Who are the main characters in the story Robinson Crusoe. Characteristics of the characters based on Defoe’s work “The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Novel and hero
(based on the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe)
"Robinson Crusoe" is a book known throughout the world. It very quickly became popular among readers from all countries and was translated into almost all languages of the world. Many years have passed since Daniel Defoe wrote this work, but it is still read with great interest and excites the imagination of readers. Thousands of people learn about the story of Robinson Crusoe for the first time, millions of readers reread this book over and over again, and everyone finds something of their own in it, everyone sympathizes with the hero. Children play Robinson Crusoe; they use his name in everyday life, no longer referring to the work itself. The story of Robinson Crusoe has ceased to be the story of a specific person, it has become a symbol.
Robinson Crusoe was probably an ordinary person, with his joys and sorrows. He may not have had any special talents. This is what makes him so close to us, his actions are understandable to everyone, and his thoughts and life principles evoke sympathy and kindness towards the hero. Moreover, Robinson is in a difficult situation; the future scares him. Isolation from civilization seems worse to him than death. He is overcome with despair. This is how the author depicts Robinson in the first days of his life on a deserted island.
However, over time, Robinson is forced to think about how to survive in new conditions, and despair is replaced by hope. Only during illness does the sadness return again, intensified by the fact that he feels very lonely.
When Robinson got to the island, he had only what was on it. The tools that were salvaged from the ship helped to survive, and persistent work made it possible. Robinson builds a home for himself and grows bread from the grains he finds. The goats that lived on the island become his livestock and provide him with milk and cheese. It took several years of persistent work to grow enough bread from a few grains. For Robinson, these grains meant more than just the opportunity to eat bread. This was his victory over evil fate.
Improving his living conditions, Robinson decides to build a boat.
The work contains many examples of what a person can do with unshakable will and determination. Not a single test could break Robinson's character. He challenged the odds and defeated them.
Robinson's indestructible character personifies the best traits of all humanity. A person should not be afraid of difficulties. This idea is the conclusion of the work “Robinson Crusoe”. And that is why the story of an ordinary sailor, who, thanks to persistent work and indestructible character, managed to survive and rise above adverse circumstances, will excite readers of this wonderful book for a long time. Since Robinson's example is relevant not only on a deserted island, but also in everyday life.
The characterization of Robinson Crusoe tells us that the hero was a courageous and strong man. Despite all the trials, he was able to maintain his human dignity and will. We’ll talk about the famous character in this article.
Why did the author choose such a plot?
First of all, it is worth noting that Robinson had his own prototypes. In those centuries, England actively pursued colonial conquests of new lands. Many ships departed from their native harbors to foreign countries, some of them ended up in shipwrecks in the stormy waters of the World Ocean. It so happened that some of the sailors survived and found themselves in complete isolation on uninhabited islands scattered in the seas.
Thus, the cases described in the novel were not uncommon. However, the author used this plot to tell his readers a very instructive story, in which he devoted a lot of space to such a topic as the characteristics of Robinson Crusoe, his personality and life destiny. What kind of story is this? Let's try to briefly answer this question.
Protestant ethics and Defoe's novel
According to literary scholars, Defoe's novel is thoroughly permeated with motifs associated with the Protestant ethic. According to this religious teaching, a person on earth must go through many tests in order to earn entry into the Kingdom of Heaven through his labor. At the same time, he should not grumble against God. After all, what the Almighty does is useful for him. Let's look at the plot of the novel. At the beginning of the story we see a young man, very extravagant and stubborn. Against the wishes of his parents, he becomes a sailor and goes on a journey.
Moreover, God seems to warn him at first: the characterization of Robinson Crusoe begins with the author describing his first shipwreck and miraculous rescue. But the young man did not heed what fate taught him. He sets sail again. The man gets into a wreck again and is the only one of the entire team who is saved. The hero ends up in a place where he is forced to spend more than 28 years of his life.
Hero Transformation
A brief description of Robinson Crusoe will allow us to see the development of the protagonist’s personality in its dynamics. At first we see a very carefree and wayward young man. However, having found himself in a difficult life situation, he did not give up, but began to do everything in order to survive. The author meticulously describes the daily work of his hero: Robinson saves things from the ship, which help him survive, he takes animals with him, builds a home for himself. In addition, the man hunts wild goats, begins to tame them, and then makes butter and cheese from the resulting milk. Robinson observes the nature around him and begins to keep a kind of diary of the changing rainy season and seasons of relative warmth. The hero accidentally sows a few centimeters of wheat, then fights for the harvest, etc.
The characterization of Robinson Crusoe will be incomplete if we do not pay attention to one more feature. The most important thing in the novel is not just the character’s work, but his internal spiritual transformation. Far from people, the hero begins to think about why fate threw him onto a desert island. He reads the Bible, thinks about Divine providence, and resigns himself to his fate. And he doesn’t complain about being left completely alone. As a result, the hero finds peace of mind. He learns to rely on his own strength and trust in the mercy of the Almighty.
