Captain Blood: His Odyssey

Arabella Bishop is a young Englishwoman who lives with her uncle, Colonel Bishop, on her late father’s plantation in Barbados. She serves as the novel’s love interest, first appearing accompanying her uncle while he inspects a group of convicts for purchase, Blood being one of them. Arabella and Blood notice each other; she thinks he’s different from the other convicts, and she wishes to protect him: she persuades Colonel Bishop to buy Blood. She gains Blood’s notice because her appearance contrasts dramatically with the colonel’s. She is petite and pale, with chestnut hair and light hazel eyes. Her manner of speaking is “boyish,” friendly, and frank; she shows genuine interest in other people; she abhors injustice and immorality; she’s unwaveringly honest. Arabella is much like her father, who “had been a kindly, chivalrous, gentle soul” (46).

Arabella is staunchly humanistic, and she adheres to her principles, which means she is willing to reject Blood’s friendship when she thinks he murdered Levasseur. She deplored the path he chose following his heroic rescue of Mary Traill and his grand escape from Barbados, so the Levasseur affair makes sense to her, even if she hates it. Arabella still cares for Blood, despite her harsh judgment of him; at the end of Chapter 20, she shows panic when Lord Julian reminds her that Blood is taking them to Jamaica, where her uncle, the man who enslaved Blood, is deputy-governor. Only when she speaks plainly to Blood about Levasseur does she realize she was wrong.

Arabella betrayed her principles when she treated Blood harshly. She condemned him before hearing his defense, behaving like the men who convicted Blood for rebellion. Arabella gets a second chance to apologize, but she doesn’t express her feelings frankly until Blood provokes her. She learns that evaluating someone justly requires listening to them.

Jeremy Pitt is Blood’s sidekick, a constant friend and supporter through his adventures. Pitt was the shipmaster in Bridgewater before Monmouth’s Rebellion. He fetches Blood to help Lord Gildoy, an act that leads to Pitt and Blood’s eventual enslavement. Pitt displays resilience and courage yet his enslavement wears on him. When Blood tries to get his attention, the narrator says, “The young man stared at him, roused by Blood’s pregnant tone out of the mental lethargy into which he had of late been lapsing as a result of the dehumanizing life he lived” (57). Blood gives Pitt hope, which provides the mental strength to form an escape plan. Pitt’s ability to endure the excruciating pain of a caning keeps the escape plan a secret and allows Blood’s men to escape Colonel Bishop’s control.

Pitt becomes navigator and master of Arabella, and he writes the ship’s log. This log is the narrator’s (fictional) primary source for details about Captain Blood’s adventures. Pitt chronicled Captain Blood’s years as a pirate, therefore he provides the resource that makes the narrative possible. Blood owes his reputation to Pitt, just as Pitt owes his safety and sanity to Blood.

Colonel William Bishop rules the Barbados plantation that originally belonged to his late brother. He is Arabella’s guardian, but he has no tender feelings for her. Bishop first appears the day Blood and the other convicts arrive in Bridgetown—Bishop is one of two men inspecting them with a view to purchasing a few of them. The narrator’s description of Bishop suggests that he will become the novel’s antagonist: “After him [Governor Steed], in the uniform of a colonel of the Barbados Militia, rolled a tall, corpulent man who towered head and shoulders above the Governor, with malevolence plainly written on his enormous yellowish countenance” (35-36). The colonel is strong but unhealthy; he has power in Bridgetown, and readers can deduce from his “malevolence” that he abuses it. His purchase of Blood, at Arabella’s insistence, initiates his adversarial relationship with Blood.

Bishop is a static character. He never changes, no matter how many times Blood routs him. He came to Barbados to avoid the repercussions of his “wild” behavior in England. His sense of entitlement makes him assume he deserves absolute subservience from his human property; any sign of defiance from an enslaved person leads to a brutal beating, which is meant to teach others not to defy him. Rather than learn humility and alter his ways, he nurtures vengeful thoughts about Blood. He doesn’t learn from his brief experience being Blood’s hostage, either. Colonel Bishop might learn from losing his office in Port Royal to Blood, but whether he does is for readers to guess.

Brothers Don Diego and Don Miguel are stereotypes of Spanish gentlemen who behave like pirates when they are overcome by thoughts of revenge. Don Diego is morally bankrupt, which he demonstrates in the raid on Bridgetown. He sacks the English settlement after pirates and the English ship Pride of Devon separately defeated him. He and his men pretend to be pirates, giving them leeway to behave inhumanely. Don Diego lacks humanity, but he’s good at pretending to be a gentleman, which is how he wins Captain Blood’s confidence. His death while in Blood’s custody inspires Don Miguel’s vendetta.

Don Miguel is more circumspect than his brother. However, after he is thwarted by Captain Blood’s tricks, he loses control and becomes more piratical than the pirate he hunts. He also becomes a plot tool when he takes Arabella and Lord Julian hostage. This device allows Blood and Arabella to become reacquainted. He benefits from Blood’s chivalry when the pirate captain lets him live. Don Miguel might take Blood’s advice and return to Spain.

Levasseur is a French buccaneer captain—a counterfeit romantic hero motivated by vanity and selfishness. In Tortuga, he proposes a partnership with Blood, who accepts with reservations. Levasseur’s appearance, manner, and reputation inspire Blood’s dislike. The Frenchman’s style and figure give the impression of “a splendid ruffian” who’s “tall and built on lines of agile strength, with a swarthy, aquiline face that [is] brutally handsome” (131). Although he wears striking clothes and jewelry, Levasseur’s poor personal hygiene detracts from his splendor: he wears a diamond on “the indifferently clean hand” and his gold earrings are “half-concealed by long ringlets of oily chestnut hair” (131). Levasseur’s flamboyant style indicates a need for admiration, but his dirty hand and hair show that he focuses more on the costume than the reality of a romantic rogue. His brutal nature, poorly concealed like his uncleanness, is revealed in his treatment of Madeleine. Levasseur’s narcissism takes a blow when Blood elegantly overturns the French pirate’s plans by provoking a duel and killing him. Few mourn the loss of Levasseur, but a warped story of his death will persuade Arabella to believe Blood is a murderer rather than a hero.

Lord Julian Wade is a gentleman from the court of King James who is enlisted to deliver a commission for Blood to enter the King’s service in exchange for clemency. Lord Julian is refined, observant, and reasonable. He and Arabella become friends during a voyage aboard Royal Mary, but he doesn’t fully appreciate Arabella’s charms, since he is familiar with the standard of femininity at court. He admires Blood’s courage and independence, but his opinion changes when he realizes Arabella loves the pirate. Lord Julian hadn’t felt a strong romantic interest in Arabella until Blood suggested she preferred the lord. Finding Blood’s claim to be false, Lord Julian becomes Blood’s deadliest rival. He doesn’t consider what would make Arabella happy, only what would satisfy him: removing his rival from the picture. Jealousy reveals that Lord Julian’s gentility is skin-deep; he’s more pirate than gentleman.