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A Novel of Adventure by Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) Study Guide . Study Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...© 2006 . .......Robinson Crusoe is an adventure novel presented as an autobiography by the fictional character Robinson Crusoe. The novel was published in London on April 25, 1719, by William Taylor in the Ship at Pater Noster Row. The preface pretends that the account of Crusoe's adventures is nonfiction, saying, "The Editor believes the thing to be a just History of Fact; neither is there any Appearance of Fiction in it." .......Robinson Crusoe is the shortened version of the title of Daniel Defoe's novel. The full title appearing in the 1719 book was The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited 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 time is the second half of the seventeenth century, from 1651 to 1694. The places include the following:
England: York, Hull, Yarmouth, London, Dover CharactersAfrica: Guinea and coastal regions to the south South America: Brazil and an island off northeast Venezuela, near the mouth of the Orinoco River Continental Europe: Lisbon, Portugal; Madrid and other Spanish cities; Toulouse, Paris, and Calais, France Protagonist: Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe (bornRobinson Kreutznaer): Englishman with a yearning to go to sea and conduct trade. Crusoe is an intelligent, curious, independent, hard-working, and risk-taking man who undergoes a spiritual awakening on the island on which he is marooned. He never loses his desire to travel and even returns later to the island on which he
spent nearly three decades. Crusoe is a capitalist who believes in middle-class values. In his relations with non-Caucasians, he believes his proper role is as master rather than servant. He is suspicious of Catholics, although he generally gets along with them. In literature, Crusoe has become something of an archetype, representing any man or woman struggling alone against the forces of nature
and against his or her own inner fears. Plot Summary .......In York, England, where he was born in 1632, eighteen-year-old Robinson Crusoe yearns for a life of adventure on the high seas. His two brothers previously left home. One, a lieutenant-colonel in an English regiment, died at Flanders fighting Spaniards. The other simply left and was never
heard from again. I was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither did I see any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or being devoured by wild beasts; and that which was particularly afflicting to me was, that I had no weapon, either to hunt and kill any creature for my
sustenance, or to defend myself against any other creature that might desire to kill me for theirs. In a word, I had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco in a box. .......However, a search turns up a source of fresh water, to Crusoe’s relief, and he spends the night sleeping in a tree to avoid becoming the prey of any beast that may inhabit the island. In the morning, he discovers that the ship had not sunk, but did run aground, and he swims out to it and pulls himself aboard on a
rope hanging over the side. First, he finds biscuits and rum to nourish him and raise his spirits. Then, using spars and masts, he builds a raft and loads supplies onto it: cheese, dried meat, corn, carpenter’s tools–including saws, an axe, and a hammer–two fowling pieces (shotguns), two pistols, powder horns, shot, two swords, and two barrels of gunpowder.
.......In time, he finds grapes, lemons, and other fruits, as well as vegetables, growing abundantly. After discovering wild goats on the island, he learns how to raise them and make cheese, milk, and butter. He also uses them as a source of meat, along with pigeons and turtles. For company, he tames a parrot and teaches it to speak in the first few years of his residence on the island. Eventually, he takes on a wild look, having a beard and wearing goatskin apparel. Over his head, he wears a goatskin umbrella. .......Prayer becomes extremely important, a means to seek forgiveness for his sins, including the sin of ignoring his father's advice. He reads the Bible, and it offers him solace against his loneliness. .......Many years pass. Crusoe comes to appreciate the peace and quiet of his little world, in which he is both ruler and subject. One day, he makes a startling discovery: a human footprint in the sand. How it came thither I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine; but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at every two or three steps,
mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man. Nor is it possible to describe how many various shapes my affrighted imagination represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were found every moment in my fancy, and what strange, unaccountable whimsies came into my thoughts by the way. He builds a wall around his home and keeps muskets at the ready. .......Several more years pass. One night, the sound of gunfire startles him. In the morning, he finds the wreckage of a ship and, later, human remains along the shore. From a lookout, he spies savages around a fire over which they cook human beings. Cannibals! They have just finished eating victims. When they are preparing two more men for the fire, Crusoe charges them with two muskets and a sword. He manages to rescue and befriend one of the men, a young savage. So grateful is the man that he pledges to serve Crusoe forever, and Crusoe names him Friday after the day of the week on which he effected the rescue. "I . . . taught him to say Master," Crusoe says, "and then let him know that was to be my name: I likewise taught him to say Yes and No and to know the meaning of them." .......Crusoe outfits Friday with clothes–linen underpants from the ship, a goatskin jerkin, and a cap of hare skin. Over time, Crusoe teaches Friday elementary English and the rudiments of the Christian religion, which Friday adopts. One day Crusoe asks Friday how he came to be captured, and Friday says the “nation” of savages to which he belongs was overpowered by an enemy nation that greatly outnumbered Friday’s nation. "They more many than my nation, in the place where me was," Friday says. "They take one, two, three, and me." .......Friday says the enemy nation of cannibals is holding the crew of the wrecked ship. They decide to construct a boat to visit the land where the captives are