326 Defoe, Daniel
in the sand and understands that he is not alone at
the island, his isolation is extended. Realizing that
it is made by a potential enemy, he does not move
around on the island as before. For the coming two
years, he works on improving his shelters “in the
constant Snare of the Fear of Man.” The seclusion
that he thus creates for himself plays a significant
part in his survival.
In Robinson Crusoe’s 24th year on the island, he
sees a shipwreck offshore, and this causes new erup-
tions of his longing for company. He is surprised by
his strong feelings. “O that it had been but One! I
believe I repeated the Words, O that it had been but
One!” But no living man, just a corpse, is washed
ashore from the ship. Not long after this event,
Crusoe manages to help a man escape from the can-
nibals who sometimes come to the island. This man,
whom he calls Friday, becomes Robinson’s servant,
pupil and friend for the remaining four years on the
island and thus, his isolation is over.
Tilda Maria Forselius
reliGiOn in Robinson Crusoe
As a young man, Robinson Crusoe had a rather
shallow relationship with religion. According to his
narrative, the Christian God that was conceptually
conveyed by his English upbringing appeared as a
well-meaning father who expected dutiful submis-
sion. When Crusoe defies his father’s wishes by
going to sea, this is described as an immature denial
of his obligations to God. He leaves home without
blessings but with his father’s warning that there
would “be none to assist in my Recovery,” words that
follow him as a bad omen. The vicious storms that
he experiences as a young seafarer are understood as
“the Judgment of Heaven for my wicked leaving my
Father’s House, and abandoning my Duty.” In fear
for his survival, he makes promises to God but easily
breaks them when the danger is over.
It is during his many years as a castaway on
a desolate island, far from authorities and social
conventions, that Crusoe gradually develops a deep
personal belief. The first really divine moment that
he experiences occurs after the disastrous storm that
wrecks his and his shipmates’ boat. When he alone
finds himself saved on the shore of an island and
realizes that he is safe from the waves, while all his
comrades are drowned, he is deeply overwhelmed
by feelings of gratitude: “I walk’d about on the
Shore, lifting up my Hands, and my whole Being,
as I may say, wrapt up in the Contemplation of
my Deliverance, making a Thousand Gestures and
Motions which I cannot describe.” A parallel situ-
ation appears after about 10 months on the island
when Crusoe discovers by chance “some few Stalks
of something green, shooting out of the Ground”
and recognizes that it is barley “of the same Kind
as our European, nay, as our English Barley.” This
discovery leads to his first serious religious con-
siderations. Up till this moment, he “had very few
Notions of Religion in my Head” but now he “began
to suggest, that God had miraculously caus’d this
Grain to grow without any Help of Seed sown, and
that it was so directed purely for my Sustenance,
on that wild miserable Place.” Even if he finds out
that there is a natural explanation to the barley—he
had unknowingly scattered the seed himself when
emptying a bag—the episode is significant as the
opening to a part of the novel that closely depicts
his religious turning point. When he falls badly ill
in a fever attack and has a strange and frightening
nightmare, Crusoe’s “Conscience that had slept so
long, begun to awake.” He deeply blames himself
for his rejections and shortcomings earlier in life,
prepares to die, and says his first prayer for many
years, asking God for help.
Recovering from the lengthy fever, Crusoe
develops into a humble and devoted Scripture
disciple. The Bible that he has brought from the
shipwreck becomes an object of regular study, and
because his thoughts are being directed “to things of
a higher Nature,” he finds “a great deal of Comfort
within, which till now I knew nothing of.” In the
narrative, this new state of mind is associated with
an improved self-confidence. Crusoe explores the
island more thoroughly, finds fertile areas, and starts
to think of the advantages of being at this place, and
he thanks God for all that he has been given.
The novel also portrays Crusoe’s views on other
religions and rituals. When he first sees the traces
of the cannibals’ feasts, his reaction is to go to war
against them in God’s name, but after some time
he realizes that he has no right to judge their way
of living. They are not murderers, he reflects, “any