Tom Ayrton
| Tom Ayrton | |
|---|---|
L'Île mystérieuse (1874) | |
| Created by | Jules Verne |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Quartermaster |
| Nationality | Scottish |
Tom Ayrton is a fictional character who appears in two novels by French author Jules Verne. He is first introduced as a major character in the novel In Search of the Castaways (1867–1868). He then reappears in a later novel, The Mysterious Island (1874), in which his fate, left unknown at the ending of the previous novel, is resolved, and during the course of which his character undergoes change and achieves a redemption.[1][2]
Biography
In Search of the Castaways
A Scottish able seaman, Ayrton served as quartermaster on board the three-mast ship Britannia, under the command of Captain Harry Grant. Differing opinions and extreme disputes with Grant led Ayrton to attempt leading a mutiny, the failure of which ended in his being expelled from the ship. Left behind alone on Australian shores, Ayrton learned nothing of the calamity that soon befell Grant's ship and crew.
Teaming up with a band of escaped convicts, Ayrton began a life of crime around Australia, becoming a cunning
Being in the position to bargain for his fate, Ayrton arrived at a deal with Glenarvan, saying that in return for truthful information about the castaways he will not be delivered into the hands of English justice, but rather be marooned as a castaway on the desolate
The Mysterious Island
Ayrton reappears in The Mysterious Island, after castaways living on Lincoln Island learn of an abandoned man's presence on the neighboring Tabor and set out to rescue him. Finding him, they discover that, having suffered solitude and remorse for long years, he has eventually lost his reason and has become brutish. Taken to Lincoln Island, his mental health is finally restored thanks to the colonists' care and friendship. He reluctantly joins their group, suffering great remorse and feeling he is unworthy of living among honest men. However, he proves his worth and redeems himself by working for the common good of the group, and finally by remaining steadfast and loyal to his new friends when facing the temptations of his past lifestyle, during a pirate attack on the island. Thus reformed, he later returns to society with his friends.
In other media
- Ayrton (here going by the forename "Thomas") is mentioned in the 1961 film Mysterious Island. Marooned by a group of pirates and his tongue cut out, he eked out a meager existence living in a cave on the island until he could no longer bear his desolation and hanged himself. His remains and the diary describing his story are found by the film's protagonists inside the cave three years later, in the year 1865, and his fate in the original novel (his degeneration "into animal savagery") is alluded to by war correspondent Spillit as he concocts a sensationalist article about Ayrton's fate on the fly.
- In the Gainax anime Nautilus), Nadia and Jean encounter a man named Ayrton who is initially serving aboard the steam frigateUSS Abraham Lincoln. It's not clear in what context Ayrton is serving but he claimed that he was investigating the alleged "sea monster" that turned out to be the Nautilus. He is next seen during the Island Episode arc of the series. Unlike in the Verne stories, Ayrton is depicted as an intelligent but "dorky" comedy relief character in the anime.
References
- ISBN 978-0-8131-6114-3.
- ISBN 978-1-84150-372-1.