held. In the interim, however, a boat of cannibals arrives with three more victims. Crusoe and Friday manage to save two of them, a Spaniard and Friday’s father, who reunites with his son. The Spaniard is one of the crew of the wrecked ship. Months later, the Spaniard and Friday’s father go out in the newly constructed boat to bring back the rest of the Spaniards. .......While those two are gone, Crusoe and Friday sight an English ship. (It arrived at the island after a stop in Jamaica, Crusoe discovers later.) Fourteen men from it row ashore in a longboat. Three of the men are captives of the others. While the captives sit under a tree, the other men enter the woods to sleep or to explore. Crusoe then reveals himself to one of the captives, who explains his situation: He is the captain of the ship, and the men with him are the first mate and a passenger. The men in the woods are mutineers; they brought only one gun from the ship. Their ringleaders are two “desperate villains,” the captain says. If they are subdued, he says, the rest of the men would return to the ship and abandon their mutiny. Crusoe gives the three men firearms and, moments later, they confront the men in the woods. They kill one man and wound another. When the latter cries for help from the rest of the mutineers, the captain tells him to make peace with God, then strikes him with the butt of his musket “so that he never spoke more.” The other men surrender and plead for mercy, and the captain says he will spare them if they agree to man the ship. The mutineers vow to be loyal, and the captain believes them. .......In December of 1686, with Friday accompanying him, Crusoe returns to England on the ship manned by most of the restored and repentant crew. A few of the mutineers remain on the island to escape the wrath of English justice. After arriving in England on June 11, 1687, Crusoe discovers that his father and mother are dead but that relatives of the family live in Yorkshire. Businessmen with an interest in the ship and its cargo–grateful that Crusoe had saved the vessel and its crew–reward him with 200 pounds sterling. .......After traveling to Lisbon in search of records about his lands in Brazil, Crusoe learns that his plantation has made him incredibly wealthy: I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand pounds sterling in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the Brazils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in England: and, in a word, I was in a condition which I scarce knew how to understand, or how to compose myself
for the enjoyment of it. He sells his plantation, increasing his wealth, and gives a generous amount to the widow who managed his accounts. .......Crusoe marries and becomes the father of a daughter and two sons. After his wife dies, Crusoe goes to sea again in 1694, this time to the East Indies as a private trader. Along the way, he visits his island and discovers that the Spaniards (the men whom Friday’s father and the Spaniard from the wrecked ship went to fetch in a boat) and the mutineers left behind now live there. ......."Five of them [had] made an attempt upon the mainland," Crusoe writes, "and brought away eleven men and five women prisoners, by which, at my coming, I found about twenty young children on the island." .......Crusoe remains on the island 20 days. Before he leaves, he gives the islanders weapons and ammunition, clothing, and two craftsmen, a carpenter and a smith. He then goes on to Brazil and there purchases a boat on which he sends back to the island more supplies, seven more women, five cows, and some sheep and hogs.  Style.......Daniel Defoe writes in the straightforward manner of a chronicler or diarist. In fact, the central character, Crusoe, keeps a diary. Moreover, he tracks time by carving the days into a post. The narrator tells his tale sequentially, with one event following another, in simple language that even children can understand. In telling his tale, the narrator frequently reflects on how he went wrong and what he must do to set himself right with God. Throughout the novel, Defoe presents not only specific details but also specific dates, lending verisimilitude to the novel. Note, for example, the following passage from Chapter VII, "Agricultural Experience": From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain, so that I could not stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. In this confinement, I began to be straitened for food: but venturing out twice, I one day killed a goat; and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very
large tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food was regulated thus: I ate a bunch of raisins for my breakfast; a piece of the goat's flesh, or of the turtle, for my dinner, broiled - for, to my great misfortune, I had no vessel to boil or stew anything; and two or three of the turtle's eggs for my supper. Climax.......The climax of the novel occurs on Crusoe's island when Crusoe helps the English captain overcome the mutineers and regain control of his ship. This action means that Crusoe at long last has a means to return to England. There are also mini-climaxes in various episodes, including Crusoe's religious awakening after
he becomes ill for several days with chills, fever, and a severe headache (Chapter VI, "Ill and Conscience Stricken") and his discovery of a human footprint (Chapter XI, "Finds Print of Man's Foot on the Sand"). Themes Adventure: Life as a Perilous Journey .......Robinson Crusoe goes to sea in search of high adventure rather than lead a humdrum life in England. He finds more than his share of adventure on several ships in stormy seas, in several countries on two continents, and on an island on which he must tame nature, learn survival skills, and fight savages. In some ways, he represents every man on his journey through life, as did Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey, coping with many dangers and ultimately returning home after a long time. Importance of Religion .......Robinson Crusoe not only discovers the world–or a goodly part of it–during his adventures. He also discovers the importance of religion in his life. Once a lukewarm Christian, he becomes a devout Christian after interpreting stormy seas as signs of God's displeasure and after becoming marooned and struggling through an illness. He writes: I daily read the word of God, and applied all the comforts of it to my present state. One morning, being very sad, I opened the Bible upon these words, "I will never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Immediately it occurred that these words were to me; why else should they be directed in such a manner, just at
