Brugden Character Analysis in The Lieutenant

Brugden is a convict transported to New South Wales with the First Fleet. He's an extremely large and imposing man. In England he'd been a gamekeeper on a rich man's estate and in New South Wales, Governor Gilbert promotes Brugden to the role of his own personal gamekeeper. This means that Brugden is allowed to carry a gun, something that technically, only soldiers are allowed. Brugden is also given a great deal of freedom to hunt in the forests unsupervised, and these privileges cause the soldiers to dislike Brugden. On several of his unsupervised hunts Brugden runs into natives and shoots at them, and Rooke suspects that Brugden's stories of being attacked unprovoked are far from the truth. Brugden dies when Carangaray spears him, apparently unprovoked.

Brugden Quotes in The Lieutenant

The The Lieutenant quotes below are all either spoken by Brugden or refer to Brugden. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Language, Communication, and Friendship Theme Icon

). Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Grove edition of The Lieutenant published in 2008.

Gamekeeper! The word suggested the society that Lancelot Percival James had boasted of at the Academy: pheasants and deer in a park artfully planted to enhance the prospect, cheerful peasantry tipping their caps to the squires riding by.

But New South Wales was no gentleman's estate...and the gamekeeper was a criminal who had been given a gun.

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Page Number and Citation: 91

Explanation and Analysis:

Brugden Character Timeline in The Lieutenant

The timeline below shows where the character Brugden appears in The Lieutenant. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Imperialism, Racism, and Morality Theme Icon

...and the governor regularly addresses Silk instead of Willstead. The governor's lumbering, massive shooter, named Brugden, sits behind Rooke. The boat rounds a corner and the party spots a group of... (full context)

...out the marching order. Gilbert tells the privates to march with "the gamekeeper" (referring to Brugden), and Rooke laughs before realizing that Gilbert was dead serious when he used the term.... (full context)

Individuality vs. Communality Theme Icon

...When Gilbert calls a halt for the night, Rooke watches as a sergeant reluctantly gives Brugden a gun to hunt for dinner. When Brugden asks for more powder and bullets the... (full context)

Brugden returns with parrots and an opossum. When Rooke rolls himself into his blanket after dinner,... (full context)

...note this spot, as he believes the soil will be good for agriculture. That evening, Brugden boasts that he'll bring back better game. Rooke and the others hear a shot a... (full context)

Gilbert asks Brugden if he shot at the natives. Brugden again seems to be hiding the truth as... (full context)

...a joke, and when the officers quiet he announces that two more prisoners will join Brugden as gamekeepers. Rooke thinks that they'll soon decimate the animal population in the surrounding woods.... (full context)

...lunch. He barely listens to the officers talk about how prisoners continually rob the gardens, Brugden finds fewer and fewer animals, and the natives are becoming bolder and attacking settlers. A... (full context)

The natives wander out of the hut and down the street. They turn away from Brugden and approach the barber's hut. The barber is in the middle of shaving a private,... (full context)

A messenger boy runs to Rooke's hut and tells him that the natives have speared Brugden and he's going to die. Rooke isn't surprised. The boy continues his message and says... (full context)

...story: the gamekeepers were near Botany Bay when they saw armed natives creeping towards them. Brugden had put down his musket and spoken to the natives in Cadigal, but one of... (full context)

...they're afraid of the guns. Rooke feels as though he's been shot. He says that Brugden will die, and Tagaran's unwillingness to look at him tells him that she already knew.... (full context)

The party marches for four hours before taking a break at the hut that Brugden built to use during his hunting expeditions. Rooke thinks about Brugden and the other gamekeepers... (full context)