Characteristics of Robinson Crusoe: what kind of person he is before and after the shipwreck
As a result, after 28 years, the character is completely transformed. He changes internally and gains life experience. Robinson believes that everything that happened to him was fair. Now the hero himself can act as a teacher. He begins to befriend a local Aborigine, whom he calls Friday. And he passes on to him all the knowledge that he himself possesses. And only after all this, Europeans appear in the life of the former sailor, who accidentally stumbled upon the island. They take him to his distant and beloved homeland.
The novel itself is constructed in confessional form. The author tells readers in the first person what the character experienced over many years of loneliness and work. Robinson Crusoe experienced a lot during his life. The characterization of the hero given by us in the article fully confirms the fact that he returned home as a completely different person.
Robinson Crusoe- a sailor who found himself as a result of a shipwreck on an uninhabited island in the West Indies near the island of Trinidad and managed to live on it for twenty-eight years, first completely alone, and then with the savage Friday, develop this island and start a farm on it, in which there was everything necessary for life.
Telling the story of his stay on the island, R. tells in detail how his life was settled: what things and main tools he managed to save from the crashed ship, how he set up a tent made of canvas and how he surrounded his home with a palisade; how he hunted wild goats and how he later decided to tame them, built a pen for them, learned to milk them and make butter and cheese; how several grains of barley and rice were discovered and what labor it took to dig up a field with a wooden shovel and sow it with these grains, how he had to protect his crop from goats and birds, how one crop died due to the onset of drought and how he began to observe the change dry and rainy seasons to sow at the right time; how he learned to make pottery and fire it; how he made clothes from goat skins, how he dried and stored wild grapes, how he caught a parrot, tamed him and taught him to pronounce his name, etc. Thanks to the unusualness of the situation, all these prosaic everyday actions acquire the interest of exciting adventures and even a kind of poetry. Trying to provide himself with everything necessary for life, R. works tirelessly, and with his work the despair that gripped him after the shipwreck gradually dissipates. Seeing that he can survive on the island, he calms down, begins to reflect on his former life, finds the finger of providence in many turns of his fate and turns to reading the Bible, which he saved from the ship. Now he believes that his “imprisonment” on the island is divine punishment for all his many sins, the main one of which is his disobedience to the will of his parents, who did not let him go sailing, and his flight from his home; at the same time, he is imbued with deep gratitude to divine providence, which saved him from death and sent him the means to maintain life. At the same time, his beliefs are distinguished by the concreteness and efficiency characteristic of his class. Once on the island, he reflects on his situation, divides a sheet of paper in half and writes down its pros and cons in two columns: “good” and “evil”, strongly reminiscent of the columns “income” and “expense” in a merchant’s ledger. In his worldview, R. turns out to be a typical representative of the “middle class” and reveals all its advantages and disadvantages.
Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe was first published in April 1719. The work gave rise to the development of the classic English novel and made the pseudo-documentary genre of fiction popular.
The plot of “The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” is based on the true story of boatswain Alexander Selkir, who lived on a desert island for four years. Defoe rewrote the book many times, giving its final version a philosophical meaning - Robinson's story became an allegorical depiction of human life as such.
Main characters
Robinson Crusoe- the main character of the work, delirious about sea adventures. Spent 28 years on a desert island.
Friday- a savage whom Robinson saved. Crusoe taught him English and took him with him.
Other characters
Ship captain- Robinson saved him from captivity and helped him return the ship, for which the captain took Crusoe home.
Xuri- a boy, a prisoner of Turkish robbers, with whom Robinson fled from the pirates.
Chapter 1
From early childhood, Robinson loved the sea more than anything in the world and dreamed of long voyages. The boy's parents did not like this very much, as they wanted a calmer, happier life for their son. His father wanted him to become an important official.
However, the thirst for adventure was stronger, so on September 1, 1651, Robinson, who was eighteen years old at that time, without asking permission from his parents, and a friend boarded a ship departing from Hull to London.
Chapter 2
On the first day the ship was caught in a strong storm. Robinson felt bad and scared from the strong pitching. He swore a thousand times that if everything worked out, he would return to his father and never swim in the sea again. However, the ensuing calm and a glass of punch helped Robinson quickly forget about all the “good intentions.”
The sailors were confident in the reliability of their ship, so they spent all their days having fun. On the ninth day of the voyage, a terrible storm broke out in the morning and the ship began to leak. A passing ship threw a boat at them and by evening they managed to escape. Robinson was ashamed to return home, so he decided to set sail again.
Chapter 3
In London, Robinson met a respectable elderly captain. A new acquaintance invited Crusoe to go with him to Guinea. During the journey, the captain taught Robinson shipbuilding, which was very useful for the hero in the future. In Guinea, Crusoe managed to profitably exchange the trinkets he brought for gold sand.
After the captain's death, Robinson went to Africa again. This time the journey was less successful; on the way, their ship was attacked by pirates - Turks from Saleh. Robinson was captured by the captain of a robber ship, where he remained for almost three years. Finally, he had a chance to escape - the robber sent Crusoe, the boy Xuri and the Moor to fish in the sea. Robinson took with him everything he needed for a long voyage and on the way threw the Moor into the sea.
