A Journal Of The Plague Year By Daniel Defoe

680 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The effects of the plague economic, social, and political essay

Book Inquiry Report Daniel Defoe’s, A Journal of the Plague Year, was written in 1722 and published in 2001. Although written by Defoe, this story is narrated by H.F., a Londoner who lived through the devastating mayhems during the bubonic plague that disturbed England in 1664-1665. The Journal tells us what H.M. experienced at the time of the plague. The story begins with H.M. believing that the plague has returned to Holland due to the death rate and the number of parishes infected. However, it is currently winter at this time, and it seems that the cold weather has swayed off the worst of the plague. When May and June come around, the plague has yet again resumed and the number of deaths increase dramatically. It is at this point where H.M. questions if he should stay or leave the city. Due to H.M.’s strong affiliation with God, he decides to stay. H.M. notes how the deprived are basically being forced to stay and witnesses how fearful they are of the impending plague while the rich are leaving with no difficulties. City bureaucrats attempt to be alert regarding the plague and publish a set of procedures, called the “Orders of the Lord Mayor and Alderman of the City of London,” which are mainly regulations that state how infected houses will be “shut up” which means people will be forced to remain in that house, houses will be guarded, and if people were to assemble in large groups, those will be shut down. H.M. depicts many in depth ways of how people were affected by the plague. Some of these behaviors include people having psychological complications, people desperately trying to survive by escaping the city, the sorrow of watching men trying to hopelessly support their families, and more. The people affected by the plague... ... middle of paper ... ...e fiction however Defoe alters it with facts. Therefore, when someone is reading the book, they are unaware as to what factual and what is false. At this point, I have around six sources out of the minimum of 10 required. Two of my sources come from the book itself, and two come from databases from the high school library. I have also found a huge article online regarding my research question that will help me tremendously write this paper. I was at first having trouble finding sources, however when I realized what my paper was going to be focused on, it gave me much lead way. The hypothesis of this paper so far is that because Defoe altered fact with fiction, this in some way, influenced the medical world. The impact could be both negative and positive. There have been accusations made that Defoe is a ‘great liar.’ His lies lead people to believe false history.

Show More
Related

  • Norman F. Cantor, In The Wake Of The Plague, The Black Death And The World It Made.

    951 Words  | 2 Pages

    Norman F. Cantor is a qualified historian who studies the Middle Ages. He has written many books regarding the Middle Ages. In his extremely detailed book, In the Wake of the Plaque, he writes about what he calls “the greatest biomedical disaster in European and possibly world history.” (Cantor, Wake p. 6) His book is divided into three parts. The first part tells about the biomedical effects and symptoms of the plague, the second part analyzes the effects it had on all the people, cultures, societies, and institutions in Europe, and in the last part of the book it covers the aftermath and the history of the plague. The Black Death also had a huge impact on art and literature. According to Cantor the rhyme Ring Around the Rosie was based on the bubonic plague and the flu like symptoms. To repress the memory of the plague the children would dance around and sing this rhyme. (Cantor, Wake p.5)

    Read More

  • A Plague: The Black Death, By Rosemary Horrox

    1314 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Black Death is one of the deadliest epidemics to ever hit mankind. It is estimated that this epidemic killed nearly 30%-60% of the population depending on the location. Recently, scholars have argued over the existence of the Black Death as a Plague in the form of Yersinia Pestis. Many argue, through scientific research and primary sources, that the Black Death was indeed a plague. Their critics argue that there is not enough evidence in the correlation of the scientific research and the primary sources to conclude that the Black Death was really a plague. The primary source The Black Death, by Rosemary Horrox, is a compilation of different accounts of the plague throughout Europe in the 1300’s. The two modern sources Plague Historians

    Read More

  • The Historical and Cultural Aspects in The Plague

    1305 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Plague (French, La Peste) is a novel written by Albert Camus that is about an epidemic of bubonic plague. The Plague is set in a small Mediterranean town in North Africa called Oran. Dr. Bernard Rieux, one of the main characters, describes it as an ugly town. Oran’s inhabitants are boring people who appear to live, for the most part, habitual lives. The main focus of the town is money. “…everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits. Our citizens work hard, but solely with the object of getting rich. Their chief interest is in commerce, and their chief aim in life is, as they call it, 'doing business’” (Camus 4). The citizens’ unawareness of life’s riches and pleasures show their susceptibility to the oncoming plague. They don’t bother themselves with matters not involving money. It is very easy for the reader to realize that they are too naive to combat the forthcoming calamity. The theme of not knowing life is more than work and habits will narrow the people’s chances of survival. Rieux explains that the town had a view of death as something that happens every day. He then explains that the town really doesn’t face towards the Mediterranean Sea. Actually it is almost impossible to see the sea from town. Oran is a town which seems to turn its back on life and freedom. The Plague was first published in 1948 in France. “Early readers were quick to note that it was in part an allegory of the German occupation of France from 1940 to 1944, which cut France off from the outside world; just as in the novel the town of Oran must close its gates to isolate the plague” (“The Plague” 202). When the plague first arrives, the residents are slow to realize the extreme danger they are in. Once they finally become aware of it...