the moment when I was mourning over my condition, as one forsaken of God and man? "Well, then," said I, "if God does not forsake me, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it, though the world should all forsake me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all the world, and should lose the favour and blessing of God, there would be no comparison in the loss?" Freedom and Slavery.......In the beginning of the novel, Robinson Crusoe yearns to be free and independent. When he goes to sea, he escapes the prison of ordinary life in England. In the rest of the novel, Crusoe repeatedly struggles for freedom–from an angry sea, from pirates who capture him, from an empty pocketbook, from a foundering ship, from fear and hunger, from the confines of his island. Others seek freedom as well, including mutineers, their captives, and the captives of cannibals. Ironically, Crusoe tolerates and benefits by people who know no freedom, slaves. Colonialism and Capitalism .......In the second half of the 17th Century, when the action in the novel takes place, European companies vied for control and exploitation of colonized lands around the world. Crusoe appears to represent this imperialist spirit, first when he goes to Guinea, next when he travels to Brazil and opens a plantation, and finally when he becomes "king" of an island. Self-Reliance .......Crusoe learns to depend on his wits and talents to survive. On his island, he makes furniture, grows crops, and tames and uses animals. Loneliness vs.Solitude .......Crusoe’s loneliness on the island evolves into solitude. Being alone terrified him when he arrived; later, aloneness became desirable. Theologian Paul Tillich once observed, “Language has created the word loneliness to express the pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the glory of being alone.” Crusoe came to appreciate the glory of being alone. His anxiety at discovering a human footprint is therefore quite understandable. .......Defoe based Robinson Crusoe on the real-life experiences of Scotsman Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721), a shoemaker’s son who went to sea in 1695. In 1703, he became sailing master on the Cinque Ports, one of two ships on a privateering expedition under the command of William Dampier (1651-1715). In 1704, as
the ship sailed past an island group, Selkirk demanded to be let off the ship for fear that damage it incurred during battles with Spaniards would sink it. The crew cast him off at Más a Tierra, one of three islands making up the Juan Fernández Islands, about 400 miles west of Chile. His only belongings were clothing, a gun, a few tools, tobacco, and a Bible.
English seamen rescued him in February 1709 after he spent nearly five years on the island. Spanish explorer Juan Fernández discovered the islands in 1563 and lived on them for a short time. In Defoe's novel, Crusoe's island is in the Atlantic Ocean, off Venezuela. .......In Chapter 1, Robinson Crusoe's father warns him not go to sea. "If I did take this foolish step," Crusoe says in paraphrasing his father, "God would not bless me." In the same chapter, Crusoe–ignoring his father's warning–runs away on a London-bound ship. In a raging storm, Crusoe and the others aboard abandon ship when it begins to sink. They make it safely to shore in a rowboat. The master of the ship later says that the shipwreck is a sign from God that He wants Robinson to return home to his father. Moreover, the ship master tells Robinson, "If you do not go back, wherever you go, you will meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments. . . ." The warnings from Robinson's father and the ship master foreshadow–indeed, foretell–the life-threatening misadventures that befall Crusoe later on. 1632:...v............Crusoe is born .......Crusoe reports that his island has two seasons, writing, "I found now that the seasons of the year might generally be divided, not into summer and winter, as in Europe, but into the rainy seasons and the dry seasons, which were generally thus:
The half of February, the whole of March, and the half of April - rainy, the sun being then on or near the equinox. The half of April, the whole of May, June, and July, and the half of August - dry, the sun being then to the north of the line. The half of August, the whole of September, and the half of October - rainy, the sun being then come back. The half of October, the whole of November, December, and January, and the half of February - dry, the sun being then to the south of the line. Crusoe's Cognitive Therapy.......Many modern psychologists encourage patients to use cognitive therapy to overcome anxiety and depression, as well as other conditions characterized by negative thought patterns. In cognitive therapy, a patient attempts to change the way he thinks. Through treatment that includes mind exercises, the patient learns that he tends to magnify the likelihood of negative outcomes. Some patients write down their irrational, negative thoughts and counter them with rational, positive thoughts in what is intended to be an honest appraisal of their thought processes. Seeing the results of their brainstorming on paper somehow objectifies their mental status and puts it in the proper perspective. Crusoe performs such a writing exercise in Chapter IV ("First Weeks on the Island"):
I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstances I was reduced to; and I drew up the state of my affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any that were to come after me - for I was likely to have but few heirs - as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring over them, and afflicting my
mind; and as my reason began now to master my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could, and to set the good against the evil, that I might have something to distinguish my case from worse; and I stated very impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I suffered, thus:-
Evil: I am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of all hope of recovery. Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony that there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable but there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most Study Questions and Essay Topics
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