The Bottle Imp

“The Bottle Imp” is a short story in the parable genre, which emphasizes moral lessons through the actions of its characters. The story exemplifies the theme that Money Can’t Buy Happiness, as well as Self-Sacrifice for Love. The central conflict of the story involves Keawe and his wife, Kokua, overcoming the evil of the bottle and achieving happiness despite external obstacles. In order to do so, they must learn to sacrifice for one another. They also learn that the earthly riches brought by the bottle cannot bring them true happiness. Instead, the moral of the story persuades readers that no amount of wealth is a replacement for sacrificial love, and no money is worth risking one’s eternal salvation.

Like many parables, “The Bottle Imp” relies less on Realism, a kind of literature that uses verisimilitude and imitates life, than it does the tropes of the fairy tale or folk tale. Stevenson frames the story as a real one told by the narrator, who begins “There was a man of the Island of Hawaii, whom I shall call Keawe; for the truth is, he still lives, and his name must be kept secret” (Paragraph 1). However, the story’s inclusion of magic bottles and imps that live in them counteracts this realistic framing. Additionally, Stevenson’s prose throughout the story emphasizes archaic diction and focuses on the movement of the plot. Phrases like “at length it came in Keawe’s mind to have a sight of the great world” (Paragraph 1) or “great was their joy that night” tie the story to the realm of fable rather than anchoring it in the more prosaic real world (Paragraph 247).

Though Keawe and Kokua do change and mature throughout the story, the characterization of “The Bottle Imp” is very typical of the parable genre. Interior thoughts are reported as dialogue or stated directly by the narrator. Keawe is “brave,” Kokua is “kind,” and the boatswain has a “low mind.” These traits are reported by the narrator rather than conveyed through subtler, indirect characterization. The minor characters are all flat and serve to further the plot development, but do not change on their own. The emphasis of the story is on the plot and the moral lessons the reader might learn from the characters’ situations.

Despite the limitations of the genre, Stevenson is interested in exploring realistic moral dilemmas. Another theme expressed in the story is that of The Reality of Evil. The story has a happy ending and some comedic moments, but the idea of the imp is treated very seriously. The imp represents a real and dangerous evil, and Stevenson uses the motif of fire and burning throughout the story to express the characters’ fear of damnation. Stevenson uses vivid imagery as Keawe imagines himself damned: “[H]ere he was bound to the bottle imp for time and for eternity, and had no better hope but to be a cinder for ever in the flames of hell. Away ahead of him he saw them blaze with his mind’s eye, and his soul shrank, and darkness fell upon the light” (Paragraph 136). The image of Keawe’s world shrinking to a “cinder” serves to represent the terror and reality of damnation that the characters face. This theme is one that is explored in many of Stevenson’s other works, including his celebrated novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Written during the late Victorian era, “The Bottle Imp” draws on elements of Victorian literature and genre fiction. The story engages with issues like colonialism and imperialism, issues that later Modernist writers would explore more fully. Victorian literature, especially that written for children, was often marked by explicit moral lessons and didactic narration. In “The Bottle Imp,” Stevenson uses the fairy tale format to tell a story that has a clear moral lesson. Ultimately, the story is also comic, with a happy ending and an unexpected twist. These characteristics, as well as the setting, which would have been thrilling and exotic to Stevenson’s British and American readers, are all hallmarks of adventure fiction published in the Victorian era.

However, Stevenson’s short fiction during his later years, including “The Bottle Imp,” also sees an increasing engagement with criticism of colonialism. Stevenson does not cater to the beliefs of his British and American readers by framing Samoans through a racist or xenophobic lens. Stevenson’s time living among the Samoan people and his political involvement there meant that he was attuned to the dangers the British and German empires brought to Indigenous sovereignty. These themes are subtly expressed in “The Bottle Imp.” Stevenson’s choice to set this common tale of a deal with the devil in Hawaii exemplifies his interest in the people of the Pacific, whom he neither romanticizes nor denigrates. Within the constraints of the genre, Keawe and Kokua are round characters: intelligent, brave, and largely moral, though not without their failings. The story positions readers to identify with and root for them just as they would the white characters of mainstream Victorian fiction.

By contrast, many of the less admirable characters in “The Bottle Imp,” such as the old man in San Francisco, the Haole of Beritania Street, and the boatswain are explicitly described as “Haole”—a Hawaiian term for someone who does not come from Hawaii. This is noteworthy because much Victorian fiction relied on xenophobic or racially charged narratives that characterized nonwhite characters as “savage” or less than their European counterparts. Instead of relying on these tropes, Stevenson writes against imperialist narratives that valorize white or European characters over nonwhite ones.

Beyond its choice of setting and characters, the story uses the symbolism of the bottle to critique European influence overseas. The man who sells Keawe the bottle mentions three of the bottle’s former owners, two of whom—Napoleon and James Cook—are closely associated with imperialism, Cook in the Pacific itself. In purchasing the bottle, Keawe figuratively buys into the imperialist system; it is no coincidence that Keawe patterns his new mansion on the home of the white man who sold him the bottle, down to employing a Chinese servant. Much 19th-century Chinese immigration to Hawaii took the form of contract labor to work the island’s sugar plantations—themselves part of a growing Western presence on the islands. Keawe’s use of the bottle enmeshes him in this system of exploitation.

Stevenson’s fiction exhibits his ability to tell entertaining, humorous stories that nonetheless delve into deeper truths. He is able to use the trappings of the parable and adventure story genres to impart lessons. However, he also explores more subtle themes of colonialism and argues in favor of the humanity and dignity of his Indigenous characters. His talent for tackling these issues in an easily readable format is one of the reasons his fiction is still celebrated today.