Robinson was on his way to Cape Verde, hoping to meet a European ship.
Chapter 4
After many days of sailing, Robinson had to go ashore and ask the savages for food. The man thanked them by killing the leopard with a gun. The savages gave him the skin of the animal.
Soon the travelers met a Portuguese ship. On it Robinson reached Brazil.
Chapter 5
The captain of the Portuguese ship kept Xuri with him, promising to make him a sailor. Robinson lived in Brazil for four years, farming sugar cane and producing sugar. Somehow, familiar merchants suggested that Robinson travel to Guinea again.
“In an evil hour” - on September 1, 1659, he stepped onto the deck of the ship. “It was the same day on which eight years ago I ran away from my father’s house and so madly ruined my youth.”
On the twelfth day, a strong squall hit the ship. The bad weather lasted twelve days, their ship sailed wherever the waves drove it. When the ship ran aground, the sailors had to transfer to a boat. However, four miles later, an “angry wave” capsized their ship.
Robinson was washed ashore by a wave. He was the only one of the crew left alive. The hero spent the night on a tall tree.
Chapter 6
In the morning Robinson saw that their ship had washed closer to the shore. Using spare masts, topmasts and yards, the hero made a raft, on which he transported planks, chests, food supplies, a box of carpentry tools, weapons, gunpowder and other necessary things to the shore.
Returning to land, Robinson realized that he was on a desert island. He built himself a tent from sails and poles, surrounding it with empty boxes and chests for protection from wild animals. Every day Robinson swam to the ship, taking things that he might need. At first Crusoe wanted to throw away the money he found, but then, after thinking about it, he left it. After Robinson visited the ship for the twelfth time, a storm carried the ship out to sea.
Soon Crusoe found a convenient place to live - in a small smooth clearing on the slope of a high hill. Here the hero pitched a tent, surrounding it with a fence of high stakes, which could only be overcome with the help of a ladder.
Chapter 7
Behind the tent, Robinson dug a cave in the hill that served as his cellar. Once, during a severe thunderstorm, the hero was afraid that one lightning strike could destroy all his gunpowder and after that he put it into different bags and stored it separately. Robinson discovers that there are goats on the island and begins to hunt them.
Chapter 8
In order not to lose track of time, Crusoe created a simulated calendar - he drove a large log into the sand, on which he marked the days with notches. Along with his things, the hero transported two cats and a dog that lived with him from the ship.
Among other things, Robinson found ink and paper and took notes for some time. “At times despair attacked me, I experienced mortal melancholy, in order to overcome these bitter feelings, I took up a pen and tried to prove to myself that there was still a lot of good in my plight.”
Over time, Crusoe dug a back door in the hill and made furniture for himself.
Chapter 9
From September 30, 1659, Robinson kept a diary, describing everything that happened to him on the island after the shipwreck, his fears and experiences.
To dig the cellar, the hero made a shovel from “iron” wood. One day there was a collapse in his “cellar”, and Robinson began to firmly strengthen the walls and ceiling of the recess.
Soon Crusoe managed to tame the kid. While wandering around the island, the hero discovered wild pigeons. He tried to tame them, but as soon as the chicks' wings became stronger, they flew away. Robinson made a lamp from goat fat, which, unfortunately, burned very dimly.
After the rains, Crusoe discovered seedlings of barley and rice (shaking bird food onto the ground, he thought that all the grains had been eaten by rats). The hero carefully collected the harvest, deciding to leave it for sowing. Only in the fourth year could he afford to separate some of the grain for food.
After a strong earthquake, Robinson realizes that he needs to find another place to live, away from the cliff.
Chapter 10
The waves washed the wreckage of the ship onto the island, and Robinson gained access to its hold. On the shore, the hero discovered a large turtle, whose meat replenished his diet.
When the rains began, Crusoe fell ill and developed a severe fever. I was able to recover with tobacco tincture and rum.
While exploring the island, the hero finds sugar cane, melons, wild lemons, and grapes. He dried the latter in the sun to prepare raisins for future use. In a blooming green valley, Robinson arranges a second home for himself - a “dacha in the forest”. Soon one of the cats brought three kittens.
Robinson learned to accurately divide the seasons into rainy and dry. During rainy periods he tried to stay at home.
Chapter 11
During one of the rainy periods, Robinson learned to weave baskets, which he really missed. Crusoe decided to explore the entire island and discovered a strip of land on the horizon. He realized that this was a part of South America where wild cannibals probably lived and was glad that he was on a desert island. Along the way, Crusoe caught a young parrot, which he later taught to speak some words. There were many turtles and birds on the island, even penguins were found here.
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Robinson got hold of good pottery clay, from which he made dishes and dried them in the sun. Once the hero discovered that pots could be fired in a fire - this became a pleasant discovery for him, since now he could store water in the pot and cook food in it.
To bake the bread, Robinson made a wooden mortar and a makeshift oven out of clay tablets. Thus passed his third year on the island.
