Lecture 9 The 18th Century —The Age of Enlightenment Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe

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Title: Lecture 9 The 18th Century —The Age of Enlightenment Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe

1
Lecture 9 The 18th Century The Age of
EnlightenmentDaniel DefoeRobinson Crusoe
2
Part one How to appreciate a novel/Fiction

1.1. Elements of fiction
One useful way to approach the techniques of
fiction is to describe its basic elements or
characteristics theme, plot and structure,
character, setting, point of view, style and
language, and irony. We should be aware that all
the elements of a Story work together to convey
feeling and embody meaning.

1.2. Theme
The theme is the central idea or statement
about life that unifies and controls the total
work.
Analyzing theme
(A) Does the work have a theme? Is it stated or
implied?
(B) What generalization(s) or statement(s) about
life or human experience does the work make?
(C) What elements of the work contribute most to
the formulation of the theme?
(D) Does the theme emerge organically and
naturally, or does the author seem to force the
theme upon the work?
(E) What is the value or significance of the
work's theme? Is it topical or universal in its
application?

1.3. Plot and structure
Plot, the action in fiction, is the arrangement
of events that make up a story. A story's
structure can be examined in relation to its
plot. In examining structure, we look for
patterns, that is, the shape of the content that
the story as a whole possesses.

Analyzing plot
(A) What are the conflicts on which the plot
turns? Are they external, internal, or some
combination of the two?
(B) What are the chief episodes or incidents that
make up the plot? Is its development strictly
chronological, or is the chronology rearranged in
some way?
(C) Compare the plot's beginning and end. What
essential changes have taken place?
(D) Describe the plot in terms of its exposition,
complication, crisis, falling action, and
resolution.
(E) Is the plot unified? Do the individual
episodes logically relate to one another?
(F) Is the ending appropriate to and consistent
with the rest of the plot?
(G) Is the plot plausible? What role, if any, do
chance and coincidence play?

1.4. Character
Characters are imaginary people that writers
create in stories. The major, or central,
character of the plot is the protagonist his
opponent, the character against whom the
protagonist struggles or contends, is the
antagonist. Flat characters are those who embody
or represent a single characteristic, trait, or
idea, or at most a very limited number of such
qualities. Flat characters are also referred to
as type characters. Round characters embody a
number of qualities and traits, and are complex
characters of considerable intellectual and
emotional depth. Most importantly, they have the
capacity to grow and change.

Methods of characterization
In presenting and establishing character, an
author has two basic methods or techniques at his
disposal. One method is telling, which relies on
exposition and direct commentary by the author.
The other method is the indirect, dramatic method
of showing. Direct methods of revealing
character--characterization by telling--include
the following
(A) Characterization through the use of names.
(B) Characterization through appearance.
(C) Characterization by the author.
(D) Characterization through dialogue.
(E) Characterization through action.

1.5. Setting
Setting is a term that, in its broadest sense,
encompasses the physical locale, which frames the
action, the time of day or year, the climatic
conditions, and the historical period during
which the action takes place.
Analyzing setting
(A) What is the work's setting in space and time?
(B) How does the author go about establishing
setting? Does the author want the reader to see
or feel the setting or does the author want the
reader to both see and feel it? What details of
the setting does the author relate and describe?
(C) Is the setting important? If so, what is its
function? Is it used to reveal, reinforce, or
influence character, plot, or theme?
(D) Is the setting an appropriate one?

1.6. Point of view
A story must have a storyteller a narrative
voice, real or implied, that presents the story
to the reader. Commonly used points of view
(A) Third person point of view omniscient
With the third person point of view omniscient,
an "all-knowing" narrator firmly imposes his
presence between the reader and the story, and
retains complete control over the narrative.
(B) Third person point of view limited
With the third person point of view limited, the
narrator limits his ability to penetrate the
minds of characters by selecting a single
character to act as the center of revelation.
(C) First person point of view
(D) Dramatic point of view
With the disappearance of the narrator, telling
is replaced by showing, and the illusion is
created that the reader is a direct and immediate
witness to an unfolding drama.

Analyzing point of view
(A) What is the point of view? Who talks to the
reader? Is the point of view consistent
throughout the work or does it shift in some way?
(B) Where does the narrator stand in relation to
the work? Where does the reader stand?
(C) To what sources of knowledge or information
does the point of view give the reader access?
What sources of knowledge or information does it
serve to conceal?
(D) If the work is told from the point of view of
one of the characters, is the narrator reliable?
Does his or her personality, character, or
intellect affect an ability to interpret the
events or the other characters correctly?
(E) Given the author's purposes, is the chosen
point of view an appropriate and effective one?
(F) How would the work be different if told from
another point of view?

1.7. Language and style
When we talk about an author's words and the
characteristic way he uses the resources of
language to achieve certain effects, we are
talking about style. In its most general sense,
style consists of diction (the individual words
an author chooses) and syntax (the arrangement of
those words), as well as such devices as rhythm
and sound, allusion, ambiguity, irony, paradox,
and figurative language. Each writer's style is
unique.

1.8. Irony
Irony may appear in fiction in three ways in the
work's language, in its incidents, or in its
point of view. But in whatever forms it emerges,
irony always involves a contrast or discrepancy
between one thing and another. The contrast may
be between what is said and what is meant or
between what happens and what is expected to
happen.
In literature, however, symbols--in the form of
words, images, objects, settings, events and
characters--are often used deliberately to
suggest and reinforce meaning.

13
Part Two The Age of Enlightenment

2.1. 18th Century England
After the tempestuous events of the 17th
century, England entered a period of
comparatively peaceful development. TheGlorious
Revolution" of 1688 ended and England became a
constitutional monarchy.
The 18th century England witnessed
unprecedented technical innovations which
equipped industry with steam, and new tools, and
rapid growth of industry and commerce. This is
called the Industrial Revolution.
Great changes also took place in rural
England. With the Enclosure Movement ,the
majority of peasants were ruined, driven off
their land, went to the cities and became
workers.

2.2. The Enlightenment in Europe
The 18th century marked the beginning of an
intellectual movement in Europe, known as the
Enlightenment, which was on the whole, an
expression of struggle of the bourgeoisie against
feudalism. The enlighteners fought against class
inequality, stagnation, prejudices and other
survivals of feudalism. They attempted to place
all branches of science at the service of mankind
by connecting them with the actual needs and
requirements of people.

2.3. Classicism
an attitude to literature that is guided by
admiration of the qualities of formal balance,
proportion, decorum and restraint attributed to
the major works of ancient Greek and Roman
literature. As a literary doctrine, classicism
holds that writers must be governed by rules,
models, or conventions, rather than by
inspiration. Neoclassicism required the
observance of rules derived from Aristotles
Poetics and Horaces Ars Poetica.
Addison, Steele and Pope belonged to the school
of classicism. The classicists modeled themselves
on Greek and Latin authors, and tried to control
literary creation by some fixed laws and rules
drawn from Greek and Latin works. Rimed couplet
instead of blank verse, the three unities of
time, place and action. Poetry, following the
ancient divisions.

2.4. The Rise of the English Novel
The modern European novel began after the
Renaissance, with Cervantess "Don Quixote"
(1605-1615). The modern English novel began two
centuries later, in the l8th century. The rise
and growth of the realistic novel is the most
prominent achievement of 18th century English
literature.
Swifts "Gullivers Travels, Defoes Robinson
Crusoe
Richardsons " Pamela, "Clarissa" and "Sir
Charles Grandison".
Fieldings novels unfold a panorama of life in
all sections of English society. Fielding was the
real founder of the realistic novel in England.
Another 18th century novelist of the realistic
school was Smollett, the author of Roderick
Random". and "Humphry Clinker."
The new element of sentiment or sensibility
was added to the novel by Sterne whose Tristram
Shandy" was the strangest novel in English
Literature.

17
Part Three Daniel Defoe

3.1. Brief Introduction of Defoe
Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) was born in London,
the son of a butcher. As a merchant, Defoe had
seen ups and downs in his business. He became
bankrupt in 1692. Within four years, he was doing
well again, as the manager of a tile factory. He
remained in fairly prosperous circumstances until
he was ruined, in 1703, by his imprisonment.
Defoe was a kind of jack-of -all -trades. He was
a merchant, economist, politician, journalist,
pamphleteer, publicist and novelist.

His place in English literature was made for him
by his novels, he acquired a pure naked
English-smooth, easy, almost colloquial, yet
never coarse. He loved short, crisp, plain
sentences. There is nothing artificial in his
language it is really common English.
The year 1719 marked a new period in Defoes
literary career, for in that year he published
his" Robinson Crusoe", the book which makes him
immortal.
Other novels followed in quick succession. The
most interesting of them are Captain Singleton
(1720), "Moll Flanders" (1722) and "Colonel
Jacque"(1722).

3.2. The Story of Robinson Crusoe
The story takes place in the middle of the
17th century, in the family of an old English
gentleman, Mr. Crusoe. The old man designs his
son. Robinson, for the law, but the young man has
set his mind on becoming a sailor. When Robinson
is 19, he runs away from home and sets out to
sea. After many perils and adventures on the sea,
he settles down in Brazil. But the call of the
sea is so strong that he embarks on another
voyage to Africa.
A frightful storm changes the course of the ship
and she is wrecked off the coast of an
uninhabited island. Of all the ships crew
Robinson alone escapes to the shore after
strenuous efforts. He spends the night on a tree
for fear of wild animals. In the morning he swims
to the wrecked ship to find no living creature on
board, except a dog and two cats.
Robinson builds a raft and tries by all means to
carry to shore the store of necessities on the
ship which consist of bread, rice, bade, corn,
planks, lead and gunpowder, an axe and two saws.
From then on he lives all alone on the island.

Many years go by. One day Robinson discovers an
imprint of a mans foot on the sand. Then he
learns that the island is occasionally visited by
sonic cannibals who come to celebrate their
victories over their enemies and to devour their
captives.
Robinson happens to see one such celebration and
manages to save one of the victims. This man,
named Friday by Robinson, proves to be a clever
young Negro and becomes Robinsons true and
Faithful companion. With Fridays help Robinson
builds another boat.
Meanwhile an English ship drops anchor off the
island. The captain takes Robinson and Friday to
England. Wishing to see the island where he had
spent so many years. Robinson pays a visit to it
once more. During an attack of the Indians his
faithful Friday is killed.

3.3. Comments on RC
Today Defoe is chiefly remembered as the
author of "Robinson Crusoe", his masterpiece. The
novel is based on a real fact. In 1704, Alexander
Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, was marooned on the
island of Juan Fernandez in the Atlantic, and
lived there quite alone for four years.
The writers of the Enlightenment attached great
importance to the moulding of character and to
education through the influence of varied
environment. Defoe traces the development of
Robinson Crusoe from a naive and artless youth
into a clever and hardened man, tempered by
numerous trials in his eventful life.

The character of Robinson Crusoe is
representative of the English bourgeoisie at the
earlier stages of its development. He is most
practical and exact, always religious and at the
same time mindful of his own profit. Robinsons
every voyage is connected with some commercial
enterprise. He owns a plantation where coloured
slaves are exploited. Defoes bourgeois outlook
mantles itself in the fact that he does not
condemn Negro-slavery in his book. Though
Robinson labours for his own existence, yet as
soon as a native makes his appearance on the
island, Robinson assumes the role of a master.
"Master" is the first word Friday learns from
Robinson. Here lies colonization in germ.

23
3.4. Interpretations

Despite its simple narrative style and the
absence of the supposedly indispensable love
motive, it was received well in the literary
world. The book is considered one of the most
widely published books in history (behind some of
the sacred texts). It has been a hit since the
day it was published, and continues to be highly
regarded to this day.

3.4.1.Colonial
Crusoe standing over Friday after he frees him
from the cannibals.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, the sexual apathy,
the calculating taciturnity."
In a sense Crusoe attempts to replicate his own
society on the island. This is achieved through
the application 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,
whilst the captain describes him as the
'governor' to the mutineers. At the very end of
the novel the island is explicitly referred to as
a 'colony.' The idealized master-servant
relationship 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 supposedly barbarous
way of life through assimilation into Crusoe's
culture. Nevertheless, within the novel Defoe
also takes the opportunity to criticize the
historic Spanish conquest of South America.

3.4.2. Religious
According to J.P. Hunter, Robinson is not a hero,
but an everyman. He begins as a wanderer, aimless
on a sea he does not understand, and ends as a
pilgrim, crossing a final mountain to enter the
promised land. The book tells the story of how
Robinson becomes closer to God, not through
listening to sermons in a church but through
spending time alone amongst nature with only a
Bible to read.
Robinson Crusoe is filled with religious aspects.
Defoe was himself a Puritan moralist, and
normally worked in the guide tradition, writing
books on how to be a good Puritan Christian, such
as The New Family Instructor (1727) and Religious
Courtship (1722). While Robinson Crusoe is far
more than a guide, it shares many of the same
themes and theological and moral points of view.

The very name "Crusoe" may have been taken from
Timothy Cruso, a classmate of Defoe's who had
written guide books himself, including God the
Guide of Youth (1695), before dying at an early
age just eight years before Defoe wrote
Robinson Crusoe. Cruso would still have been
remembered by contemporaries and the association
with guide books is clear. It has even been
suggested that God the Guide of Youth inspired
Robinson Crusoe because of a number of passages
in that work that are closely tied to the novel
however this is speculative.
The Biblical story of Jonah is alluded to in the
first part of the novel. Like Jonah, Crusoe
neglects his 'duty' and is punished at sea.
A central concern of Defoe's in the novel is the
Christian notion of Providence. Crusoe often
feels himself guided by a divinely ordained fate,
thus explaining his robust optimism in the face
of apparent hopelessness. His various fortunate
intuitions are taken as evidence of a benign
spirit world. Defoe also foregrounds this theme
by arranging highly significant events in the
novel to occur on Crusoe's birthday.

3.4.3. Moral
When confronted with the cannibals, Crusoe
wrestles with the problem of cultural relativism.
Despite his disgust, he feels unjustified in
holding the natives morally responsible for a
practice so deeply ingrained in their culture.
Nevertheless he retains his belief in an absolute
standard of morality he regards cannibalism as a
'national crime' and forbids Friday from
practicing it. Modern readers may also note that
despite Crusoe's apparently superior morality, in
common with the culture of his day, he
uncritically accepts the institution of slavery.

3.4.4. Economic
In classical, neoclassical and Austrian
economics, Crusoe is regularly used to illustrate
the theory of production and choice in the
absence of trade, money and prices.Crusoe must
allocate effort between production and leisure,
and must choose between alternative production
possibilities to meet his needs. The arrival of
Friday is then used to illustrate the possibility
of, and gains from, trade.
The classical treatment of the Crusoe economy has
been discussed and criticised from a variety of
perspectives.
Karl Marx made an analysis of Crusoe, while also
mocking the heavy use in classical economics of
the fictional story, in his classic work Capital.
In Marxist terms, Crusoe's experiences on the
island represents the inherent economic value of
labour over capital. Crusoe frequently observes
that the money he salvaged from the ship is
worthless on the island, especially when compared
to his tools.
For the literary critic Angus Ross, Defoe's point
is that money has no intrinsic value and is only
valuable insofar as it can be used in trade.
There is also a notable correlation between
Crusoe's spiritual and financial development as
the novel progresses, possibly signifying Defoe's
belief in the Protestant work ethic.
The Crusoe model has also been assessed from the
perspectives of feminism and Austrian economics.

29
3.5. Legacy

The book proved so popular that the names of the
two main protagonists have entered the language.
The term "Robinson Crusoe" is virtually
synonymous with the word "castaway" and is often
used as a metaphor for being rejected. Robinson
Crusoe usually referred to his servant as "my man
Friday", from which the term "Man Friday" (or
"Girl Friday") originated, referring to a
dedicated personal assistant, servant, or
companion. Thus, it was referred in Gregory La
Cava's film "My Man Godfrey", in which a rich
socialite falls in love with her butler, that had
been a castaway because of the Great Depression.
This has also been used in a Popeye cartoon
called 'Island Fling'and a movie called 'His Girl
Friday'.

30
3.6. Influences

Robinson Crusoe marked the beginning of realistic
fiction as a literary genre. Its success spawned
many imitators, and castaway novels became quite
popular in Europe in the 18th and early 19th
centuries. Most of these have fallen into
obscurity, but some became established in their
own right, including The Swiss Family Robinson,
which borrows Crusoe's first name for its title.
Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, published
seven years after Robinson Crusoe, may be read as
a systematic rebuttal of Defoe's optimistic
account of human capability. In The Unthinkable
Swift The Spontaneous Philosophy of a Church of
England Man Warren Montag argues that Swift was
concerned to refute the notion that the
individual precedes society, as Defoe's novel
seems to suggest. Swift regarded such thought as
a dangerous endorsement of Thomas Hobbes' radical
political philosophy and for this reason Gulliver
repeatedly encounters established societies
rather than desolate islands. The captain who
invites Gulliver to serve as a surgeon aboard his
ship on the disastrous third voyage is named
Robinson.

In Jean-Jacques Rousseau's treatise on education,
Emile Or, On Education, the one book the main
character, Emile, is allowed to read before the
age of twelve is Robinson Crusoe. Rousseau wants
Emile to identify himself as Crusoe so he could
rely upon himself for all of his needs. In
Rousseau's view, Emile needs to imitate Crusoe's
experience, allowing necessity to determine what
is to be learned and accomplished. This is one of
the main themes of Rousseau's educational model.
In Wilkie Collins's most popular novel, The
Moonstone, one of the chief characters and
narrators, Gabriel Betteredge, places implicit
faith in all that Robinson Crusoe says, and uses
the book for a sort of divination. He considers
'The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe' the finest
book ever written, and considers a man but poorly
read if he had happened not to read the book.

In Kenneth Gardner's award winning 2002 novel,
Rich Man's Coffin, he portrays the true story of
a black American slave who escapes on a whaling
ship to New Zealand to become chief of one of the
cannibal Maori tribes. This is a reversal of
racial roles, with the black man taking the lead
role of the Robinson Crusoe figure.
French novelist Michel Tournier wrote Friday
(French Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique)
published in 1967. His novel explores themes
including civilization versus nature, the
psychology of solitude, as well as death and
sexuality, in a retelling of Defoe's Robinson
Crusoe story. Tournier's Robinson chooses to
remain on the island, rejecting civilization when
offered the chance to escape 28 years after being
shipwrecked.
"Crusoe in England" is a 183-line poem by
Elizabeth Bishop.
J. M. Coetzee's 1986 novel Foe recounts the tale
of Robinson Crusoe from the aspect of Susan
Barton who went on to star in another of DeFoe's
novels. In this novel Crusoe is depicted as a
much less motivated man and Friday as a mute.