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Dawn
Billy is one of Rent Boy’s brothers (along with Davie Renton). He bullies Rent Boy as a child and has much more conservative, pro-British views than Rent Boy. When Billy dies serving the British army in Ireland, many hail him as a hero, but Rent Boy maintains that Billy was an idiot who didn’t even know why he was fighting in Ireland in the first place. Billy forces Rent Boy to examine his own conflicted ideas about Scottish identity, since as much as Rent Boy hates the British nationalism that Billy embodies, Rent Boy also sees London as an escape from the bullying behavior of people like Billy in Leith.
Billy Quotes in Trainspotting
The Trainspotting quotes below are all either spoken by Billy or refer to Billy . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Relapsing
Quotes
An unspoken contract was forged between them in a split–second. Jackie’s screams reverberated around the stairwell, as they booted and dragged him from landing to landing. He vainly tried to protect himself and, through his fear and pain, hoped that there would be something left of him to move out of Leith, when the ordeal was over.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Blowing It
Quotes
He wis ma felly. Ye eywis think it’ll be different, thit ye kin change. Thum, thit ye kin make a difference.
Exile
Quotes
The pub sign is a new one, but its message is old. The Britannia. Rule Britannia. Ah’ve never felt British, because ah’m not. It’s ugly and artificial. Ah’ve never really felt Scottish either, though. Scotland the brave, ma arse; Scotland the shitein cunt.
Get the entire Trainspotting LitChart as a printable PDF.
Billy Quotes in Trainspotting
The Trainspotting quotes below are all either spoken by Billy or refer to Billy . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Relapsing
Quotes
An unspoken contract was forged between them in a split–second. Jackie’s screams reverberated around the stairwell, as they booted and dragged him from landing to landing. He vainly tried to protect himself and, through his fear and pain, hoped that there would be something left of him to move out of Leith, when the ordeal was over.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Blowing It
Quotes
He wis ma felly. Ye eywis think it’ll be different, thit ye kin change. Thum, thit ye kin make a difference.
Exile
Quotes
The pub sign is a new one, but its message is old. The Britannia. Rule Britannia. Ah’ve never felt British, because ah’m not. It’s ugly and artificial. Ah’ve never really felt Scottish either, though. Scotland the brave, ma arse; Scotland the shitein cunt.
