Plot (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes
Plot
The hermit's arrival
The story takes place in a small, close-knit village and is narrated by one of the villagers. The central event occurs when a hermit arrives and settles on the outskirts of the village rather than within it. This physical positioning is important because it establishes his choice to remain separate from the community from the very beginning.
The hermit is a stocky, unshaven man with intense blue eyes. He wears a long, dirty, ragged coat tied with a belt and appears poor and unkempt. He builds himself "a tin hut with a tall narrow chimney" beside the road and lives there completely alone.
The hut's location and simple construction emphasise his desire for minimal connection to the village and its social structures. His choice to live beside the road rather than in the village is a deliberate act of separation.
Initial curiosity and invented stories
The hermit attracts immediate attention because he lives by himself and refuses to explain anything about his past. Unable to accept his silence, the villagers begin to invent stories about him. The most popular story is that he once belonged to a good family but had been "crossed in love", especially by a woman, and had withdrawn from society as a result.
These invented narratives reveal the villagers' need to explain and categorise people according to familiar patterns. When faced with someone who defies their understanding, they create explanations that fit their worldview rather than accepting the unknown.
They repeat this story to visitors with complete confidence, adding elaborate details such as claims that he was a scientist, a writer, or even a singer. There is no evidence for any of these ideas, yet the stories gradually become accepted as truth. This demonstrates how the community creates explanations that make the hermit's behaviour more understandable and less threatening.
The hermit's lifestyle
The hermit occasionally comes into the village to buy groceries from the shop. He never speaks more than necessary and avoids conversation. When he cycles through the village in his soot-blackened coat, he resembles a chimney sweep. Most of the time he remains alone in his hut, except when he takes solitary walks across the moors or goes fishing in remote places where he will not be disturbed.
He never drinks alcohol, which further sets him apart from others. The children try to peer into his hut, but he angrily chases them away, making it clear that he wants complete privacy. These details establish that the hermit actively chooses isolation and protects it fiercely.
Growing unease
After some time, the villagers grow used to his presence. The narrator reflects that although he himself could never live such a life, the hermit seems able to do so. However, despite being accepted outwardly, the hermit slowly becomes a "source of unease". The villagers come to realise that even though he causes no trouble, his way of life feels like a challenge to theirs.
His existence alone is unsettling because it suggests that a person can live entirely independently of society. The hermit's complete self-sufficiency threatens the villagers' understanding of how life should be lived within a community.
The narrator admits that no one ever learns anything factual about the hermit. His intelligence, occupation, education and past remain unknown. He appears capable and self-sufficient: he is healthy, buys enough food, cooks for himself, fishes successfully and never asks for help. He also never attends church. This complete self-sufficiency threatens the villagers' understanding of how life should be lived within a community.
The old married couple
The first major consequence of the hermit's presence affects an old married couple in the village. The husband, who had previously lived peacefully with his wife, begins to grow restless and bitter. He starts insulting his wife publicly and says that he regrets having married her, despite her having worked hard all her life for him and their family.
He becomes obsessed with the hermit, often standing outside the hermit's hut and staring at it for hours. One night, after a fierce argument with his wife, he packs a bag and storms out, declaring that he is leaving to live alone as a hermit himself. Although he does leave briefly, he soon returns in defeat, claiming he missed his tobacco.
It becomes clear that he could not endure the hardship and isolation of such a life. After this, he no longer approaches the hermit but continues to look at him with a mixture of awe and fear. This incident shows how the hermit's example awakens dissatisfaction in someone who had previously accepted his life, but also reveals the impossibility of most people following that example.
The schoolmaster
The second incident involves the schoolmaster, a proud and talkative man who believes himself intellectually superior to others. He is deeply troubled by the hermit's solitary life and insists that no man could live alone without some secret intellectual occupation. He speculates endlessly that the hermit must be reading, writing or conducting scientific work.
One night, after drinking whisky, the schoolmaster decides to spy on the hermit by looking through the hut window. When he returns, he is visibly shaken. He reveals that the hermit was "simply sitting quietly in a chair, doing nothing except possibly thinking", and that he seemed perfectly content.
This discovery profoundly unsettles the schoolmaster, who becomes quieter and disturbed afterwards, repeatedly wondering what the hermit might be doing. The schoolmaster's reaction exposes his inability to accept that someone can exist without the intellectual activities or social validation he considers necessary. The hermit's contentment in simple being challenges the schoolmaster's entire worldview.
The middle-aged bachelor
The final incident concerns a middle-aged bachelor who had previously been sociable and active in village life. Inspired by the hermit, he withdraws completely from society. He stops attending events, refuses to speak to people, neglects his appearance and home, ignores visitors and becomes hostile towards children.
Over time, his isolation leads to a complete mental breakdown. One day he runs out of his house screaming, tearing off his clothes and throwing furniture outside. He is taken away to an asylum, repeatedly crying that "it is impossible to live like that".
A Critical Distinction
Unlike the hermit, who genuinely possesses the capacity for solitary existence, the bachelor lacks this ability. His attempt to imitate the hermit's lifestyle without having the hermit's particular nature or strength results in psychological collapse. This demonstrates the destructive effect the hermit's example can have on those who try to follow it without being suited to it.
The hermit's departure
Shortly after the bachelor's breakdown, the hermit suddenly leaves the village. One morning, there is no smoke from the chimney and the hut door is left open. Inside, only a chair, a table and the stove remain. The hermit has taken nothing but his bicycle and the clothes he was wearing. No one knows where he goes or anything about his destination.
The hermit's departure is as mysterious and unexplained as his arrival. He leaves no message, offers no farewell and provides no explanation. This reinforces his complete detachment from the community and his refusal to be accountable to social expectations.
The aftermath
After his departure, the villagers feel an overwhelming sense of relief. They become more cheerful and deliberately avoid thinking or speaking about him. Eventually, they pull down his tin hut to erase any physical reminder of his existence.
Although the shape of the hut still marks the ground, the villagers believe that in time even this will disappear, and with it all memory of the hermit, which they welcome.
The True Threat
This response reveals the threat the hermit represented: his very existence challenged their way of life. By destroying the hut and suppressing his memory, they attempt to restore their sense of security and the belief that their communal way of living is the only valid option.
Key Points to Remember:
- The hermit settles on the village outskirts and lives in complete isolation, refusing to explain his past or interact with the community.
- Villagers invent elaborate stories about him being "crossed in love" because they cannot accept his silence or understand his choice.
- Three villagers are particularly affected:
- An old husband who attempts but fails to imitate the hermit's life
- A schoolmaster who is disturbed by the hermit's contentment in doing nothing
- A bachelor whose attempt to live in isolation ends in mental breakdown
- The hermit leaves as mysteriously as he arrived, taking only his bicycle and clothes, with no explanation or destination known.
- After his departure, the villagers feel relief and deliberately erase all physical and mental traces of his existence, revealing how threatening his independent lifestyle was to their community values.