more than those Christians were Murtherers, who
often put to Death the Prisoners taken in Battle; or
more frequently, upon many Occasions, put whole
Troops of Men to the Sword.” Later, when Cru-
soe has company by “three subjects” to which he
appears as a king, he reflects about their “three dif-
ferent Religions. My Man Friday was a Protestant,
his Father was a Pagan and a Cannibal, and the
Spaniard was a Papist.” He interjects that he allows
“Liberty of Conscience throughout my Dominions.”
In spite of this tolerance, there is no question of
which belief that Crusoe—and Defoe—rank as the
highest. Multiple allusions to parts of the Bible and
to hymns remind us of the fact that the novel was
meant at least partly as a teaching book. In fact,
Crusoe teaches his conviction to his servant Friday
so effectively that the former pagan and cannibal
declares himself a Protestant.
Seen from the perspective of the history of ideas,
Robinson Crusoe’s journey from shallowly felt reli-
gious obligations to a humble and heartfelt personal
faith is associated with a more general turning point
in religious practices of the Western world during
the 1700s. The established Anglican church at this
time was moribund, and new offshoots arose that
enabled individuals to practice their Christian faith
in different and more personal ways.
Tilda Maria Forselius
sur vival in Robinson Crusoe
Since its publication in 1719, Daniel Defoe’s Robin-
son Crusoe has been a powerful story of survival for
innumerable readers. Most prominent in the novel’s
survival theme is the everyday struggle for subsis-
tence that the main character, the castaway Robin-
son Crusoe, has to fight on a desolate tropical island,
but the narrative also depicts other threats to his
existence, such as storms at sea, an earthquake, fever,
and human enemies such as pirates and cannibals.
Crusoe, who tells the story retrospectively in first
person, initially relates that as a young man he could
not drop the idea of going to sea. In spite of his
parents’ warnings of the risks and misfortunes that
might strike him, he chooses to leave home to go on
his first sea voyage. From that moment throughout
the narrative, his life is repeatedly at stake. The sea
storms are the most apparent threats of the first
part of the story. Facing his first tempests as a sailor,
Crusoe in death agony promises to go straight back
home “if it would please God here to spare my
Life,” but this resolution fades away once the sea has
become calm again. The third vicious storm that he
experiences proves to be disastrous. During a jour-
ney to bring slaves to Brazil, the ship is stranded, and
all the men are swallowed by the waves. However,
Crusoe finds himself “sav’d, as I may say, out of
the very Grave” as he alone is carried by the waves
ashore onto an apparently uninhabited island.
Whereas surviving the storms has to do with
providence, according to Robinson’s story, his
28-year-long existence on the island mainly owes
to strategic thinking and skills that he develops over
time. Just after being rescued from the storm, he
does not expect to stay alive more than one night
and decides to “consider the next Day what Death I
should dye.” But with the equipment and goods that
he manages to fetch from the stranded ship before
it breaks into pieces and vanishes, he finds means
to improve his situation step by step and hence to
nourish and protect himself. He collects food from
what nature offers, including wild grapes, melons,
cocoa, and turtles. He builds shelters—first a tent,
then a fortress, a house, a storehouse, and so on.
He captures wild goat kids that he tames to keep as
cattle; develops some agriculture; and manufactures
things such as clay pots, furniture, a lamp, and a
canoe. By cutting a notch with his knife every day in
a wooden cross, he keeps track of the time he spends
on “the Island of Despair,” as he calls it.
The narrative conveys that even in a desperate
situation, man can survive and make a life for him-
self by using his mind and hands. This is not only
a matter of physical survival; very significant is the
associated mental process through which Crusoe
matures to become a capable man. The journal
that he writes with some ink and paper from the
shipwreck appears as a tool for this moral growth.
Instead of falling into self-pity, the diary writing
makes him reflect more impartially on his situation.
A record where he states “like Debtor and Credi-
tor, the Comforts I enjoy’d, against the Miseries I
suffer’d” helps him accommodate his way of living
“to make things as easy to me as I could.” In time,
the psychological strategy to improve things byRobinson Crusoe 327