Chapter 14
All this time, Robinson was haunted by thoughts about the land he saw from the shore. The hero decides to repair the boat, which was thrown ashore during the shipwreck. The updated boat sank to the bottom, but he could not launch it. Then Robinson set about making a pirogue from a cedar tree trunk. He managed to make an excellent boat, however, just like the boat, he could not lower it to the water.
The fourth year of Crusoe's stay on the island has ended. His ink had run out and his clothes were worn out. Robinson sewed three jackets from sailor peacoats, a hat, jacket and pants from the skins of killed animals, and made an umbrella from the sun and rain.
Chapter 15
Robinson built a small boat to go around the island by sea. Rounding the underwater rocks, Crusoe swam far from the shore and fell into the current of the sea, which carried him further and further. However, soon the current weakened and Robinson managed to return to the island, which he was infinitely happy about.
Chapter 16
In the eleventh year of Robinson's stay on the island, his supplies of gunpowder began to deplete. Not wanting to give up meat, the hero decided to come up with a way to catch wild goats alive. With the help of "wolf pits" Crusoe managed to catch an old goat and three kids. Since then he started raising goats.
“I lived like a real king, not needing anything; Next to me there was always a whole staff of courtiers [tamed animals] devoted to me - there were not only people.”
Chapter 17
Once Robinson discovered a human footprint on the shore. “In terrible anxiety, not feeling the ground under my feet, I hurried home, to my fortress.” Crusoe hid at home and spent the whole night thinking about how a man ended up on the island. Calming himself, Robinson even began to think that it was his own trail. However, when he returned to the same place, he saw that the footprint was much larger than his foot.
In fear, Crusoe wanted to loose all the cattle and dig up both fields, but then he calmed down and changed his mind. Robinson realized that savages come to the island only sometimes, so it is important for him to simply not catch their eye. For additional security, Crusoe drove stakes into the gaps between the previously densely planted trees, thus creating a second wall around his home. He planted the entire area behind the outer wall with willow-like trees. Two years later, a grove grew green around his house.
Chapter 18
Two years later, on the western part of the island, Robinson discovered that savages regularly sailed here and held cruel feasts, eating people. Fearing that he might be discovered, Crusoe tried not to shoot, began to light the fire with caution, and acquired charcoal, which produces almost no smoke when burning.
While searching for coal, Robinson found a vast grotto, which he made his new storeroom. “It was already the twenty-third year of my stay on the island.”
Chapter 19
One day in December, leaving the house at dawn, Robinson noticed the flames of a fire on the shore - the savages had staged a bloody feast. Watching the cannibals from a telescope, he saw that with the tide they sailed from the island.
Fifteen months later, a ship sailed near the island. Robinson burned a fire all night, but in the morning he discovered that the ship had been wrecked.
Chapter 20
Robinson took a boat to the wrecked ship, where he found a dog, gunpowder and some necessary things.
Crusoe lived for two more years “in complete contentment, without knowing hardship.” “But all these two years I was only thinking about how I could leave my island.” Robinson decided to save one of those whom the cannibals brought to the island as a sacrifice, so that the two of them could escape to freedom. However, the savages appeared again only a year and a half later.
Chapter 21
Six Indian pirogues landed on the island. The savages brought with them two prisoners. While they were busy with the first one, the second one started to run away. Three people were chasing the fugitive, Robinson shot two with a gun, and the third was killed by the fugitive himself with a saber. Crusoe beckoned the frightened fugitive to him.
Robinson took the savage to the grotto and fed him. “He was a handsome young man, tall, well-built, his arms and legs were muscular, strong and at the same time extremely graceful; he looked about twenty-six years old." The savage showed Robinson with all possible signs that from that day on he would serve him all his life.
Crusoe began to gradually teach him the necessary words. First of all, he said that he would call him Friday (in memory of the day on which he saved his life), taught him the words “yes” and “no”. The savage offered to eat his killed enemies, but Crusoe showed that he was terribly angry at this desire.
Friday became a real comrade for Robinson - “never has a single person had such a loving, such a faithful and devoted friend.”
Chapter 22
Robinson took Friday with him hunting as an assistant, teaching the savage to eat animal meat. Friday began helping Crusoe with the housework. When the savage learned the basics of English, he told Robinson about his tribe. The Indians, from whom he managed to escape, defeated Friday's native tribe.
Crusoe asked his friend about the surrounding lands and their inhabitants - the peoples who live on the neighboring islands. As it turns out, the neighboring land is the island of Trinidad, where wild Carib tribes live. The savage explained that the “white people” could be reached by a large boat, this gave Crusoe hope.
Chapter 23
Robinson taught Friday to shoot a gun. When the savage mastered English well, Crusoe shared his story with him.
Friday said that once a ship with “white people” crashed near their island. They were rescued by the natives and remained to live on the island, becoming “brothers” for the savages.
Crusoe begins to suspect Friday of wanting to escape from the island, but the native proves his loyalty to Robinson. The savage himself offers to help Crusoe return home. The men took a month to make a pirogue from a tree trunk. Crusoe placed a mast with a sail in the boat.
“The twenty-seventh year of my imprisonment in this prison has come.”