    Read More

  • Geneticism In Panopticism

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Panopticism by Michel Foucault, Foucault discusses the measures to be taken when the plague appeared in a town. He talked in death about the abnormal individuals that were stricken with the plague and the individuals were lepers and excluded from society. Strict partitioning occurred during the plague, the towns closed and individuals who attempted or left the town were sentenced to death. Stray animals were killed and the town was divided into districts that were governed independently. The syndic was in charge of the quarantine and would walk around to lock the door of each house form the outside (Foucault 282). The plague resulted in a need for order and aimed for a disciplined community. It was important, at this time, to measure and supervise the abnormal individuals. Anyone could become sick and become abnormal. And in this case, abnormal was extremely dangerous to other individuals in the community. Also separated from society were lepers. The leper gave rise to rituals of exclusion (Foucault 284). The aim of separating the lepers was to create a pure community. There was ...

    Read More

  • Camus' The Plague

    934 Words  | 2 Pages

    The plague affected people not only on a physical level but a mental one as well. The mental health of the citizens of Oran was amongst the plague's many victims, it suffered of exhaustion as well as being forced to handle mental confrontations. When the citizens dealt with these issues, some people lost their capacity to love as intently, but overall the general capacity of people to uphold their devotion remained resilient to the challenges the plague provided.

    Read More

  • The Black Death: Bubonic Plague’s Worst Disaster

    1759 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kira L. S. Newman, “Shutt Up: Bubonic Plague and Quarantine in Early Modern England,” Journal of Social History, 3, (2012): 809-834

    Read More

  • The Eleventh Plague Literary Analysis

    515 Words  | 2 Pages

    Think of a North America without electricity, no running water, no government, almost no buildings left intact, and ravaged by a Chinese manufactured plague, even though it’s hard to imagine that's what happened in Jeff Hirsch’s The Eleventh Plague. In Jeff Hirsch’s Eleventh Plague a family made up of the Dad, Mom, Grandfather, and son are trying to survive in a North America ravaged by a Chinese Plague , But then the mom and grandpa die and dad and Stephen are left on their own, but when the dad gets injured running away from some slavers, A Town named Settlers Landing that seems too good to be true takes them in. Then Stephen befriends a girl named Jenny, and when they play a prank that sends Jenny, and when they play a prank that sends the town into chaos. A war is started and it is up to them to help stop it. I thought that The Eleventh Plague was a believable piece of Speculative Fiction because of Hirsch's use of elements of Conflict, Theme, and Red Herrings.

    Read More

  • Comparing Defoe's Moll Flanders and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko

    3562 Words  | 8 Pages

    In the Dictionary of Literary Terms, Harry Shaw states, "In effective narrative literature, fictional persons, through characterization, become so credible that they exist for the reader as real people." (1) Looking at Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders (2) and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (3) the reader will find it difficult to make this definition conform to Moll and Behn's narrator. This doesn't mean that Defoe's and Behn's work is 'ineffective', but there is indeed a difficulty: it is the claim of truth. Defoe in his preface states, "The Author is here suppos'd to be writing her own History." (Moll Flanders, p. 1) and Behn claims, "I was myself an eye-witness to a great part, of what you will find here set down, and what I could not be witness of, I received from the mouth of the chief actor in this history, the hero himself, (...)" (Oroonoko, 75)

    Read More

  • Absurd Heroism in Albert Camus's The Plague

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    Albert Camus’s novel, “The Plague,” gives a fairly different view on philosophy, using heroism and absurdity to further his ideas. According to Merriam-Webster, absurdity is the quality or state of being absurd [or unreasonable].” One being enveloped in the philosophies of an absurd hero is someone who grasps that the world absences order and direction, however; that great disclosure does not faze him, continuing their own existential embodiment. Camus develops the characters in “The Plague,” to represent the characteristics of an absurd hero. Dr. Rieux displays this starts off as a basis of an absurd hero. Thus, he recognizes that the world around him is absurd and illogical, but continues his efforts throughout the novel.

