Write a paragraph about duty and obedience in Kate Grenville’s ‘the lieutenant’
**MAIN IDEA**The Lieutenant explores duty and obedience through the moral conflicts of Gardiner.
Paragraph:
Through characters such as Gardiner, Grenville exemplifies how duty and obedience conflict with morality. This is illustrated through his moral conflict when he assists in kidnapping the natives. Grenville portrays the tension through the dialogue and the descriptions of the outside world as Lieutenant Gardiner confesses to Rooke how he wished he ‘had not obeyed’. Gardiner is shaken by the realisation that they are all ‘servants of the governor' and there is no room for morality or the chaos that would ensue any inkling of insubordination. Despite fearing for his life and the dishonour it would bring him, he is troubled about the unethical way they were treating the natives despite claiming to have ‘peaceful intentions’. Other characters such as Rooke also epitomize how duty and obedience clash with morality.