Billy is one of Rent Boy’s brothers (along with Davie Renton). He bullies Rent Boy as a child and has much more conservative, pro-British views than Rent Boy. When Billy dies serving the British army in Ireland, many hail him as a hero, but Rent Boy maintains that Billy was an idiot who didn’t even know why he was fighting in Ireland in the first place. Billy forces Rent Boy to examine his own conflicted ideas about Scottish identity, since as much as Rent Boy hates the British nationalism that Billy embodies, Rent Boy also sees London as an escape from the bullying behavior of people like Billy in Leith.
Billy Quotes in Trainspotting
The Trainspotting quotes below are all either spoken by Billy or refer to Billy . 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:
).
Relapsing
Quotes
An unspoken contract was forged between them in a split–second. Jackie’s screams reverberated around the stairwell, as they booted and dragged him from landing to landing. He vainly tried to protect himself and, through his fear and pain, hoped that there would be something left of him to move out of Leith, when the ordeal was over.
Blowing It
Quotes
He wis ma felly. Ye eywis think it’ll be different, thit ye kin change. Thum, thit ye kin make a difference.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Exile
Quotes
The pub sign is a new one, but its message is old. The Britannia. Rule Britannia. Ah’ve never felt British, because ah’m not. It’s ugly and artificial. Ah’ve never really felt Scottish either, though. Scotland the brave, ma arse; Scotland the shitein cunt.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Trainspotting LitChart as a printable PDF.
Billy Character Timeline in Trainspotting
The timeline below shows where the character Billy appears in Trainspotting. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Relapsing
Grieving and Mourning in Port Sunshine. Rent Boy’s brother Billy is playing cards with some friends, including Lenny and Jackie. They’re playing for money, but...
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...friends all complain about the lost money Granty was holding. They mourn Granty too, but Billy says they need to sort out the money situation because he needs it for an...
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...Islands. Jackie says that settles the matter and there’s not much more they can do. Billy surprises Jackie by punching him in the face and knocking him down the stairs.
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Lenny tries to restrain Billy, but Billy accuses Jackie of collaborating with Fiona to help steal the money. Billy says...
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Kicking Again
...and some of Rent Boy’s other male relatives are at the pub, including his brother Billy. Spud and Dode talk briefly about Rent Boy with his father, before going off to...
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...against a wall and tries to punch and kick them off. Eventually, Rent Boy’s father, Billy, and the other Rentons break things up. Spud sees that Dode is badly injured and...
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Blowing It
...Boy’s addiction has anything to do with the death of his brother (Davie Renton, not Billy), since Rent Boy started taking heroin shortly afterward.
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...resented Davie Renton because it caused the other kids to make fun of him and Billy.
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Bang to Rites. Rent Boy is at his first burial. Billy died in the army, which some consider heroic, but which Rent Boy considers “daft.” He...
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Rent Boy figures Billy’s death is good for him because it makes other people more sympathetic. Spud and Tommy...
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As people keep reminiscing about Billy, Rent Boy stays silent because all his own memories are bad. At last, he feels...
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...lines before and thinks Rent Boy is a jerk. She says it’s a shame about Billy. One of Rent Boy’s uncles sees Rent Boy and intervenes. He was already angry at...
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...but can’t fit, so instead they have vaginal sex. Rent Boy imagines getting fellated by Billy’s fetus inside Sharon.
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...seeing each other. Rent Boy suddenly finds it repulsive that Sharon thinks she can replace Billy with him.
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...at the house, so he takes Sharon back to his apartment. Sharon talks about how Billy beat her multiple times and generally mistreated her. But he was her partner, and she...
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