31 pages • 1 hour read
The Bottle Imp
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Bottle
The bottle is an important and complex symbol, representing the attraction and danger of what the imp offers and thus The Reality of Evil. The outside of the bottle is beautiful and invites the beholder to spend more time with it. It is “milky white,” a color usually associated with goodness and purity, and contains rainbow hues. Keawe, the shopkeeper, and other characters in the story are intrigued by its unusual aesthetics. However, this outward attraction, like the appeal of the wealth and power offered by the imp, conceals something darker. There is a “shadow” that lurks inside the bottle, and its supernatural origins (“such glass was never blown in any human glassworks” [38]) remind readers of the bottle’s link to hell and damnation. Symbolically, the beauty of the bottle and the darkness within it represent the appeal of the imp’s offer and the price that those who accept it will pay.
One of the bottle’s most distinctive features is the fact that its owner can only sell it for less than its purchase price. This drives the story’s central conflict, as once the price of the bottle drops low enough, it becomes clear to potential buyers that they will not be able to resell the bottle and that they will consequently be damned. Beyond its relevance as a plot point, this peculiarity underscores that Money Can’t Buy Happiness: Every person who sells the bottle does so at a financial loss, yet they gain immeasurably by the bargain.
The evil of the bottle is also intertwined with the story’s anti-imperialist stance. The old man who sells Keawe the bottle explicitly associates it with imperialism, both within Europe and around the world: “Napoleon had this bottle, and by it he grew to be the king of the world; but he sold it at the last, and fell. Captain Cook had this bottle, and by it he found his way to so many islands; but he, too, sold it, and was slain upon Hawaii” (16). The passage casts doubt on the morality of such expansionism by framing it as the product of a literal deal with the devil, but a hint of the same imperialism attaches itself to Keawe when he buys the bottle. The house he builds for himself is Western in style and contents; it even contains “pictures […] of singular places” (68), harkening to the Western public’s fascination with the “exotic” locales their nations colonized. Keawe also employs a Chinese servant—presumably either a former plantation laborer himself or the descendants of those brought by Western landowners to work Hawaii’s sugar fields. In this way, the bottle corrupts Keawe, causing him to mimic the imperialist powers threatening his own culture and people.
Fire
Fire, flames, and burning are a motif that recur throughout “The Bottle Imp.” This imagery is associated with the hellfire and damnation that characters fear may await them once they have accepted the imp’s bargain. When he first glimpses the titular bottle, Keawe sees a “shadow and a fire” inside it (Paragraph 12). Once he has bought the bottle himself, this fire becomes associated with hell. He frequently contemplates the “red fire burning in the bottomless pit” (Paragraph 140) and imagines himself “a cinder for ever in the flames of hell” (Paragraph 136). This motif recurs in the mind of other characters. Lopaka compares buying the bottle to “put[ing] [his] hand in the fire” (Paragraph 76). Kokua is also plagued by the thought of the flames and what she has been taught about hell. Once she buys the bottle to save her husband, “All that she had heard of hell came back to her; she saw the flames blaze, and she smelt the smoke, and her flesh withered on the coals” (Paragraph 180). This motif serves to emphasize the fear the characters feel and the danger they find themselves in throughout the story.
The fear of fire and the reality of hell in this story connect the narrative to religion and to the concept of punishment for sin. In the world of the story, there is a heaven and a hell, and one’s choices in life dictate where a person will go once they have died. Despite trying to do good, the only way to pass on the bottle is to damn another person. It is only through self-sacrifice that the characters ultimately escape the fiery hell they fear, and only through the boatswain’s lack of fear of taking on the burden of the bottle do the characters become free from their fear and torment.
Song
Throughout “The Bottle Imp,” joy and love are associated with the motif of singing and serve as a contrast to the ever-present fear of damnation. In the Bright House, Keawe “could not walk in the chambers without singing” (Paragraph 87). Stevenson uses Keawe’s singing as a measure of his mental state; Keawe’s servant knows Keawe to be joyful because of his constant singing, which even “startled men on ships” (Paragraph 100). When Keawe discovers that he has been infected with leprosy, it is marked in the text by a lack of song: “of a sudden, the song ceased” (Paragraph 102). Kokua and her joy are also associated with the motif of song. She is the “brightest thing” in the Bright House and walks through it “carolling like the birds” (Paragraph 140). This motif of joy provides a counterpoint to the fear that is also present and to the evil that lovers must overcome together. Good and evil are clearly at odds with one another in Stevenson’s story, and using song to indicate positivity helps deliver the moral of this parable.
Unlock all 31 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Robert Louis Stevenson