    Read More

  • Religion Vs. Self-interest in Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe

    2558 Words  | 6 Pages

    This paper is an attempt to examine the seeming opposition of religion vs. self-interest with respect to the character of Robinson Crusoe. I will venture to demonstrate that in the novel, Defoe illustrates the contradictions with which Crusoe must contend as he strives to please God while ensuring his own survival in the world. In part, I will endeavor to show that a distorted sense of Puritanism as well as the existing colonial mindset exacerbated this opposition, and resulted in what I propose to be Defoe's (possibly retroactive) imposition of a religious justification for Crusoe's actions.

    Read More

  • Visions of Utopia in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

    1901 Words  | 4 Pages

    A common theme often portrayed in literature is the individual vs. society. In the beginning of Robinson Crusoe , the narrator deals with, not society, but his family's views on how he was bound to fail in life if his parents' expectations of him taking the family business were not met. However, Defoe's novel was somewhat autobiographical. "What Defoe wrote was intimately connected with the sort of life he led, with the friends and enemies he made, and with the interests of natural to a merchant and a Dissenter" (Sutherland 2). These similarities are seen throughout the novel. "My father...gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design," says Crusoe (Defoe 8-9) . Like Crusoe, Defoe also rebelled against his parents. Unlike Crusoe, however, Defoe printed many essays and papers that rebelled against the government and society, just as Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, did in England by depicting society languishing in social malaise (Marowski 231). It were these writings that eventually got Defoe charged with libel and imprisoned (DIScovering Authors). In Defoe's life it was the ministry that his father wanted him to pursue (Sutherland 2), but, instead, Defoe chose to become a tradesman (DIScovering Biography). The depth of the relationship between Crusoe and his parents in the book was specifically not elaborated upon because his parent's become symbolic not only of all parents, but of society. In keeping this ambiguous relationship, Defoe is able to make Crusoe's abrupt exodus much more believable and, thus, more humane.

    Read More

  • Critical Review of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

    1442 Words  | 3 Pages

    Daniel Defoe tells tale of a marooned individual in order to criticize society. By using the Island location, similar to that of Shakespeare's The Tempest, Defoe is able to show his audience exactly what is necessary for the development of a utopian society. In The Tempest, the small society of Prospero's island addresses the aspects of morality, the supernatural and politics in the larger British society. In Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, the island's natural surroundings highlights the subject of man's individual growth, both spiritually and physically. Nature instantly exercises its power and control over man in the tropical storm that leads to the wreckage of Crusoe's ship. "The fury of the sea" (Defoe, 45) thrusts Crusoe to the shores of the uninhabited "Island of Despair" (Defoe, 70). Isolated on the island, Crusoe is challenged to use his creativity in order to survive.

    Read More

  • Defoe, Richardson, Fielding and the English Novel

    3394 Words  | 7 Pages

    The roots of the novel extend as far back as the beginning of communication and language because the novel is a compilation of various elements that have evolved over the centuries.  The birth of the English novel, however, can be centered on the work of three writers of the 18th century: Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) and Henry Fielding (1707-1754).  Various critics have deemed both Defoe and Richardson the father of the English novel, and Fielding is never discussed without comparison to Richardson.  The choice of these three authors is not arbitrary; it is based on central elements of the novel that these authors contributed which brought the novel itself into place.  Of course, Defoe, Richardson and Fielding added onto styles of the past and writing styles of the period, including moralistic instruction and picaresque stories.  Using writing of the time and the literary tradition of the past, Defoe first crafted the English novel while Richardson and Fielding completed its inception.

    Read More

  • The Impact of Robinson Crusoe Essays on the Ecology of the Island

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    Daniel Defoe wrote his fictional novel Robinson Crusoe during the 18th century, a time of colonization, and the British agricultural revolution. In the novel Robinson Crusoe desires civilization and comforts during his years on the island, so much that he alters the ecology of the fictional “island” in order to fulfill his craving. Consequently, Robinson Crusoe changes the ecology of the island, with the introduction of invasive species, European crops, and enclosures. Crusoe uses the practices of the British agricultural revolution to colonize the island, and to better his life during his stay.

    Read More

  • Realism In Robinson Crusoe

    1590 Words  | 4 Pages

    Daniel Defoe has frequently been considered the father of realism in regards to his novel, Robinson Crusoe. In the preface of the novel, the events are described as being “just history of fact” (Defoe and Richetti ). This sets the tone for the story to be presented as factual, while it is in of itself truly fiction. This is the first time that a narrative fictional novel has been written in a way that the story is represented as the truth. Realistic elements and precise details are presented unprecedented; the events that unfold in the novel resonate with readers of the middle-class in such a way that it seems as if the stories could be written about themselves. Defoe did not write his novel for the learned, he wrote it for the large public of tradesmen, apprentices and shopkeepers (Häusermann 439-456).

    Read More

More about A Journal Of The Plague Year By Daniel Defoe

Open Document