Robinson Crusoe: Introduction
ROBINSON CRUSOE
PLOT
-York 1632, german-english
-19, he left his home
1: Guinea-England
2:Moorish pirates, Portoguese ship, Brazil
3:Africa, shipwreck
4:28 years, desert island
5:Find cannibals, free Friday
6:Attack cannibals
7:Retun to England
ROBINSON'S ISLAND
THE ISLAND
- main setting
- Test for the character
- similar to England's colonization
- human domination on nature
- reflection of 17th century English society
- middle class
- sense of adventure and act of disobedience
EXALTATION OF:
- 18th century english society
- middle class
- bourgeois valu...
- 18th century english society
- middle class
- bourgeois values
- enlightenment
- puritan philosophy
RELIGION IN ROBINSON
RELIGION
ROBINSON'S FATE
ROBINSON'S FATE
MAN VS GOD
- God: primary cause of everything
- men create their own destinies
- religious interpretation of everyday life
- religion is an important part of 17th century
- men seek salvation and comfort
- Defoe shows how men used to link religion to economy and materialism
- similar to today's society
BIBLICAL THEMES
BIBLICAL THEMES
A SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
- Religious reference to God, sin, Providence and salvation
- Comfort and guidance
- Conflict good-evil
- Conflict between economic motivation and
spiritual salvation
FRIDAY AND THE COLONIZATION
- very first native character of English literature
- symbol of the colonized
- injustice and white superiority
- 17th century education
- different vision of things and life
- he teaches Crusoe emotional warmth and vitality of spirit
STYLE
- first person narration
- clear and detailed writing style
- focus on the primary qualities of objects rather than the secondary ones
- simple, concrete and matter of fact language like journalism
- Robinson records events to see God's will in them
- rationality, individualism, pragmatism
STYLE
CURIOSITIES!
Defoe adopted the aristocratic sounding "De" in his surname in 16...
CURIOSITIES!
Defoe adopted the aristocratic sounding "De" in his surname in 1695
Inspired by A Cruising Voyage Round the world by Captain Woodes Rogers, a Scottish sailor who survived on an island for five years