Chapter 24
After waiting out the rainy season, Robinson and Friday began to prepare for the upcoming voyage. One day, savages with more captives landed on the shore. Robinson and Friday dealt with the cannibals. The rescued prisoners turned out to be the Spaniard and Friday's father.
The men built a canvas tent especially for the weakened European and the savage’s father.
Chapter 25
The Spaniard said that the savages sheltered seventeen Spaniards, whose ship was wrecked on a neighboring island, but those rescued were in dire need. Robinson agrees with the Spaniard that his comrades will help him build a ship.
The men prepared all the necessary supplies for the "white people", and the Spaniard and Friday's father went after the Europeans. While Crusoe and Friday were waiting for guests, an English ship approached the island. The British on the boat moored to the shore, Crusoe counted eleven people, three of whom were prisoners.
Chapter 26
The robbers' boat ran aground with the tide, so the sailors went for a walk around the island. At this time Robinson was preparing his guns. At night, when the sailors fell asleep, Crusoe approached their captives. One of them, the captain of the ship, said that his crew rebelled and went over to the side of the “gang of scoundrels.” He and his two comrades barely convinced the robbers not to kill them, but to land them on a deserted shore. Crusoe and Friday helped kill the instigators of the riot, and tied up the rest of the sailors.
Chapter 27
To capture the ship, the men broke through the bottom of the longboat and prepared for the next boat to meet the robbers. The pirates, seeing the hole in the ship and the fact that their comrades were missing, got scared and were going to return to the ship. Then Robinson came up with a trick - Friday and the captain's assistant lured eight pirates deep into the island. The two robbers, who remained waiting for their comrades, unconditionally surrendered. At night, the captain kills the boatswain who understands the rebellion. Five robbers surrender.
Chapter 28
Robinson orders to put the rebels in a dungeon and take the ship with the help of the sailors who sided with the captain. At night, the crew swam to the ship, and the sailors defeated the robbers on board. In the morning, the captain sincerely thanked Robinson for helping to return the ship.
By order of Crusoe, the rebels were untied and sent deep into the island. Robinson promised that they would be left with everything they needed to live on the island.
“As I later established from the ship’s log, my departure took place on December 19, 1686. Thus, I lived on the island for twenty-eight years, two months and nineteen days.”
Robinson soon returned to his homeland. By that time, his parents had died, and his sisters with their children and other relatives met him at home. Everyone listened with great enthusiasm to Robinson's incredible story, which he told from morning until evening.
Conclusion
D. Defoe's novel “The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” had a huge impact on world literature, laying the foundation for an entire literary genre - “Robinsonade” (adventure works describing the life of people in uninhabited lands). The novel became a real discovery in the culture of the Enlightenment. Defoe's book has been translated into many languages and filmed more than twenty times. The proposed brief retelling of “Robinson Crusoe” chapter by chapter will be useful for schoolchildren, as well as anyone who wants to familiarize themselves with the plot of the famous work.
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It’s a paradox, but “Robinson Crusoe,” which most Soviet people knew thanks to the children’s retelling by Korney Chukovsky, is a completely different book than the one Defoe wrote. And for this book to become completely different, one thing was enough - to remove God from it.
In the retelling, which appeared in 1935, the book not only loses its Christian content, does not just turn into another superficial adventure novel, but also acquires a very clear ideological message: a person can achieve everything on his own, thanks to his mind, with the help of science and technology he can cope with any hopeless situation, and he doesn’t need any God for this.
Although it will become obvious to anyone who reads Defoe’s original text: without constant prayer, without mental communication with God (even such a short one, in a Protestant format, without worship, without church sacraments), Robinson would quickly go crazy. But with God, man is not alone even in the most extreme circumstances. Moreover, this is not just the author’s idea - it is confirmed by real life. After all
Robinson's prototype, Alexander Selkirk, who spent four years on a desert island, actually turned to faith, really prayed, and this prayer helped him maintain his sanity.
From the prototype, Defoe took not only the external situation, but also a means to overcome the horror of loneliness - turning to God.
At the same time, both Defoe and his hero have an ambiguous view of the teachings of Christ, to put it mildly. They professed Calvinism in one of its variations. That is, they believed in a kind of predestination: if you are a person initially blessed from above, then you are lucky, everything works out for you, but unsuccessful people (and even nations!) should strongly doubt their ability to be saved at all. For us, Orthodox Christians, such views are very far from the essence of the Good News.
Of course, we can talk about such theological and moral problems of Robinson Crusoe when we know how and what Defoe actually wrote his novel about. But in our country, as already mentioned, it was not always easy or even possible to find out.
To fill in the most noticeable gaps in our understanding of Robinson Crusoe, Thomas asked us to talk in detail about the novel and its authorViktor Simakov, candidate filological sciences, teacher of Russian language and literature at school No. 1315 (Moscow).
