Daniel Defoe , the author of Robinson Crusoe, is the first conspicuous example of a writer graduating from journalism to literature. His first popular work was The True – Born Englishman (1701),a verse satire in which he attacked those who opposed King William III on the ground that he was Dutch and not English. His second important work was The Shortest Way with Dissenters (1702). In this Defoe, himself a Dissenter, very gravely argued that the shortest way with the Dissenters would be to liquidate them. He started The Review (1704 -13), a periodical which was at first weekly, then bi- weekly, and finally tri – weekly, written practically all by himself. He turned to fiction when he was nearly sixty, and his world famous Robinson Crusoe was published in 1719. This was followed in the next five years by about a dozen other works of fiction, the most important being Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders, A journal of the Plague Year, Colonel Jack, Roxana and the Memoirs of a Cavalier. During the last years of his life his restless pen produced a number of miscellaneous works on travel, trade, commerce, and other subjects.
Robinson Crusoeis a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719.An interesting fact is that the original title was 374 characters long: ―The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates‖. The first edition credited the work‘s protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents. The story has been thought to be based on the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on a Pacific island called ―Más a Tierra‖, now part of Chile, which was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966.
Despite its simple narrative style, Robinson Crusoe was well received in the literary world and is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre. It is generally seen as a contender for the first English novel. Before the end of 1719, the book had already run through four editions, and it has gone on to become one of the most widely published books in history, spawning so many imitations, not only in literature but also in film, television and radio, that its name is used to define a genre, the Robinsonade Robinson Crusoe was a youth of about eighteen years old who resided in Hull, England. Although his father wished him to become a lawyer, Crusoe dreamt of going on sea voyages. He disregarded the fact that his two older brothers were gone because of their need for adventure. His father cautioned that a middle-class existence is the most stable. Robinson defied his parents and went to sea.
He was involved in a series of violent storms at sea and was warned by the captain that he should not be a seafaring man. Ashamed to go home, Crusoe boarded another ship and returned from a successful trip to Africa. Taking off again, Crusoe met with bad luck and was taken prisoner in Sallee. His captors sent Crusoe out to fish, and he used this to his advantage and escaped, along with a slave and sailed down the African coast. A kindly Portuguese captain picked them up, bought the slave boy from Crusoe, and took Crusoe to Brazil. In Brazil, Crusoe established himself as a plantation owner and soon became successful. Eager for slave labour and its economic advantages, he embarked on a slave-gathering expedition to West Africa but ends up shipwrecked off of the coast of Trinidad.
Crusoe made immediate plans for food, and then shelter, to protect himself from wild animals. He brought as many things as possible from the wrecked ship, things that would be useful later to him. In addition, he began to develop talents that he had never used in order to provide himself with necessities. Cut off from the company of men, he began to communicate with God, thus beginning the first part of his religious conversion. To keep his sanity and to entertain himself, he began a journal. In the journal, he recorded every task that he performed each day since he had been marooned. He came to appreciate his sovereignty over the entire island. One time he tried to use a boat to explore the rest of the island, but he was almost swept away, and did not make the attempt again. He had pets whom he treated as subjects.
There was no appearance of man until about 15 years into his stay. He saw a footprint, and later observed cannibalistic savages eating prisoners. They didn't live on the island; they came in canoes from a mainland not too far away. Robinson was filled with outrage, and resolved to save the prisoners the next time these savages appear. Some years later they returned. Using his guns, Crusoe scared them away and saved a young savage whom he named Friday. Friday soon became Crusoe's humble and devoted slave. Crusoe and Friday made plans to leave the island and, accordingly, they built another boat. Crusoe also undertook Friday's religious education, converting the savage into a Protestant. Their voyage was postponed due to the return of the savages. This time it was necessary to attack the cannibals in order to save two prisoners since one was a white man. The white man was a Spaniard and the other was Friday's father.
Later the four of them planned a voyage to the mainland to rescue sixteen compatriots of the Spaniard. First, however, they built up their food supply to assure enough food for the extra people. Crusoe and Friday agreed to wait on the island while the Spaniard and Friday's father brought back the other men. Before the Spaniard and Friday's father returned, a boat of European men came ashore. There were three prisoners. While most of the men were exploring the island, Crusoe learned from one that he was the captain of a ship whose crew mutinied. With the help of Robinson and Friday the captain managed to capture the rest of the crew and retook his ship. The grateful captain gave Crusoe many gifts and took him and Friday back to England. Some of the rebel crewmen were left marooned on the island. Even though Crusoe had been gone thirty-five years, he found that his plantations had done well and he was very wealthy.
