Sailmaker: Key Character Quotations (SQA National 5 English): Revision Note

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“fix it up” and “sail of flame”

What the quotations mean:

As a young boy Alec is proud of his father’s trade as a sailmaker and trusts him to fix the yacht but, by the end, he burns the still-broken yacht.

Theme: 

Family relationships 

• Spence uses the yacht as a symbol of the father-son relationship

• The emphatic statements present Alec’s initial confidence in his father, conveyed in the certainty of “Ah’m gonnae”:

  • He is proud of his father’s skill and believes his father can “fix” the yacht

• However, in the denouement, his father’s broken promises are symbolised by the metaphor “sail of flame”:

  • This connotes to a ritualistic burning of the broken yacht, an analogy of a Viking funeral, to show the spiritual death of their relationship

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“remember it” and “the feeling”

What the quotation means:

The moment 11-year-old Alec learns of his mother’s death is something he still remembers, even as an adult.

Theme: 

Grief and loss

• The line introduces the central elements and drama of the play

• The omniscient narrator speaks in Standard English, alerting the audience to the adult Alec’s reflection on the past and setting up the flashback

• Spoken in present tense (“wake up”), the line is suggestive of Alec’s haunting and ongoing grief, emphasised by the contextual “middle of the night”

• "The feeling" is left ambiguous, which implies unresolved emotions 

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“everythin’s holy. Or nothin”

What the quotation means:

In the play’s denouement, Alec and Davie sit by the fire in the unheated, unlit house and throw possessions on the fire: Alec refers to a story about a monk who burned a wooden statue of the Buddha because he was freezing.

Theme: 

Religion  

• Stage directions have Alec “laugh” as he “Chucks catechism across” to be burned on the fire

• Alec’s story wryly suggests that in the face of basic necessities like warmth, faith must be found either in all things or in nothing

• His binary statement implies his own uncertainty about religion:

  • He suggests that burning the “hymn book” or the “catechism” should not destroy the sacred qualities of the texts if they are, indeed, “holy”

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“holdin the grudge”

What the quotation means:

This line, spoken by Davie in Act Two, occurs after Alec recalls a painful childhood memory

during which Davie calls him a “bad bad bad boy” for slapping him.

Theme: 

Family relationships 

• When Alec reminds Davie of a physical argument between them that led to his tendency not to confide in him, Davie turns the comment back to Alec:

  • Davie’s angry and defensive retort minimises Alec’s painful memory 

  • Ironically, Davie’s words reinforce Alec’s sense that his father avoids communication 

  • This scene illustrates a deteriorating relationship between the pair

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“turn roon an kick ye in the teeth” and “get a decent job”

What the quotations mean:

In Act One, Davie confides in Billy about his lost job as a debt-collector, and, to Alec, in Act Two, he encourages him to get a professional job.

Theme: 

Social class  

• Davie’s rhetorical question to Billy questions the working-class ideal that hard work leads to security and reward:

  • Davie personifies the economic system and describes it as cruel using violent imagery: “Turn roon an kick ye in the teeth”

  • The short and emphatic “Nothin’” highlights his disappointment that he has nothing to show for all his hard work

• Davie’s positive adjectives (“good” and “decent”) regarding office work shows his disillusionment in working-class trades:

  • He sees education and professional work as the best way to succeed and offer his son social mobility 

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“wish yer mother could see ye”

What the quotation means:

Davie expresses pride in Alec’s award of a bursary for a private school by referring to his mother.

Theme: 

Grief and loss

• Davie’s pride in Alec highlights a bond between them over their shared loss

• The line is a rare moment of emotional expression over Alec’s mother’s death

• Davie often connects Alec’s academic achievements to his mother, earlier saying that he got his “brains” from her

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“the worst ae the lot”

What the quotation means:

When Billy paints the yacht in blue and white the family’s conversation moves towards football club colours: Billy says that green is the “worst” colour (referring to the fact it represents Celtic, which in turn represents Catholicism).

Theme: 

Religion  

• Billy’s character illustrates religious tensions in Glasgow

• These tensions take the form of football rivalry between the teams Rangers and Celtic

• The superlative “worst” highlights Billy’s rigid and prejudiced views about Catholicism

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“get it done this week” and “screw the heid”

What the quotations mean:

Billy’s sense of responsibility towards Alec and Davie is presented through kind acts, such as when he says he will take the yacht and paint it and when he offers Davie advice about taking care of his son.

Theme: 

Family relationships  

• Billy acts as a foil to his brother Davie:

  • Billy follows through on his promise to paint the yacht, highlighting his reliability compared to Davie

  • While Davie is vague about fixing the yacht and, indeed, never does, Billy gives Alec a clear timeline and sees it through

• Billy is a source of comfort and help to the struggling and grief-stricken Davie 

• He is direct in his advice, often holding Davie accountable for his drinking and gambling and, here, telling him to take better care of Alec:

  • The Scottish idiom “screw the heid” means to concentrate or to focus

  • Davie informally yet bluntly tells Davie to “sort out” his head to better help Alec 

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“get a start in the yards”

What the quotation means:

When the brothers discuss their father, Billy expresses his admiration for his father’s long walk to find work in the “yards” (referring to the dockyards) and suggests the past generation had it much harder than their generation.

Theme: 

Social class 

• Billy’s attitude to work contrasts Davie’s

• While Davie is disillusioned as a result of the declining industry in 1960s Glasgow, Billy is proud of his work ethic and is willing to find work anywhere:

  • This line highlights his stoic attitude to hard work and his pride in his working-class roots

• He even tells Davie (who has lost several jobs) to be grateful, suggesting they have it easier than their father’s generation 

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“build yerself up” and “could be anywhere”

What the quotations mean:

Ian tells Alec that he will need to get stronger when he goes to the private school because he will have to play rugby and, later, explains that he may be moving away himself as his father may lose his job and need to travel to find work.

Theme: 

Social class

• Ian’s negative attitude to Alec’s entrance to a boy’s school represents a traditional working-class distrust of education:

  • To emphasise this, he teases Alec for being a “wee brainbox” and suggests Alec may not fit in there, being too small to play rugby

  • He highlights social class divisions: football is traditionally a working-class sport while rugby is considered a higher-class sport

• Later, Ian matter-of-factly reports that they may need to move because his father may lose his job and that they will need to leave their home:

  • The vulnerable position of tradesmen in Scotland is emphasised by Ian’s use of “Even England”

  • This line illustrates the impact of deindustrialisation in 1960s Glasgow

Key word or phrase to memorise:

“oot wi us these days”

What the quotation means:

When Alec begins to go to the Mission rather than playing football, Ian expresses frustration, telling him that he never joins the others anymore.

Theme: 

Family relationships 

• Ian and Alec’s previously close relationship begins to deteriorate as Alec grows up

• Ian teases Alec for going to the “Mission” instead of playing football

• His reference to a group in the first-person plural “us” highlights Alec’s preference to isolate himself, marking Alec’s growing separation from his peer group