A Robin Hood figure, the factual individual named Rob Roy, formed the basis for Sir Walter Scott’s historical fiction Rob Roy. The real Rob Roy (literally “Red Robert,” for his red hair) was a drover who became an outlaw, leading his clan in powerful support of England’s Jacobites (Roman Catholics) in the 18th century. A dangerous man, he nevertheless gained a reputation for helping those in need, both the politically and economically oppressed. He eventually enjoyed the Duke of Argyle’s protection and adopted his mother’s maiden name of Campbell.
In Scott’s traditional introduction, presenting the facts used to create his fiction, he wrote that a man who knew the outlaw described him as “a benevolent and humane man ‘in his own way,’” adding that “his ideas of morality were those of an Arab chief, being such as naturally arose out of his wild education.”
True to history, the novel’s setting is the north of early 18th-century England and Scotland. Scott employs a device he had used before, that of an English visitor to Scotland unknowingly becoming involved in an uprising. Despite its title, the novel features as protagonist young Francis Osbaldistone, an untried Englishman driven from his homeland by his father, a merchant who believes his son needs to mend his obstinate ways.
The plot opens when Osbaldistone is an old man, recording his story from the vantage point of decades. Scott comments on his own methodology when Osbaldistone writes in his memoir that a tale between friends “loses half its charms when committed to paper.” Osbaldistone reveals aspects of his character when he adds that, rather than a portrait of himself, he bequeaths to his friend “a faithful transcript of my thoughts and feelings, of my virtues and my failings.”
Osbaldistone arrives as a young adventurer at the house of his uncle, Sir Hildebrand. There he meets the novel’s antagonist and his cousin, the dastardly Rashleigh, who has designs on another cousin, Diana Vernon, a character critics agree is likely reminiscent of a Scottish woman that Scott loved and lost in his youth. She represented a departure for Scott from his traditional sweet, innocent, and often completely passive heroines. Intelligent, active, and brave, she forms a perfect match for Osbaldistone, who will mature in the novel from a brash, too-conventional figure into a thoughtful, mature man of keen judgment.
As a Protestant Whig, he will be forced to reconsider his beliefs in light of Diana’s Jacobite and Roman Catholic sentiments. Diana’s obvious attraction to Osbaldistone arouses the thieving, treacherous Rashleigh’s ire, and he decides to destroy not only his cousin but Osbaldistone’s father as well.
Diana urges Osbaldistone to seek assistance from Rob Roy MacGregor against Rashleigh. Osbaldistone searches for the outlaw with the help of Bailie Nicol Jarvie, whose MacGregor roots will help the travelers’ acceptance by the outlaw clan. Scott’s use of the first-person narrator allows Osbaldistone to reflect his maturation as he witnesses a battle between the clansmen and the men’s troops, which endanger Rob Roy.
Helen MacGregor offers Scott an additional strong female character, whose ferocity in defending her family, both immediate and extended, proves memorable. The reader meets her as seen through Osbaldistone’s eyes: “I have seldom seen a finer or more commanding form than this woman… [who] had a countenance which must once have been of a masculine cast of beauty though… by the wasting influence of grief and passion, its features were only strong, harsh, and expressive.” Osbaldistone later refers to the awe-inspiring figure as an “Amazon” and is astounded by her ferocity as a clan leader.
As the only individual who will not only stand up to her husband but also argue convincingly with him, she contributes to the development of Rob Roy as a real human, subverting his mythological image. Both of the novel’s women offer personalities of interest to feminist critics in their assumption of male characteristics.
Rob Roy escapes and aids Osbaldistone and Diana, who surprises her cousin on the road in “masculine dress,” ready to aid him in revealing the treachery of Rashleigh. Rashleigh proves one of Scott’s most effective villains, due to his complete inhumanity. As suggested by his surname, his impatience overcomes his cleverness. When his part in embezzling from the elder Osbaldistone is revealed, Francis Osbaldistone returns to London and brings various lawsuits against his cousin.
As he explains, Rashleigh proves a difficult opponent, as “the information he had given to the government was critically well-timed… and the artful manner in which he contrived to assume both merit and influence, had, to a certain extent, procured him patrons among ministers.” While in London, he cannot stand thinking of Diana, assuming she has married an aristocrat.
Osbaldistone further infuriates Rashleigh by assuming his place in Sir Hildebrand’s will, although Rashleigh does assume his father’s title, his older brothers having all died in ways for which his father blamed him. Sir Hildebrand also bequeaths to Diana, now, Osbaldistone learns, Lady Diana Vernon Beauchamp—diamonds and a silver ewer engraved with the arms of the Vernon Osbaldistone family.
Osbaldistone learns, upon his return to Osbaldistone Hall to procure his property, that Diana’s father, Sir Frederick Vernon, an enemy of the English Crown, had been masquerading as the man he had known as Father Vaughan. Had Diana crossed Rashleigh, who learned their secret, her father would have paid a heavy price, possibly with his life. However, she has refused to marry her cousin, a fact over which Osbaldistone rejoices.
Rashleigh betrays his cousins and Sir Frederick, leading supporters of King George to the Hall. His efforts are foiled by Rob Roy, who suddenly appears, stabbing his nemesis only after Rashleigh refuses to apologize for his treachery. He dies a slow and painful death, remaining despicable to the end, telling Osbaldistone “that the pangs of death do not alter one iota of my feelings toward you. I hate you!” Although Diana and her father escape to France, Osbaldistone follows and marries her. They have enjoyed many years as man and wife by the time he relates this history.
The novel’s major characters receive support from a host of minor comic characters, all contributing to the book’s continued success. Rob Roy is one of the novels that prompted modern critics to reconsider Scott’s work as important in the early consideration of inequality in economic and social development within the United Kingdom, increasing interest by new historicist critics. Whatever the reader’s motivation for reading, it remains one of Scott’s most revered works, still widely read and converted to various media forms.
Bibliography
Duncan, Ian. “Primitive Inventions: Rob Roy, Nation, and World System.” Eighteenth-Century Fiction 15, no. 1 (October 2002): 81–102.
Lincoln, Andrew. “Scott and Empire: The Case of Rob Roy.” Studies in the Novel 34, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 43–59.
Categories: British Literature, Literature, Novel Analysis
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