Good versus Evil
Anyone looking for ambiguity in the dividing line between good and evil within the milieu of international espionage should look elsewhere. The Thirty-Nine Steps is an old-fashioned tale of the good guys against the bad guys and except for a few instances where the hero doesn’t quite know himself, there is no mistaking who is on the side of right and who is on the side threatening everything that is good, pure and British. Hint: the bad guys are the Germans.
Good versus Evil, but Which is Which?
Not that the novel is completely predictable. A spy novel would hardly be able to hold a reader’s attention if everything was exactly as it seemed. Since the story makes it clear who the good guys and the bad guys are, the author smartly transfers that thematic element elsewhere. Locating much of the action in Scotland means that it should be relatively easy to figure out who is who, but since the protagonist and the villains are all often working undercover or in disguise allegiances are easily confused.
Evil Thrives in Plain Sight
While Hannay succeeds in beating back the bad guys of Germany through disguises and undercover trickery, the deceptive appearance theme takes on a quite particular and even grotesquely prescient aspects that sets it apart from mere disguise. The revelation that things in the typically British seaside resort town are not even close to what they appeared to be presents itself as a completely separate theme that has since publication given the novel a resonance it did not really possess at the time of publication. The most efficient place for evil to be carried out is not hidden away where suspicions would be raised, but right out in the open where people are barely even paying attention.