Twice a lie - or effective PR
Daniel Defoe seems, at first glance, to be the author of one great book - Robinson Crusoe. Taking a closer look, we will understand that this is not entirely true: in about five years (1719–1724), he published about a dozen fiction books one after another, important in their own way: for example, “Roxana” (1724) became for many years a model of criminal novel, and “Diary of the Plague Year” (1722) influenced the work of García Márquez. And yet “Robinson Crusoe”, like “The Odyssey”, “The Divine Comedy”, “Don Quixote”, is a completely different level of fame and the basis for long cultural reflection. Robinson became a myth, a titan, an eternal image in art.
On April 25, 1719, a book with a verbose title appeared in London bookstores - “The Life, Extraordinary and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a sailor from York, who lived for 28 years all alone on an uninhabited island off the coast of America near the mouth of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown by a shipwreck , during which the entire crew of the ship, except himself, perished, with an account of his unexpected release by the pirates; written by himself." The original English title has 65 words. This title is also a sensible annotation for the book: what reader wouldn’t buy it if on the cover there is America and pirates, adventures and a shipwreck, a river with a mysterious name and an uninhabited island. And also a small lie: in the twenty-fourth year, “complete loneliness” ended, Friday appeared.
The second lie is more serious: Robinson Crusoe did not write the book himself, he is a figment of the imagination of the author, who deliberately did not mention himself on the cover of the book. For the sake of good sales, he passed off fiction (artistic fiction) as non-fiction (that is, documentary), stylizing the novel as a memoir. The calculation worked, the circulation was sold out instantly, although the book cost five shillings - the same as a gentleman's formal suit.
Robinson in Russian snows
Already in August of the same year, along with the fourth printing of the novel, Defoe released a sequel - “The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe...” (then again there are a lot of words), also without mentioning the author and also in the form of memoirs. This book told the story of the aging Robinson's round-the-world trip across the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, China and snow-covered Russia, a new visit to the island and the death of Friday in Madagascar. And some time later, in 1720, a real non-fiction about Robinson Crusoe was published - a book of essays on various topics, containing, among other things, a description of Robinson’s vision of the angelic world. In the wake of the popularity of the first book, these two also sold well. In the field of book marketing, Defoe had no equal at that time.
Engraving. Jean Granville
One can only be amazed at the ease with which the writer imitates the easy artlessness of a diary style, despite the fact that he writes at a frantic pace. In 1719, three of his new books were published, including two volumes about Robinson, and in 1720 - four. Some of them are truly documentary prose, the other part are pseudo-memoirs, which are now usually called novels.
Is this a novel?
It is impossible to talk about the genre of the novel in the sense in which we now mean this word at the beginning of the 18th century. During this period in England, there was a process of merging different genre formations (“true story”, “travel”, “book”, “biography”, “description”, “narration”, “romance” and others) into a single concept of the novel genre and gradually an idea of its independent value is formed. However, the word novel is rarely used in the 18th century, and its meaning is still narrow - it’s just a short love story.
Engraving. Jean Granville
Defoe did not position any of his novels as novels, but over and over again used the same marketing ploy - he released fake memoirs without indicating the name of the real author, believing that non-fiction is much more interesting than fiction. The Frenchman Gacien de Courtille de Sandra (“Memoirs of Messire d’Artagnan”, 1700) became famous a little earlier for such pseudo-memoirs - also with long titles. Shortly after Defoe, Jonathan Swift took advantage of the same opportunity in “Gulliver’s Travels” (1726–1727), stylized as a diary: although the book described events much more fantastic than Defoe’s, even here there were readers who took the narrator at his word.
Defoe's fake memoirs played a key role in the development of the novel genre. In “Robinson Crusoe,” Defoe proposed a plot that was not just filled with adventure, but kept the reader in suspense (soon in the same England the term “suspense” would be proposed). In addition, the narrative was quite integral - with a clear plot, consistent development of action and a convincing denouement. At that time this was rather rare. For example, the second book about Robinson, alas, could not boast of such integrity.
Where did Robinson come from?
The plot of “Robinson Crusoe” fell on prepared ground. During Defoe's lifetime, the story of the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was widely known, who, after a quarrel with his captain, spent just over four years on the island of Mas a Tierra in the Pacific Ocean, 640 km from the coast of Chile (now this island is called Robinson Crusoe). Returning to England, he repeatedly spoke in pubs about his adventures and eventually became the hero of a sensational essay by Richard Steele (who, in particular, noted that Selkirk was a good storyteller). Taking a closer look at the history of Selkirk, Defoe, however, replaced the island in the Pacific Ocean with an island in the Caribbean Sea, since there was much more information about this region in the sources available to him.
Engraving. Jean Granville
The second probable source of the plot is “The Tale of Haya, son of Yakzan...” by the 12th century Arab author Ibn Tufail. This is a philosophical novel (again, as far as this term can be applied to a medieval Arabic book) about a hero who has lived on an island since infancy. Either he was sent by his sinning mother across the sea in a chest and thrown onto the island (an obvious allusion to stories from the Old Testament and the Koran), or he “spontaneously generated” from clay already there (both versions are given in the book). Then the hero was fed by a gazelle, learned everything on his own, subjugated the world around him and learned to think abstractly. The book was translated into Latin in 1671 (as “The Self-Taught Philosopher”), and in 1708 into English (as “Improvement of the Human Mind”). This novel influenced European philosophy (for example, J. Locke) and literature (the type of narrative that the Germans in the 19th century would call the “novel of education”).
