The Highwayman talks about a highwayman who loves the landlord’s daughter, Bess, and one night, when he talks to Bess, Tim the ostler eavesdropped on them and betrayed the highwayman to King George’s men, the British soldiers. They tied Bess up and placed a musket at her breast. When she heard the highwayman arriving, she shot herself to warn him of the soldiers’ trap, and the next morning when he heard about her death, he was shot in the highway. The two died for love. After they died, their ghosts reunited in the inn.
Love is one of the most important themes in the story. Bess, the landlord’s daughter, and the highwayman’s love are exciting and passionate, and it drives all the action. Without it, there would be no plot. Tim the ostler is also hopelessly in love with Bess, but his love is darker and mysterious and weird, a big contrast to the love Bess and the highwayman share. Bess was “plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair” when the highwayman arrived. A love-knot is basically a dark red ribbon tied into one’s hair and its color is dark red. Dark red is a symbol of romance and passion, but it also represents blood, which is one of the main keys in the poem that the author focuses on. Such foreshadowing is never good news. “But he loved the landlord's daughter.” This sentence is spoken from Tim the ostler’s point of view, the pathetic guy that takes care of horses, but he never tells Bess about his love for her, and when she found out, it was too late. “Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.” This sentence is another sign that Bess and the highwayman love each other and would do anything for them. Bess dies for love. And when the highwayman finds out that it was Bess who shoots herself to warn him to go away, “back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky.”
Courage may not come to one’s mind immediately, but it is quite an important theme. The highwayman’s job is dangerous – robbing the wealthy on a horse – and he can easily lose his life, which he does at the end for Bess, his lover. But to be able to do this, he must be very brave, which he is. Talking about Bess, she has sacrificed herself for her lover to warn him about the British soldiers’ trap, and it has taken a huge amount of courage for her to do that. From that, we can see that she is not the kind of main character that sits around and tries to get others to help her, but instead, “she writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood.” And when she prepared to shoot herself, “her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath, then her finger moved in the moonlight, her musket shattered the moonlight, shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.”
Jealousy is also an important matter in the story. Tim is an ostler, which means that his job is to take care of the horses of people in the inn. He loves Bess but she doesn’t like him back, but instead takes an interest in the highwayman. Tim becomes jealous of the highwayman and when he hears him telling Bess about his plan, he eavesdrops on them, but neither realize that they were being spied on – “And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked where Tim the ostler listened […] Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—” He tells King George’s men about the highwayman, which resulted in both the highwayman and Bess’s death.
To conclude, this is an exciting poem about love, courage, and jealousy. It shows that lovers can do anything for each other with immense courage, driven by their love for each other. It also shows that those who try to interfere with love will ultimately fail.
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