Robinson Crusoe Analysis

To condemn society, Daniel Defoe wrote the story of the god-forsaken Robinson Crusoe. Somewhat like Shakespeare 's The Tempest, Defoe gives specific details on how to create a utopian society. In The Tempest, the feeble society of Prospero 's island addresses the characteristics of ethics, the paranormal and policies in the superior British society. In Defoe 's Robinson Crusoe, the island 's natural surroundings highlight the subject of man 's individual growth, both spiritually and physically. Nature precipitously exercises its supremacy and rheostat over man in the stifling storm that leads to the debris of Crusoe 's ship. “The fury of the sea” (Defoe 45) plunges Crusoe to the shorelines of the forsaken “Island of Despair” (Defoe 70). Secluded

“Robinson Crusoe must overcome his fear in order to survive his long ordeal on the deserted island. The trial by fear begins when he runs about like a madman, scared of every shadow, and sleeps in a tree with a weapon: “fear banished all my religious hope, all that former confidence in God.” He quickly realizes that he must recover his wits and reason if he is to survive”(. In the beginning of his time on the island, Crusoe feels exceedingly secluded. He fears savages and wild beasts on the island, and he stays high up in a tree. Lacking a “weapon to hunt and kill creatures for his sustenance” (Defoe 47), he is susceptible. Defoe believed that “the nature of man resides in the capacity for improvement in the context of a material world” (Seidel 59), and this becomes apparent in his novel. The tools that Crusoe possesses from the ship carry out this notion, improving his life on the island dramatically. He progresses quickly, and no longer feels as isolated as he did before on the island. Crusoe uses his tools to build a protective fence and a room inside a cave. He then builds a farm where he raises goats and grows a corn crop. Later, his ambitions take him to the other side of the island where he builds a country home. In addition, with the weapons that Crusoe creates, he saves Friday from cannibals, and makes him his servant. Because of his tools, his supply becomes

One entity that helped him transform was the island. The island converted Crusoe from pagan into God-fearing. In the beginning, before he started his sea adventures, religion had little influence on his life. For example when he decided to “board a ship bound for London”, he did not let the absence of God’s nor his father’s blessing impede him (Defoe 8). However, when Crusoe is on the ship he turns to God for guidance: “if it would please God to spare my life this one voyage, I would go directly home to my father and never set it into a ship again while I lived (Defoe 8). As he realizes God’s future for him, he begins to explore his spirituality. Crusoe realizes the work of fate while witnessing his crop inexplicably grow: “for it was the work of Providence as to me, that should order or appoint, that the ten or twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled, as if it had been dropped down from Heaven” (Defoe 79). In Defoe 's Serious Reflections, he defines providence as “the operation of the power, wisdom, justice, and goodness of God, by which he influences, governs and directs not only the means, but also the events, of all things, which concern us in this world”. Barley grows abundantly in Crusoe’s home country. Before going to the island and growing barley for himself, he never paid attention to how fast it grows. If he had not noticed this event, he would have not realized “how wonderfully we