Defoe also saw a lot of interesting things in him. The plot of understanding the surrounding world and conquering nature went well with the new Enlightenment idea of a person rationally organizing his life. True, the hero of Ibn Tufail acts without knowing anything about civilization; Robinson, on the contrary, being a civilized person, reproduces the signs of civilization in his own country. From the half-sunken ship, he takes three Bibles, navigational instruments, weapons, gunpowder, clothes, a dog and even money (though they were useful only at the end of the novel). He did not forget the language, prayed daily and consistently observed religious holidays, built a fortress house, a fence, made furniture, a tobacco pipe, began to sew clothes, keep a diary, started a calendar, began to use the usual measures of weight, length, volume, and established a daily routine : “In the foreground were religious duties and the reading of the Holy Scriptures... The second of the daily tasks was hunting... The third was the sorting, drying and cooking of killed or caught game.”
Here, perhaps, you can see Defoe’s main ideological message (it exists, despite the fact that the book about Robinson was clearly written and published as a commercial, sensational one): a modern man of the third estate, relying on his reason and experience, is able to independently arrange his life in complete harmony with the achievements of civilization. This author’s idea fits well with the ideology of the Age of Enlightenment with its acceptance of Cartesian epistemology (“I think, therefore I am”), Lockean empiricism (a person receives all the material of reasoning and knowledge from experience) and a new idea of the active personality, rooted in Protestant ethics. The latter is worth looking into in more detail.
Tables of Protestant Ethics
Robinson's life consists of rules and traditions defined by his native culture. Robinson's father, an honest representative of the middle class, extols the "middle state" (that is, the Aristotelian golden mean), which in this case consists of a reasonable acceptance of life's lot: Crusoe's family is relatively wealthy and there is no point in abandoning the "position occupied by birth in the world." Having cited his father’s apology for the average state, Robinson continues: “And although (this is how the father ended his speech) he will never stop praying for me, he declares to me directly that if I do not give up my crazy idea, I will not have God’s blessing.” . Judging by the plot of the novel, it took Robinson many years and trials to understand the essence of his father’s warning.
Engraving. Jean Granville
On the island, he retraced the path of human development - from gathering to colonialism. Leaving the island at the end of the novel, he positions himself as its owner (and in the second book, returning to the island, he behaves like the local viceroy).
The notorious “middle state” and burgher morality in this case are completely combined with the bad idea of the 18th century about the inequality of races and the admissibility of the slave trade and slavery. At the beginning of the novel, Robinson found it possible to sell the boy Xuri, with whom he escaped from Turkish captivity; Afterwards, if not for the shipwreck, he planned to engage in the slave trade. The first three words Robinson taught Friday were “yes,” “no,” and “master.”
Whether Defoe wanted it consciously or not, his hero turned out to be an excellent portrait of a man of the third estate in the 18th century, with his support for colonialism and slavery, a rational business approach to life, and religious restrictions. Most likely, Robinson is what Defoe himself was. Robinson doesn't even try to find out Friday's real name; The author is also not very interested in it.
Robinson is a Protestant. In the text of the novel, his exact religious affiliation is not indicated, but since Defoe himself (like his father) was a Presbyterian, it is logical to assume that his hero, Robinson, also belongs to the Presbyterian church. Presbyterianism is one of the directions of Protestantism, based on the teachings of John Calvin; in fact, it is a type of Calvinism. Robinson inherited this belief from his German father, an emigrant from Bremen who once bore the name Kreuzner.
Protestants insist that there is no need for priests as intermediaries to communicate with God. So the Protestant Robinson believed that he communicated with God directly. By communication with God, as a Presbyterian, he meant only prayer; he did not believe in the sacraments.
Without mental communication with God, Robinson would quickly go crazy. He prays and reads the Holy Scriptures every day. With God he does not feel alone even in the most extreme circumstances.
This, by the way, correlates well with the story of Alexander Selkirk, who, in order not to go crazy from loneliness on the island, read the Bible aloud every day and sang psalms loudly.
One of the restrictions that Robinson religiously observes looks curious (Defoe does not specifically dwell on this point, but it is clearly visible from the text) - this is the habit of always walking dressed on a desert tropical island. Apparently, the hero cannot bare himself before God, constantly feeling his presence nearby. In one scene - where Robinson swims to a half-sunken ship near the island - he entered the water “undressed”, and then, while on the ship, was able to use his pockets, which means he still did not completely undress.
Protestants - Calvinists, Presbyterians - were confident that it was possible to determine which people are loved by God and which are not. This can be seen from the signs that you need to be able to observe. One of the most important is luck in business, which greatly increases the value of work and its material results. Once on the island, Robinson tries to understand his situation with the help of a table in which he carefully writes down all the pros and cons. Their number is equal, but this gives Robinson hope. Further, Robinson works hard and through the results of his work he feels the mercy of the Lord.
