trial, Third Day-Epilogue
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Birds (Especially Crows)
Birds appear throughout Roderick’s written account of his crimes, often when Roderick wishes to express something indirectly or to add a poetic flourish to whatever he’s describing. This first occurs during the episode in which Roderick kills Lachlan Mackenzie’s sheep, where he describes an imaginary conversation with a crow who is eager to feast on the sheep’s carcass. Later, when he attempts to flee Culduie for good, he sees a crow who he imagines saying, “I was thinking I might make a breakfast of your eyes” (112). In both these instances, crows appear as opportunistic scavengers looking to take advantage of Roderick’s misfortune. Although Roderick claims to disavow local superstitions that hold crows to be signs of bad luck, he nevertheless uses them as signs of bad turns of fortune in his narrative. This suggests that, even as Roderick recognizes the absurdity of making decisions based on petty superstitions, he understands the utility of using those same superstitions as literary devices—making his story more convincing by underscoring whatever feeling or impression he wants to invoke in his readers.
As such, the imagery involving crows and other birds that Roderick weaves into his narrative demonstrate that he is an incredibly canny writer who is willing to take full advantage of the written word to manipulate the reader’s perception of himself, his circumstances, and his crimes. Roderick hints at this in his recollection of nursing a baby crow he names Blackie, which is a clear derivative of the Macrae family nickname of Black. This choice of name suggests a strong association with the bird and, taken with his admission that he imagines that crows he sees around town might be Blackie, this episode serves as a possible confession that crows serve as proxies for Roderick’s intervention throughout the text.
Scenes of Sexuality Mediated by Windows
At several points in the novel, Roderick gazes through windows and either witnesses or enacts some expression of sexual or romantic energy. These instances blur distinctions between interiority and exteriority or, in other words, expectations of the private and public. The most dramatic instance of this configuration occurs when Roderick interrupts Lachlan Mackenzie raping with Jetta on the Macrae family’s kitchen table. In this episode the role of the window, which typically offers a view of the exterior of the world from the interior, is reversed as Roderick witnesses what Lachlan intends to be a private the moment—a violation of Jetta and, by extension, the sovereignty of the Macrae household.
This reversal speaks to a broader confusion and ambiguity concerning Roderick’s encounters with sexuality, which are universally one-sided. In Thomson’s memoir, Carmina Murchison reveals that Roderick engaged in “onanistic activity” (159)—masturbation—outside of her daughters’ window on several occasions. Although he frames it more innocently, Roderick admits to similar behavior when he describes peering through Flora’s window to determine whether she, the object of his affection, is present. These episodes, in which the window’s normal flow of interior to exterior is thrown into question, amount to fairly conclusive evidence that Roderick’s sexual desire is somehow twisted or unhealthy.
The Drinking of Alcohol
The imbibing of alcohol as a ritual in social bonding is addressed throughout the novel. John’s refusal to accept a drink following the meeting about Lachlan’s dead sheep is a point of embarrassment for Roderick, who understands that such a refusal signifies his family’s failure to integrate themselves in the social fabric of their parish. Later, Roderick takes full advantage of the opportunity to get drunk with Archibald Ross at the summer Gathering. Even though he becomes quite drunk, he enjoys the feeling of comradery he shares with Archibald and describes that he “felt no shame in [his] condition” (101). This day of drinking turns out poorly for Roderick, yet he nevertheless describes its first half with genuine affection. When he later encounters Archibald as he is attempting to flee Culduie, he declines his friend’s invitation to drink: “I knew very well that if I entered the inn my resolve would swiftly dissipate” (117). In this sense, Roderick understands that sharing a drink of alcohol would further tie him to the community he is trying to escape.
Conversely, the novel also presents several instances in which characters regard the drinking of alcohol as a negative indulgence. Roderick does so during his very first encounter with Archibald, when the two are employed as assistants to the ghillie. He recounts how the gentlemen drink heavily during the hunt, which he and the ghillie regard as exceedingly disrespectful. He is especially struck by a statement from one gentleman who raises a toast to “The hair of the dog!” (46). Roderick’s failure to recognize this idiom serves to characterize the gentlemen’s heavy drinking; the presence of alcohol an occasion Roderick believes should be treated more seriously seems as alien and sinister compared to the social drinking he admires.
Later in the novel, Thomson uses Andrew Sinclair’s drinking of alcohol to impugn his judgment and character. In that instance, however, Thomson approaches drinking from a different social position than Roderick. Consequently, he brings up Sinclair’s eagerness to take “advantage of the hospitality” (166) in the Applecross inn as a failure to properly enforce the social and class hierarchies between educated men like themselves and the citizens of a country town like Applecross. Alcohol’s ability to facilitate social bonding is affirmed in Thomson’s descriptions of Sinclair’s behavior, but it also suggests that Sinclair is bonding with the wrong sorts of people.
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