The Lieutenant

by

Kate Grenville

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Lieutenant makes teaching easy.

James Gilbert / The Governor Character Analysis

Gilbert begins the novel as the commodore of the First Fleet. Once in New South Wales, he becomes the monarch by proxy and becomes the governor. He sails on the Sirius with Rooke, though he's never particularly warm or friendly. Though Rooke can't be sure, he believes Gilbert is this way because he's in constant pain; Surgeon Weymark performs regular treatments to try to relieve the pain, but nothing seems to help. Though Gilbert initially appears to fully intend to carry out the king's command to initiate friendly contact with the natives, his approaches tell a different story. He first orders Lieutenant Gardiner to forcibly capture two native men, and when a native spears Brugden, Gilbert sends out a punitive expedition. The expedition is tasked with capturing or killing six natives. When Rooke later informs Gilbert that he regrets agreeing to go on the punitive expedition, Gilbert sends Rooke back to England.

James Gilbert / The Governor Quotes in The Lieutenant

The The Lieutenant quotes below are all either spoken by James Gilbert / The Governor or refer to James Gilbert / The Governor. 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
).
Part 2, Chapter 5 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, James Gilbert / The Governor, Brugden, Lancelot Percival James
Related Symbols: Guns
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 6 Quotes

Rooke could see that there was a dangerous ambiguity to the presence of a thousand of His Majesty's subjects in this place. No such understanding was possible without language to convey it, and persons to whom the news could be delivered. And yet it seemed that the silence might continue indefinitely.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, James Gilbert / The Governor
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:

Rooke said nothing more. There was a question forming in the back of his mind, which he did not want to hear. It was: What would I have done in the same place?

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, James Gilbert / The Governor, Lieutenant Gardiner, Warungin, Boinbar
Page Number: 113
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 6 Quotes

Warungin was not thinking punishment, justice, impartial. All he could see was that the Berewalgal had gathered in their best clothes to inflict pain beyond imagining on one of their own. Seen through his eyes, this ceremony was not an unfortunate but necessary part of the grand machine of civilization. It looked like a choice. When those fine abstractions fell away, all that remained was cruelty.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, James Gilbert / The Governor, Warungin
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:

He had made that choice, because he was a lieutenant in His Majesty's Marine Force.

There it was, in the very words. Force was his job. If he was a soldier, he was as much a part of that cruelty as the man who had wielded the whip.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, James Gilbert / The Governor, Warungin
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 4 Quotes

It was the simplest thing in the world. If an action was wrong, it did not matter whether it succeeded or not, or how many clever steps you took to make sure it failed. If you were part of such an act, you were part of its wrong. You did not have to take up the hatchet or even to walk along with the expedition.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, Tagaran / The Girl, Talbot Silk, James Gilbert / The Governor
Related Symbols: Guns
Page Number: 280
Explanation and Analysis:
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James Gilbert / The Governor Quotes in The Lieutenant

The The Lieutenant quotes below are all either spoken by James Gilbert / The Governor or refer to James Gilbert / The Governor. 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
).
Part 2, Chapter 5 Quotes

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.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, James Gilbert / The Governor, Brugden, Lancelot Percival James
Related Symbols: Guns
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 2, Chapter 6 Quotes

Rooke could see that there was a dangerous ambiguity to the presence of a thousand of His Majesty's subjects in this place. No such understanding was possible without language to convey it, and persons to whom the news could be delivered. And yet it seemed that the silence might continue indefinitely.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, James Gilbert / The Governor
Page Number: 108
Explanation and Analysis:

Rooke said nothing more. There was a question forming in the back of his mind, which he did not want to hear. It was: What would I have done in the same place?

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, James Gilbert / The Governor, Lieutenant Gardiner, Warungin, Boinbar
Page Number: 113
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 6 Quotes

Warungin was not thinking punishment, justice, impartial. All he could see was that the Berewalgal had gathered in their best clothes to inflict pain beyond imagining on one of their own. Seen through his eyes, this ceremony was not an unfortunate but necessary part of the grand machine of civilization. It looked like a choice. When those fine abstractions fell away, all that remained was cruelty.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, James Gilbert / The Governor, Warungin
Page Number: 198
Explanation and Analysis:

He had made that choice, because he was a lieutenant in His Majesty's Marine Force.

There it was, in the very words. Force was his job. If he was a soldier, he was as much a part of that cruelty as the man who had wielded the whip.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, James Gilbert / The Governor, Warungin
Page Number: 199
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 4, Chapter 4 Quotes

It was the simplest thing in the world. If an action was wrong, it did not matter whether it succeeded or not, or how many clever steps you took to make sure it failed. If you were part of such an act, you were part of its wrong. You did not have to take up the hatchet or even to walk along with the expedition.

Related Characters: Lieutenant Daniel Rooke, Tagaran / The Girl, Talbot Silk, James Gilbert / The Governor
Related Symbols: Guns
Page Number: 280
Explanation and Analysis: