Lecture 3, Daniel Defoe

nullDaniel Defoe Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe nullRobinson Crusoe Captain Singleton Moll Flanders A Journal of the Plague YearThe First Spokesman for the PoorThe First Spokesman for the Poor Defoe has a deep concern for the poor and the unfortunate in his society. His later novels are the first literary works devoted to the study of problems of the lower-class people. As a member of the middle class, Defoe spoke for and to the members of his class and his novels enjoyed great popularity among the less cultivated readers.nullIn most of his works, he gave his praise to the hard-working, sturdy middle class and showed his sympathy for the downtrodden, unfortunate poor.Robinson CrusoeRobinson Crusoe The book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island , encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued. null During these years of isolation, Crusoe proves himself to be industrial, ingenious and resourceful as he forges his new life, often by sheer force of will. He also, repeatedly thinks of himself as "King" and "Sovereign" over his island--and over those who eventually join him in it: "his man Friday," the savage, and the Spaniard sailor and his crew. Friday Friday Friday is the "savage" inhabitant of the mainland opposite Crusoe's island who arrives there as a prisoner of his fellow "savages," brought to be slaughtered in a cannibalistic ritual. Crusoe delivers Friday from this fate, and Friday professes undying gratitude and loyalty. Crusoe comes to regard the man and to depend upon him as "my man Friday." nullHe typifies the Western intellectual tradition's conceit of the "noble savage"--who, despite his "uncivilized" and "barbarous" ways, is a good, lofty spirit, lacking only direction from a more "civilized" and advanced instructor. Friday's character and the way in which Crusoe shapes it thus raise questions about the true nature of "savagery" and "civilization" for the readers. Paradise or Colony?Paradise or Colony? Novelist James Joyce noted that the true symbol of the British conquest is Robinson Crusoe: "He is the true prototype of the British colonist. … The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit is in Crusoe: the manly independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet efficient intelligence..."null In a sense Crusoe attempts to replicate his society on the island. This is achieved through the use of European technology, agriculture and even a rudimentary political hierarchy. Several times in the novel Crusoe refers to himself as the 'king' of the island, and at the very end of the novel the island is explicitly referred to as a 'colony'. null The idealized master-servant relation-ship Defoe depicts between Crusoe and Friday can also be seen in terms of cultural imperialism. Crusoe represents the 'enlightened' European whilst Friday is the 'savage' who can only be redeemed from his barbarous way of life through assimilation into Crusoe's culture. What does it mean to be civilized? What does it mean to be civilized? Crusoe entertains many fears throughout the narrative regarding the "savages," whom he regards as "sub-Humane." Yet what is the dividing line between the cannibalism of the savages and the slavery in which Crusoe is engaged before his exile--and considering his relationship to Friday, after? nullWhat does it say about "civilization" that Friday, once exposed to it, goes on to kill more of his own people than Crusoe does, and, in the novel's final major episode, to jocularly torment a bear for his "superiors'" amusement before shooting and killing it?