Tam O’Shanter

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1791

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

The Reality of the Paranormal

The story of Tam O’Shanter’s wild night is grounded in a simple but unshakeable premise: the reality of the macabre and things beyond explanation. When Tam peers into the lighted windows of the abandoned church and spies “warlocks and witches in a dance” (Line 116), he accepts that reality without question. Yes, he has been drinking, but this is no drunken hallucination. When Satan himself “screwed the [bag] pipes and made them squeal” (Line 124), the dimension of the paranormal is both vivid and convincing. In this, Burns reflects the tradition of the supernatural that had always been an element of the Scottish culture; ghosts, wraithes, giants, magical dwarfs, and witches (most famously in Macbeth), have long added elements of the inexplicable, the powerful, and the dark to the national literature. Cultural historians have suggested this element of Scottish folk tradition has its roots in the forbidding natural landscape of Scotland itself that has created the moribund Scots character and the fascination with the gothic. Unlike more familiar avatars of Tam in later American literature, most notably Washington Irving’s Ichabod Crane and Rip Van Winkle, the paranormal, phenomena here are never given any reassuring logical explanation. In Irving’s stories, it is assumed that Rip simply got away from his shrewish wife and the Headless Horseman was a dressed up rival suitor of a girl Ichabod fancied. There is nothing in the text here that dismisses or explains away what Tam sees through the church windows or what chases Tam on his horse. They are real demons from a real Hell. Should there be those who might doubt Tam’s encounter, the narrator closes with the irrefutable evidence: Meg has no tail.

The Lure of Temptation

“Tam O’Shanter” is at one level a cautionary tale, albeit a skewed one. In a cautionary tale, the main character undergoes a test or dramatic showdown, usually brought about by their own error in judgment that is thematically linked to a character flaw like greed or selfishness. The tale told then becomes an occasion to caution readers against similar errors in judgment, caution them against the dangers of giving into similar character flaws. The tale instructs right behavior, curbing the impulse toward intemperate or rash actions, any assertion of independent thinking and of course the near occasions of risk. Cautionary tales resolve themselves in tidy little morals.

As he celebrates the harvest and his successful trek into market, Tam enjoys the conviviality of his friends in the pub knowing his wife admonished him to sell the goods and head home. Here the framing narrator steps in to give the unfolding story the feeling of a cautionary tale. “Oh, Tam,” says the narrator, “had you but been so wise / As to have taken your own Kate’s advice” (Lines 17-18). A dutiful husband would surely respect his wife’s common-sense advice. But Tam lingers, one creamy ale after another, one more story and then one more. He revels in the behavior, living up to his wife’s harsh critique of him, “a waster / A rambling, blustering, drunken boaster” (Line 20). Indeed, in short order, Tam’s delayed exit compels him to fight his way through the storm. Then, against his own better judgment, he cannot resist peering into the windows of the haunted church. And even as he watches the witches cavort, he cannot control his own desires as he watches the comely witch strip to her underclothes.

In short, the poem cautions husbands: obey your wife; do not give in to unchecked curiosity, and above all do not give in to lust or get involved with fantasy women. All good advice, except that in the poem Tam never actually pays for his disobedience, his errant curiosity, or his formidable lust. He escapes without penalty, thus rendering ironic the normal logic of a cautionary tale. The only one who really pays any price for Tam’s careless, selfish and boorish behavior is his horse. Thus, the poem can be read through an ironic lens in which it paradoxically extols the value of enjoying life’s every moment, always giving into curiosity, and relishing the powerful expressions of the libido.

The Power of Storytelling

“Tam O’Shanter” is a told poem; it uses a narrative frame to begin and end the action and to provide quiet commentary along the way. The Scottish dialect only underscores the immediacy of a story being told. The narrator speaks through the entire first 36 lines, setting up the story, the principal characters, the pub setting, and even giving some indication of Tam careless character. Periodically the narrator returns to comment on the unfolding action. In the closing lines, the narrator returns to offer what ultimately is a kind of mock-theme, do not act like Tam O’Shanter or your horse will pay the price.

As an epic, albeit a mock-epic, “Tam O’Shanter” celebrates the joy of storytelling. In creating the fantastic narrative of a lovable, if imperfect, farmer who ends up being chased by demons from Hell, the poem foregrounds the story, surely not any lesson the unrepentant reprobate Tam would learn; indeed, the tale itself renders any kind of moral lesson an act of purest irony. With vividly crafted scenes, idiosyncratic characters, and whirlwind action, the poem celebrates the immediacy of storytelling, a tradition ancient in the Scottish agrarian culture. From generation to generation, stories were passed down through families and friends gathered around fireplaces much like the one in the pub in the opening scene. That oral tradition is key to not only the immediacy and intimacy of the poem but also Burns’ keen sense of the storytelling tradition as an element of the Scottish national character.