ABSTRACT

Just as the phenomena of social change and tension make up one aspect of Scott's approach to the Heroic, so political themes play an obviously important part in some of the novels we have already considered. Waver ley and Redyauntlet, for example, are plainly ‘political’ in the sense that they deal not only with attempts to seize political power by force, but also with the issues that lie behind those adventures. The rise to power of a Sir William Ashton, moreover, or even (though Guy Mannering has no overt political theme) of a Gilbert Glossin, must be regarded as having political implications. The present section, therefore, should be viewed as complementing earlier material rather than opening up a completely fresh topic, except in so far as it concerns that inevitable companion of politics in Scottish history-religion.