Robinson Crusoe 325Himself. With an account how he was at last
as strangely delivered by Pyrates. Written by
Himself ) (1719)
Robinson Crusoe is one of English literature’s first
and best-known novels. Since 1719, when it was
first published in England, the adventurous story has
continued to find readers. Numerous translations,
adaptations, and editions for children have contrib-
uted to the success.
The narrator of the story is the major character,
Robinson Crusoe himself, who looks back on previ-
ous experiences. He tells how, as a young sailor in
the middle 1600s, he experienced many hardships,
such as storms, mutiny, and captivity. But the true
trial came in 1659 when a vicious storm wrecked the
ship. Being the sole survivor of the crew, he found
himself at the shore of an unknown tropical island.
In this desolate place he had to find means to survive
until, after 28 years on the island, he could return to
England. The second central character is Friday, a
man whom Crusoe captured on the island; Friday
became his servant and companion for many years.
The moral of the narrative is that an individual
can defeat hardships through skills, persistence, and
personal faith. Defoe’s primary aim was probably
to teach young readers the virtues of religion and
culture, but the novel’s long-lasting success is more
due to its adventurous aspects. The most explicit
themes are survival, isolation, and religion, but it
also deals with such topics as the individual and
society, gender (masculinity), and race.
Tilda Maria Forselius
isOlatiOn in Robinson Crusoe
After a storm, the seafarer Robinson Crusoe—the
central character and narrator of Daniel Defoe’s
novel—is washed ashore on an unknown island. He
realizes that he is the only survivor of the ship’s crew
and that the island is uninhabited. Of the 28 years
he spends on the island before he is rescued, he lacks
human company for 24 years, and his effort to han-
dle this isolation is a significant theme of the novel.
An important aspect of this loneliness is that
Crusoe has to solve problems by himself and use
his own rationality in all actions. He has had very
little practical schooling during his upbringing, and
now, in the unknown land, there is no one to ask or
with whom he might deliberate or cooperate. The
narrative describes how he solves his problems—for
example, the immediate problem of sheltering him-
self from the potential attacks of wild beasts during
the first night. He brings with him “a short Stick,
like a Truncheon, for my Defence,” climbs up in “a
thick bushy Tree like a Firr, but thorny,” and places
himself so that he will not fall if he goes to sleep.
During the years he spends in solitude on the island,
he is constantly facing new problems to solve, and
“learning by doing” is the general method. In spite
of many setbacks, his persistence is successful in the
long run. Here, Defoe is using Crusoe’s isolation to
depict the philosophy of empiricism, according to
which humans should learn things based only on
experience and, on the grounds of such experience,
construct sensible theories upon which to act.
Crusoe regards his isolation both as a punish-
ment and as deliverance. In the moral logic of his
story, the situation is a consequence of his sinful
life at sea and the disappointments that he caused
his father. It seems his father’s warning—that if he
should leave home without blessings, there would be
no one to assist in his recovery—have come true. He
thinks, “I am divided from Mankind, a Solitaire, one
banish’d from humane Society.” On the other hand,
he also underscores his gratitude to be spared from
death. In time, he finds that his separateness from
society gives him many new insights, and he realizes
that the isolation in itself can be regarded as a kind
of recovery: “In the first Place, I was remov’d from
all the Wickedness of the World here. I had neither
the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eye, or the
Pride of Life. I had nothing to covet; for I had all
that I was now capable of enjoying.” By resigning
to God’s will, he learns that his life is “better than
sociable” because he can either converse “mutu-
ally with my own Thoughts” or with God himself
through prayers.
Even if he manages to solve the survival prob-
lems all by himself, and even if he can praise the
spiritual aspects of the solitude, Crusoe’s want for
a “Soul to speak to” does not vanish. One dog, two
cats, and a talking parrot form the “little Family”
that keeps him company, but they do not compen-
sate for his desire for human comrades. Paradoxical
as it may seem, when he discovers a human footprint