It is impossible to study Robinson Crusoe without first knowing the story behind its creator. Narrative of Robinson Crusoe and Daniel Defoe are very similar, at least in terms of adventure, breaking the rules and setting the new ones.
Daniel Foe, or Defoe, as he afterwards called himself, was born in or about 1659, in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London. Socially, his position differed from that of his greatest contemporaries in literature. By inheritance and conviction he was a Dissenter in religion; by occupation he belonged to the trading, or merchant class. And, most importantly, his origins with the middle class influenced his writing greatly, for Defoe wrote for and about middle-class society. Defoe's life was charged with the spirit of adventure. He was "ever a fighter;" and, although he was the most prolific English writer of his time, he was no scholarly recluse, but first and last a practical man, who took an active and not unimportant part in the daily work of the world. The spirited stories of life and adventure with which, towards the close of his career, he captivated his readers, were the work of one whose own experience was won outside the walls of a library or a university, one who had stood in the pillory, and had been two years in prison; who had owned a splendid mansion and kept his pleasure-boat and his coach; a man who had been at one time the trusted adviser of a grateful King, and at another an object of hatred, abuse, and contempt. He was one who could write of himself:
"No man has tasted differing fortunes more,
And thirteen times I have been rich and poor;"
The Economic Individualism
Robinson Crusoe is the first modern English novel, in the true sense of the word. It also the first novel wh...
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...nomic advantage.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be said that Crusoe has left its mark on the canvas of English literature, Crusoe certainly, but more importantly, his creator, Defoe as well. The novel is most certainly fiction, even though its creator pledged it to be true, but we cannot help feeling some echoes of truth in it. Perhaps it’s in Defoe’s tendency to identify himself with his protagonist; his own life, too, had been one of solitary and heroic achievement against great odds. As Defoe so articulately summarized it; loneliness of the island and our loneliness in the world are one and the same thing: “... it seems to me that life in general is, or ought to be, but one universal act of solitude. Everything revolves in our minds by innumerable circular motions, all centering in ourselves ... we love, we hate, we covet, we enjoy, all in privacy and solitude.”
If you were stranded on an island alone, what actions would you take to survive and maintain your sanity? Would your actions be deemed admirable? This predicament faced Robinson Crusoe in the novel appropriately titled, Robinson Crusoe. Set in the mid to late 17th century, Robinson Crusoe, is an epistolary novel following the early life of the main character Robinson Crusoe. What begins as an account of the voyages and business ventures of a rebellious, young man, soon transforms into a twenty-eight year struggle for survival when Crusoe is stranded on a deserted island. While it is unanimously agreed that Crusoe survived his stay on the island, a divergence in opinion occurs when asked whether he was an admirable man by the end of the book. Some readers find his actions and character admirable, while others do not.
Ardila, J. A. G. "The Quixotic Novel in Later Centuries." The Cervantean Heritage: Reception and Influence of Cervantes in Britain. London: Legenda, 2009. 106. Print.
The Hero's Journey is a theory created by Joseph Campbell and expresses the idea that most heroes are essentially the same person embodied in different ways. Lawrence C. Rubin describes the monomyth as, “The hero, or mythic protagonist, from birth to death is on a journey, replete with demons, both inner and outer, challenges both great and small, and a cast of characters, some enemies, others allies and companions” (265). The 2001 animation Osmosis Jones is no exception to this assumption. In the film, a white blood cell named Osmosis Jones goes on an epic adventure to save the life of Frank and prove himself to the people of his community. In the beginning of the movie, Osmosis starts off as an egotistical jerk who believes he can do everything on his own; however, as the film progresses, Osmosis realizes that sometimes two brains are better than one. Jones finds out the hard way that without a helping hand, there is little he can achieve alone. Osmosis’s journey through the monomyth develops the theme of teamwork because help from others proves to be essential to Osmosis’s triumph.
In The Count of Monte Cristo Dantès is an extremely successful young man with a great fortune ahead of him. Dantès however, clearly knowing he is blind due to love, cares nothing of the happenings around him. He is unaware of the fact that the people all around him have something against him. Dantès therefore, ends up inviting his enemy to his wedding, thus causing himself to be at harm at a place at which he knows he will be at unawares because of the “love that blinds him”. Therefore, Dantès is a tragic hero because it is his fault that he wasn’t aware that the people all around him were plotting against him. Dantès knew there was a possibility that the people around him would be plotting against him, however, being so trusting he completely ignored this warning.
Locke defines this as “a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit” (8). Defoe first weaves a situation in which Crusoe finds himself alone on an island where he is free from the control of any government. Crusoe must establish himself on the island and he now fits Locke 's definition of being in a state of nature. Defoe has now woven a sort of real life sandbox in which he has implemented Locke 's ideas. Since the reader is meant to believe that they are reading non-fiction, they would interpret this as proof that Locke 's ideas about the state of nature are valid. The reader logically is meant to conclude that what happens to Crusoe after that point is a consequence of the ideas contained in the Second
Daniel Defoe is a proponent of the unorthodox in his novel Moll Flanders in which he shapes many aspects of Moll's life after those of his own. The concepts he puts forth in the work are radically different from beliefs customary to seventeenth century England. Appealing to and championing the common man, Defoe constructs an iconoclastic piece that praises a common woman.
Both Daniel Defoe and Robinson Crusoe’s living conditions varied throughout their lives. These gentlemen were both born in England defoe in London, and Crusoe in York. However Defoe was a real human being and actually went through some of the troubles that Crusoe faced. At an early age both Defoe and Crusoe had to rely on their parents for support. They both lived in an average, middle sized home. In the middle of their lives Defoe was living in a small horrid house. At the same time Crusoe was living in an extremely small hut in the middle of nowhere on a deserted island. Later in Defoe’s life he gained his feet, he was no longer struggling, and once again had a very nice, middle classed home. Later in Crusoe’s life he got off of the island, and lived at a plantation for a little bit. He then so...
Wheeler, Roxann. “My Savage,” “My Man”: Racial Multiplicity in Robinson Crusoe. ELH Winter 1995, 62(4): 821-861. Print.
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.
The Eighteenth-century literature is popular for its peculiar style of writing that gives the readers an insider’s view in the novel. By combining the two aspects such as Psychological and Presentational Realism, authors have created works of pure masterpiece such as Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. Defoe illustrates Moll, the protagonist’s psyche by writing the narrative in the first person to imply it as an autobiography. This allows psychological realism to work at its finest since the readers can feel a personal relationship to the character. The two important instances that occur with this type of realism are when Moll realizes that she is married to her own brother and her meeting with Humphrey, her son. In addition, Defoe also uses Presentational Realism to describe Moll’s initial career as thief with her first episode at the apothecary’s shop and later stealing a gold necklace from a child. The manner in which the setting is described gives the readers a sense of feeling of being there and at the same time experiencing her escape from the scene.
"Daniel Defoe achieved literary immortality when, in April 1719, he published Robinson Crusoe" (Stockton 2321). It dared to challenge the political, social, and economic status quo of his time. By depicting the utopian environment in which was created in the absence of society, Defoe criticizes the political and economic aspect of England's society, but is also able to show the narrator's relationship with nature in a vivid account of the personal growth and development that took place while stranded in solitude. Crusoe becomes "the universal representative, the person, for whom every reader could substitute himself" (Coleridge 2318). "Thus, Defoe persuades us to see remote islands and the solitude of the human soul. By believing fixedly in the solidity of the plot and its earthiness, he has subdued every other element to his design and has roped a whole universe into harmony" (Woolf 2303).
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.
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.
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.
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).