The Whipping Boy

After they escape Billy and Cutwater’s hideout, Jemmy and Prince Horace experience a temporary period of safety in their adventure, which allows them to focus on getting to know each other better. As they do, their different perceptions of their adventure are revealed.

Jemmy sees the consequences and threats of their capture, but Prince Horace focuses on his own enjoyment. He gleefully tells Jemmy that “this is the best time I ever had” (49). This statement reveals how the two boys balance each other, and have an opportunity to learn from each other. Jemmy helps the prince take life more seriously and understand consequences, while the prince helps Jemmy see the value of experiences that he’s taken for granted, or even resented.

As Jemmy and Prince Horace’s relationship deepens, tension also arises between Jemmy’s self-interest and his growing sense of responsibility toward the prince. Jemmy wants to focus on freedom and building a new life for himself; he complains to the prince that “I can’t have you sticking to me like a barnacle” (48). This simile compares the prince to an organism that is dependent on others, and is of no value to its host; in fact, it can become an annoyance or obstruction. Because they are now on more equal footing, Jemmy can be more assertive with Prince Horace; he angrily tells him that “I dismiss myself” (44), reclaiming agency and a right to make his own decisions about his future. However, Jemmy secretly worries about the prince’s fate if left alone. He is aware that he is more capable and resilient than the prince, and this creates a sense of responsibility in his mind.

This section also introduces two minor characters: Captain Nips and Betsey. Both are of low rank, but live freely. Betsey in particular seems to live a nomadic life primarily in nature and shares a close bond with an animal. Both characters lead lives that contrast with the prince’s constricted, pampered life in a castle; Prince Horace describes his life as one in which “the ladies keep me clean and starched as a pillowcase” (49).

Significantly, both Captain Nips and Betsey are kind, helpful, and generous, even though they have limited resources for themselves. While life in the castle seems to be governed by ambition and manipulation, in the larger world, characters seem more willing to help others, and naturally form communities. Prince Horace seems aware of this contrast when he wistfully asks Jemmy, “did you have lots of friends when you lived on the streets?” (49). The prince is beginning to notice and reflect on different types of bonds, most of which are difficult for royalty to form.

Jemmy prevents Prince Horace from idealizing common life too much when he retorts that “hardly a one of ‘em wouldn’t fight me over a bone” (49). The novel’s common people may be more willing to work together, but a scarcity of resources can easily lead to competition and conflict. Outside of the castle, there are both good and bad people, but at least the prince is finally facing this complexity.

After an interlude of relative peace, Jemmy and Prince Horace are thrust back into conflict when they encounter Billy and Cutwater again. The criminals’ whipping of the prince is a key incident in the rising action of the plot. The prince’s body is considered so sacred that no one can touch him in a friendly away, let alone a violent one. This reverence is reflected in some historical traditions that considered the body of a ruling monarch as holy, and even capable of miracles; some English and French rulers took part in rituals called the royal touch or the king’s touch, in which individuals suffering from certain diseases were touched by a king in the belief that a holy touch would cure them.

The whipping of Prince Horace is not only painful but degrading. It inverts class and social status, and reduces the prince to an almost animalistic state, since the criminals use a whip intended for horses (which Captain Nips also demonstrates). However, the whipping also inspires empathy in Jemmy (and literally teaches Prince Horace a lesson in Jemmy’s suffering). He feels compassion for the prince in this moment, as “he knew what it felt like” (57).

Jemmy’s experience with physical suffering inspires empathy rather than bitterness or a desire for revenge; even though he’s suffered on Prince Horace’s behalf, he finds that he doesn’t enjoy watching someone else get hurt. The prince also shows a surprising fortitude and strength that is at odds with his selfish behavior, as he doesn’t cry out while being whipped. This moment furthers the gradual equalization between the two characters, since they now have a key experience in common, and will never be able to see each other as truly different.