The evil inside Duror is the book's focus, although other themes appear throughout the book. Evil is described in Chapter 8 as "a presence like air, infecting everyone".

From the start of the book, Duror's cold evil is made very clear. "Duror the gamekeeper, in an icy sweat of hatred." This is referring to one of the opening images when Calum, who loves everything about nature, bends over to pity a poor rabbit caught in the gamekeeper's trap. It says that Duror keeps his gun targeting the "hunchback" whilst Calum is bent over. Duror's hate for Calum I assume, is because Calum is happy. Jealousy is apparent when he realises that although Calum is a hunchback, he is happy and loves everything about nature. Whereas, Duror's marriage is not the happiest because his wife is ill and has to be helped to do everything.

In Chapter 2, Duror says that he wishes that he was Cal

In Chapter 10, Mrs. Morton let slip to Roderick that the cone-gatherers were 'evil'. Roderick went to the cone-gatherers hut, but as soon as he saw that Duror was hiding under the Cyprus bush, he headed home. Roderick thought that when Mrs Morton said the cone-gatherers were evil, perhaps she was meaning Duror, after what had happened at the deer drive.

The next thing that distracted her from this unsightly scene was a gunshot. Duror lay on the ground with his face shattered.

The final chapter tells of Duror's eventual insanity. Roderick had got himself stuck up a tree whilst trying to copy the cone gatherers. Duror had been told by Mr. Tulloch about the events and how the pride of the cone gatherers was hurt. They would only help Roderick down if Lady Runcie Campbell would come and ask them herself. When she heard, she did as they asked whilst trying to convince herself that she should be angry, but she couldn't be. When they arrived at the tree she saw Calum's bag of cones hanging off the tree with cones falling out. The thing that caught her eye though was the drops of blood falling from the tree. Calum had a smile on his face although he was dead.

In chapter 14, every one realises that what Duror has been saying about Calum was just visious slander and not the truth. Calum is too simple minded to understand what they are meaning and he found it hard to even understand the facts of life.

um with a hunched-back and "hellishly beautiful face and idiots mind". He feels that if he "could cleanse the wood of his defiling presence", he would be all right and he would be happy again to see that no one lesser than him, was happier than him. I feel that Duror's hate for the cone-gatherers deepens and becomes more complicated. I think that Duror feels that because the cone-gatherers are his inferior, they should not be happy if he isn't happy. Although he isn't technically their boss, he wants to feel power over them and this is the only way he can get the feeling of power he craves for so much.

He went to the doctor, where yet again, he told of the 'abominations' of Calum. He let down his guard when trying to hide his hatred this time though. When asked if his natural reaction would have been to "kick his backsid

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lady Runcie-Campbell's, Calum Neil, Runcie Campbell, Whereas Duror's, Roderick Morton, Lochie Duror's, Neil Calum, Runcie-Campbell Calum's, Tulloch Chapter, Robin Jenkins, cone gatherers, deer drive, lady runcie-campbell, lady runcie-campbell's, happy isn't, whilst trying, duror's hate, help roderick, cone-gatherers evil, loves nature,
Approximate Word count = 1504
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)