Equally important are the numerous warning signs that do not stop young Robinson. The first ship on which he set off sank (“Conscience, which at that time had not yet completely hardened in me,” says Robinson, “severely reproached me for neglecting my parents’ admonitions and for violating my duties to God and my father,” - this means neglect of the given lot in life and father’s admonitions). Another ship was captured by Turkish pirates. Robinson set off on the most ill-fated of his journeys exactly eight years later, to the day after escaping from his father, who warned him against unwise steps. Already on the island, he sees a dream: a terrible man, engulfed in flames, descends from the sky towards him and wants to hit him with a spear for his wickedness.
Defoe persistently conveys the idea that one should not commit daring acts and radically change one’s life without special signs from above, that is, in essence, he constantly condemns pride (despite the fact that he most likely does not consider Robinson’s colonialist habits to be pride).
Gradually, Robinson becomes more and more inclined towards religious thoughts. At the same time, he clearly separates the spheres of the miraculous and the everyday. Seeing ears of barley and rice on the island, he gives thanks to God; then he remembers that he himself shook out a bag of bird food at this place: “The miracle disappeared, and along with the discovery that all this was the most natural thing, I must admit, my gratitude to Providence cooled significantly.”
When Friday appears on the island, the main character tries to instill in him his own religious ideas. He is perplexed by the natural question about the origin and essence of evil, the most difficult for most believers: why does God tolerate the devil? Robinson does not give a direct answer; after thinking for a while, he suddenly likens the devil to a man: “You better ask why God didn’t kill you or me when we did bad things that offended Him; we were spared so that we would repent and receive forgiveness.”
The main character himself was dissatisfied with his answer - nothing else came to his mind. In general, Robinson eventually comes to the conclusion that he is not very successful in interpreting complex theological issues.
In the last years of his life on the island, something else brought him sincere joy: joint prayer with Friday, a joint feeling of the presence of God on the island.
Robinson's legacy
Although Defoe saved the main philosophical and ethical content for the last, third book about Robinson, time turned out to be wiser than the author: Defoe’s most profound, integral and influential book was recognized as the first volume of this trilogy (characteristically, the latter was not even translated into Russian).
Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the didactic novel “Emile, or On Education” (1762) called “Robinson Crusoe” the only book useful for children's reading. The plot situation of a desert island, described by Defoe, is considered by Rousseau as an educational game, which the child should become familiar with through reading.
Engraving. Jean Granville
In the 19th century, several variations on the Robinson theme were created, including Robert Ballantyne's Coral Island (1857), Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island (1874), and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (1882). In the second half of the 20th century, “Robinsonade” was rethought in the light of current philosophical and psychological theories - “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding (1954), “Friday, or Pacific Limb” (1967) and “Friday, or the Wild Life” (1971) by Michel Tournier , Mister Fo (1984) by John Maxwell Coetzee. Luis Buñuel set surreal and psychoanalytic accents in the film Robinson Crusoe (1954).
Now, in the 21st century, in the light of new reflections on the coexistence of a number of different cultures, Defoe's novel is still relevant. The relationship between Robinson and Friday is an example of the interaction of races as it was understood three centuries ago. Using a specific example, the novel makes you think: what has changed over the years and in what ways the authors’ views are certainly outdated? In terms of worldview, Defoe's novel perfectly illustrates the ideology of the Enlightenment in its British version. However, now we are much more interested in the question of the essence of man in general. Let us recall the aforementioned novel by Golding “Lord of the Flies”, in which the abodes of the island do not develop, like Defoe’s, but, on the contrary, degrade and show base instincts. What is he, a person, really like, what is more in him - creative or destructive? In essence, here one can see a cultural reflection on the Christian concept of original sin.
As for the author’s religious ideas, the average reader’s idea of a golden mean will probably not cause objections, which cannot be said about the condemnation of daring actions in general. In this regard, the author's philosophy can be considered bourgeois and bourgeois. Such ideas would be condemned, for example, by representatives of romantic literature at the beginning of the 19th century.
Despite this, Defoe's novel continues to live. This is explained by the fact that “Robinson Crusoe” is, first of all, a sensational text, not a didactic one; it captivates with images, plot, exoticism, and does not teach. The meanings contained in it are present, rather, latently, and therefore it raises questions rather than giving complete answers. This is the key to the long life of a literary work. Reading it again and again, each generation thinks about the questions that arise and answers them in its own way.
The first translation of Robinson Crusoe into Russian was published in 1762. It was translated by Yakov Trusov under the title “The Life and Adventures of Robinson Cruz, a Natural Englishman.” The classic, most often reprinted complete translation of the text into Russian was published in 1928 by Maria Shishmareva (1852–1939), and since 1955 it has been reprinted many times.
Leo Tolstoy in 1862 made his retelling of the first volume of Robinson Crusoe for his pedagogical magazine Yasnaya Polyana.
There are 25 film adaptations of Robinson Crusoe (including animation). The first was made in 1902, the last - in 2016. The role of Robinson was played by such actors as Douglas Farnbex, Pavel Kadochnikov, Peter O'Toole, Leonid Kuravlev, Pierce Brosnan, Pierre Richard.
