rhavewellyarnbag:

fate-motif:

so last night i realized that, apropos of the terror’s messing with the gendered roles a story might impose on its players, thank you @rhavewellyarnbag, tozer, of all characters, has a particularly nonviolent and supportive role for someone whose entire function is to control and apply violence.

he is either not present or helpless in most of the violent scenarios with the tuunbaaq. bryant is murdered and heather is injured before his eyes, and hodgson and blanky dispatch tuunbaaq head on before him in first shot a winner lads. he gets his hands on the weapons for the mutiny on trickery rather than force, then is arrested and rendered helpless to be led to his hanging before chance had it that the tuunbaaq interrupted his execution. he even needs armitage to save him when little is pointing a gun at him, and he manages to disarm little with even more trickery.

then we have how his defining attribute as a leader is to protect the lives of his own. it’s in how he cares for heather even in his coma and would have dragged him in the long walk out if he could. it’s in how he takes suggestions and listens to his subordinates, even armitage who isn’t technically a marine but who looks to him for advice. it’s in how he cares about both uplifting his men and being honest with them in a role different from the paternalistic assumption that keeping things from them might be better for their resolve. his type of caring for his men is less strict father than loving mother, though a direct and decisive one of course,

and most vitally, he is both enabler and victim to hickey as his dragon. hickey seduces tozer into his mutiny like edmund seduces goneril and regan into treason. in spite of voiced animosity towards hickey, we know that tozer trusts hickey - at least more than he does command - and that he’s been led astray and ends up paying the price when he’s chained to a boat to be tuunbaaq bait. tozer is the villain’s second-in-command who loves him and who is betrayed, and is in essence a spurned ingenue.

the only moment his role in the narrative is explicitly defined by the use of violence is when he goes down swinging at the tuunbaaq, and make that of what you will.

This is a fascinating post, @fate-motif; so very insightful.
The Terror does work with gender, sometimes deconstructing, sometimes commenting, sometimes simply showing it in a different way than we might be used to, and it certainly does this with Tozer.  As you say, his defining characteristic as a leader is his responsibility for others.  Part of it is a function of his rank, just as Francis has a fatherly view of the men he commands, but Tozer is, as you say, less in that mold: he does the hard work of a mother, explaining hard truths and then seeing his men through the confronting of them; making sure no one is left behind, out in the cold.  He grieves for the men he loses, constantly and visibly.  He supports, props up, scolds.  He is somewhat limited in the expression of his authority*, being the head of a parallel structure that serves the navy, only in charge as much as Francis allows him to be, but Tozer seems to bear this dutifully, gracefully.  It’s only when the bodies and lies begin piling up that Tozer breaks from Francis.  As much as Tozer allows himself to be led by Hickey, seduced, if Tozer were not desperate and if Francis didn’t seem to be fucking up so badly, Tozer probably never would have had time for Hickey.  That it is, that it becomes emotional for Tozer tells us more about the kind of person Tozer is: he must value Hickey not just as a way out of a bad situation, but as a person**.

Even Tozer’s last moments are less the stance of a man of action than of someone trying to cooperate with others toward a common goal.  He asks for Armitage’s gun because he’s the best shot, their best chance at survival.  His last word is “Captain”, an acknowledgment that they all need each other, a reminder that Tozer’s not, and never was trying to save only himself.

I don’t know about Armitage being passive, even as compared to Tozer.  The Terror doesn’t give a binary choice when it comes to strength, but shows different kinds.  There’s tremendous strength in sacrifice, which is a theme in Armitage’s relationship with Tozer.  He risks his life for Tozer, gives up his profession***, his honor, takes on Tozer’s concerns as his own, and seems to ask for nothing in return but the pleasure of Tozer’s company, the privilege of caring for him.  I’m no greeting card salesman, but that seems to me like the stuff of poetry.  I think it takes tremendous strength to quietly endure, which Armitage is more than willing to do, when he could have stopped it all at any time by telling all to Francis.  Tozer might even have forgiven him, as I think Tozer has a great understanding of both respect for authority and ordinary fear.  But Armitage doesn’t seem to think very much of himself.

* Slight parallel with Lady Jane, who as a wealthy, respectable married white woman has a certain amount of power in British Victorian society, but is still viewed as subordinate to her husband, and has to go the long way round to get what she wants- her husband’s rescue- using a woman’s resources, charm and social connections.

** I cracked the case.  It was Tozer who left Hickey the tobacco.  It may not have been such a mystery, after all, but I solved, so I would like you all to know it.  While all of the men would seem to be rationed tobacco, aside from Mr. Blanky, Francis, Sir John, and I believe Evans, early on, I think the only men we actually see smoking are Hickey and Tozer.  Hickey, in particular, smokes heavily compared to the other men, but Tozer’s a close second.  The scene in which they’re shown to be smoking at the same time is in “Horrible From Supper”, leading up to the first open discussion of the mutiny.  Hickey offers his flippant assessment of the Tuunbaq situation (”If it comes, it comes”), and Tozer tells him to go fuck himself.  Yet, standing behind Tozer, Hickey, far from seeming offended, pulls flirtatiously on his cigarette.  Tozer’s back is turned to him, so it seems less like it’s for Tozer’s benefit than it is Hickey’s private joke: Tozer may act coolly toward Hickey, but Hickey knows the truth.  Hickey’s incredulous sniff of the tobacco would seem to bear this out, implying that it’s of a higher quality than he’s usually given, something that an officer might have.
Tozer’s gratitude is, I believe, two-fold.  He gave Hickey Silna’s location.  It’s my belief that Hickey intended to take Tozer, who is armed, with him.  Tozer might not be as guilty as Hickey, but he’s still guilty- or perhaps guiltier, because he’s a marine sergeant.  Instead of Tozer, Hickey got Armitage, very possibly because, as has been discussed, Armitage talked Tozer out of going, himself.  Armitage didn’t confess, and Hickey didn’t tell on him.  Tozer wasn’t in the room during the interview, so for all he knows, Hickey was punished more severely than Manson and Hartnell because Hickey wouldn’t inform on Tozer, or Armitage.
Returning to Armitage, I think it’s almost certain that Armitage did volunteer to go with Hickey in Tozer’s stead, probably arguing that Tozer had more to lose- and that Tozer agreed, and felt responsible for Armitage.  From the time of the carnival on, Tozer clearly views Armitage as one of them, maybe not a marine, but somebody Tozer feels close to, in whose safety and well-being Tozer’s invested.  The bond must have been cemented before then, and it must be fairly firm.  Armitage looks comfortable feeding Heather.  Someone would have had to have shown him how to do it- as Francis has to be shown by Bridgens how to get the poison down James’ throat.  Tozer doesn’t just like Armitage; Tozer trusts him.

*** Armitage, in essence, leaves his own people, the navy, where he was an officer, to join Tozer’s, the marines, where he has no official rank.  So that Hickey’s calling Armitage ‘Private’ seems a kind of answer to Hickey referring to Gibson as his wife.  Gibson, another officer, another steward, went outside of his class to be with Hickey.  It’s more subtle, but more literal in Armitage’s case: Armitage took Tozer’s name.