He gave money to the Portuguese captain and the widow who were so kind to him. He returned to the English countryside and settled there, married and had three children. When his wife died, he was persuaded to go on yet another voyage, and he visited his old island. Major Characters Robinson Crusoe The main character of the story, he is a rebellious youth with abizarre need to travel. Because of this need, he brings misfortune on himself and is left to fend for himself in a primitive land. The novel essentially chronicles his mental and spiritual development as a result of his isolation. He is a contradictory character; at the same time he has practical ingenuity and immature decisiveness. Xury A friend/servant of Crusoe's, he also escapes from the Moors. A simple youth who is dedicated to Crusoe, he is admirable for his willingness to stand by the narrator.
However, he does not think for himself. Friday Another friend/servant of Crusoe's, he spends a number of years on the island with him, who saves him from cannibalistic death. Friday is basically Crusoe's protégé, a living example of religious justification of the slavery relationship between the two men. His eagerness to be redone in the European image is supposed to convey that this image is indeed the right one. Crusoe's father Although he appears only briefly in the beginning, he embodies the theme of the merits of Protestant, middle-class living. It is his teachings from which Crusoe is running, with poor success. Crusoe's mother One of the few female figures, she fully supports her husband and will not let Crusoe go on a voyage. Moorish patron Crusoe's slave master, he allows for a role reversal of white men as slaves. He apparently is not too swift, however, in that he basically hands Crusoe an escape opportunity. Portuguese sea captain One of the kindest figures in the book, he is an honest man who embodies all the Christian ideals. Everyone is supposed to admire him for his extreme generosity to the narrator. He almost takes the place of Crusoe's father.
Major Themes of the Novel Spiritual journey towards Christianity is one of the major themes of Robinson Crusoe. In the beginning of the novel, Robinson disdains Christianity and leads a life that he later looks back on as wicked. He discounts his father's warning that God will not bless him if he goes to sea, and does not thank God when he is rescued from the storm on the way to London, or by the Portuguese captain off the coast of Africa. However, after he dreams one night of a strange figure scolding him for not repenting, Robinson turns to Christianity on the island and eagerly studies the Bible. With his newfound Christianity, Robinson is never entirely alone on his island, because he can converse with God through prayer. Moreover, Christianity offers Robinson a way to make sense of his life and its various twists and turns. He sees his rebelling against his father as his original sin, for which he was then punished by being taken as a slave and then by being shipwrecked. However, he believed that he was blessed and saved by God by being saved from drowning and ending up on the island with enough provisions to survive.
Tension between society and individuality is one of the central themes of Robinson Crusoe. As the novel begins, Robinson breaks free of his family and the middle-class society in which they live in order to pursue his own life. Robinson prioritizes his sense of individuality over his family and society at large. Robinson gets exactly what he asks for when he finds himself stranded alone on his island. There, he lives entirely as an individual apart from society and is forced to struggle against nature to survive. He becomes self-sufficient and learns how to make and do things himself, discovering ingenuity he didn't know he had.
His lonely life helps him to understand the relationship between man and nature and also makes him a better person.Robinson himself seems to come to this conclusion, as he realizes that his experience brings him closer to God and that living alone on the island allows for a life largely without sin: he makes, harvests, and hunts only what he needs, so there is nothing for him to be greedy for. And while he is alone, he does not suffer from lust or pride. And when he finally does return to England, he notes how much worry and stress issues of money and property caused him. However, there are some problems with Robinson's valuing of individuality over society. Even though he values his personal liberty,he doesn't respect that of others.
He hates being a slave, but is quick to sell Xury into the service of the Portuguese captain. Similarly, he treats Friday as his inferior servant. This maltreatment of others can be related as well to Robinson's narcissistic style of narration. His narrative is always centered around him. He hardly even gives the names of other characters. We never learn the name of his wife, for example, whose death Robinson describes quickly and unemotionally at the end of the novel before hastening to tell us more of his own adventures. And finally, Robinson's intense individualism is inseparable from his painful isolation. He feels lonely in Brazil, and then is literally isolated when he is stranded on his island all alone. His only companions are his animals and, while he learns to enjoy life on the island, he still feels a deep desire for the human companionship that he lacks. Thus, the novel values individuality, but also shows the dangers of narcissism and isolation that may come with it
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