The Bottle Imp

Kokua is the love interest and secondary protagonist of “The Bottle Imp.” She is initially presented as an innocent, young woman whose beauty and quick wit ensnare Keawe. Her physical description emphasizes her red holuka (a traditional Hawaiian dress) and her shining eyes which are “kind” (Paragraph 88). She appears as a kind of fairy tale figure and Keawe’s initial love for her is not based on knowledge but is instead love at first sight. Keawe tells her, “I have met you here at the roadside, and I saw your eyes, which are like the stars, and my heart went to you as swift as a bird” (Paragraph 93).

Kokua begins the story as a character who is young and somewhat passive. When Keawe initially approaches her, she laughs at his declaration of love and is only bolder when with her parents. After they are married and Keawe develops depression, she assumes she is at fault. She is described as “a child sobbing” (Paragraph 141), and Keawe calls her “poor child” and “my pretty” (Paragraph 144). However, Kokua begins to resist this infantilization and become more of an equal partner by telling him that she is educated and “not a common girl” (Paragraph 150). She comes up with the plan to save him by traveling to Tahiti where centimes are used and where this coinage will allow him to sell the bottle at a lower price than one cent.

Kokua completes her transformation into a more mature character when she determines to sacrifice herself for her husband, recognizing that he has risked damnation to be with her. She is not tempted by the offer of the old man to let him keep the bottle and insists that she will honor her word even if her soul is at risk. Ultimately, both she and her husband are rewarded for the purity of their love and the strength of their moral character.

Lopaka is a secondary character. He is Keawe’s friend and fellow sailor, and Keawe confides in him when he initially buys the bottle. He is never described physically, but given his sailing career it could be assumed he’s young and strong. Lopaka is an Indigenous Hawaiian name, and he and Keawe are both from the Hawaiian islands. Lopaka serves as a confidant and loyal friend to Keawe, and seems to be level-headed. He is the one who first counsels Keawe to think about the good that the bottle might bring as well as the evil, saying, “But there is one point very clear – that you are sure of the trouble, and you had better have the profit in the bargain” (Paragraph 43).

Lopaka is also interested in using the bottle for himself to gain a schooner and is initially less afraid of it than Keawe is. This changes when Keawe and Lopaka summon the imp out of the bottle and both are deeply horrified by what they see. However, Lopaka upholds his end of the bargain and takes the bottle, saying, “I pray God you may be happy in your house, and I fortunate with my schooner, and both get to heaven in the end in spite of the devil and his bottle” (Paragraph 85). Lopaka is seemingly able to take the bottle, gain a schooner, and quickly rid himself of it since he disappears from the narrative after this. Unlike Keawe, his main motive for the bottle is material gain, but he seems less affected by his time with the bottle than Keawe is and does not suffer as long as his friend.

The rich old man lives in San Francisco in a fine house on the hill. He is the catalyst for much of the story’s action since he sells Keawe the bottle, but he is a flat and static character whose function is to further Keawe’s arc rather than having a journey of his own. Physically, he is described as having “a bald head and a black beard [and a] face […] heavy with sorrow” (Paragraph 2). The old man envies Keawe’s youth and freedom while, ironically, Keawe longs for the old man’s wealth and house on the hill. Though the old man tells Keawe some of the rules of the bottle, he is a selfish character and thinks primarily of his own salvation. Therefore, he is not forthright with Keawe about the dangers.

As a parable, “The Bottle Imp” emphasizes the moral lessons embedded in the story it tells. Keawe and Kokua are rewarded for their courage, sacrifice, and love. The old man represents a different kind of character who is primarily motivated by self-interest. Though he admits to Keawe that the bottle will damn the owner, he consciously omits any warning about the lowered price. He also refuses to buy the bottle back when Keawe is frightened. Instead, he gleefully rubs his hands together and says, “And now good-morning to you, my fine fellow, and the devil go with you for me!” (Paragraph 30). A common feature of “deal with the devil” stories is that the protagonist initially is tricked by or strikes up a bargain with the devil. While the devil never appears directly in the story, the old man occupies a similar place in that he persuades Keawe into taking the bottle and refuses to help him afterwards.

The boatswain is another character who serves to offer a contrast to Keawe and Kokua’s moral choices. He is an older man who has had a series of rough jobs and is not Indigenous to Hawaii; he has been “a boatswain of a whaler, a runaway, a digger in gold mines, a convict in prisons” (Paragraph 200). Despite his varied life experience, he is immoral and selfish, with “a low mind and a foul mouth; he loved to drink and to see others drunken” (Paragraph 200). He meets Keawe when the former is seeking to drown his sorrows from his fight with Kokua. The boatswain is mostly worried about the company running out of drinking money, and goads Keawe into returning home for more money. He also cautions him against trusting his wife and hints that she may be unfaithful to Keawe, arguing, “Never you trust a petticoat with dollars. They’re all as false as water; you keep an eye on her” (Paragraph 203).

Though the boatswain is a selfish character, he is a surprising and humorous source of salvation for the pair of lovers. Keawe asks him to buy the bottle and intends to buy it back, saving the boatswain from damnation. However, the boatswain belligerently insists that the bottle is now his and that he won’t be tricked into giving it back. He tells Keawe that he is already damned so he will keep the bottle and enjoy his time with it: “This is my bottle now, and you can go and fish for another” (Paragraph 243). Keawe’s attempts to save the boatswain attest to his purity of heart, but the boatswain’s own negative traits wind up (ironically) saving Keawe and giving the story its happy ending.