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    Robinson Crusoe

    Uploaded by

    emanuelanovelli6

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Robinson Crusoe

    Uploaded by

    emanuelanovelli6
    0 views1 page

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    0 views1 page

    Robinson Crusoe

    Uploaded by

    emanuelanovelli6

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    ROBINSON CRUSOE

    In writing a novel about a shipwreck on a desert Island, Defoe was using a popular theme. It is
    considered the first modern novel. It is a fictitious narrative which the author tries to pass off as
    true. It is a sort of “fake autobiography”. Here the realistic elements are of the greatest
    importance. To inhance its realism Defoe supplies many facts about Robinson Crusoe, he gives us
    in short a life-profile.

    The story is told by a first person narrator, Robinson Crusoe himself.

    Robinson Crusoe is, in many ways, the celebration of the English mercantile spirit, the
    representative of the English man, who was colonizing the world, the archetypal pioneer.

    He is armed only with his own strength and intelligence. The Island is the ideal place for Robinson
    to prove his qualities. He can shape his destiny through action and has a firm Puritan convinction
    that he has God on his side. It is not a return to nature but a chance to exploit and dominate
    nature. On the Island Robinson organizes a primitive empire, thus becoming the prototype of the
    English colonist.

    This becomes clear especially in the last part of the novel, after he has met Friday. Their
    relationship perfectly reflects that between colonist and native.

    Robinson’s education of Friday mirrors the processes of modern colonialism: which follow a
    recurrent pattern:

    name giving: Robinson gives Friday a name to remind the native of his debt to the white man (he
    was rescued by Robinson on a Friday)

    new European clothes: Robinson covers Friday’s nakedness by living him worn-out European
    clothes;

    new language: Robinson does not bother to learn Friday’s language but teaches him enough
    English to be able to understand his master and follow his orders;

    new religion: Robinson teaches Friday the principles of Christianity;

    technical superiority: Robinson has weapons and more sophisticated utensils.

    He has been rightly defined as homo oeconomicus, representative of the early 18th century
    Britons who were establishing a commercial empire.

    The novel can also be read as a spiritual autobiography because it is full of religious references to
    God, sin and salvation.The hero reads the Bible to find comfort and guidance.

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