Robinson Crusoe

Myth and Archetype

Impact

Published in 1719 it was an instant, popular and financial success

Since then it has made a profound impression on readers as well as on whole cultures

It created not only a new literary form, the novel, but also a new reading public

It has always had an almost universal appeal thanks to a series of factors

Robinson's Appeal

He provides any reader the thrill of adventure

For English readers he is the typical Englishman: manly, self-reliant, courageous, heroic, and resourceful

He's the archetypal "personage of the last two hundred and fifty years of European consciousness" (John Richetti)

He is "the universal representative, the person for whom every reader could substitute himself” (Coleridge)

The details of his everyday life fascinate us as we watch him recreate civilization alone

He is the dramatization of "the inescapable solitariness of each man in his relation to God and the universe” (W. Allen)

He is a mythic or an archetypal figure, that is a character who speaks to something deep in the human psyche and essential to the human condition

Myth and Archetype

Robinson speaks to something deep in the human psyche and essential to the human condition

This is the reason why he can be assimilated into diverse cultures the meanings assigned him change to reflect changes in a

society can be given conflicting meanings reaches into the private souls of individuals

It is these qualities that make Crusoe a mythic or an archetypal figure

Myths and mythologies try to rationalize and explain the universe and all that is in it

An archetype is the original or prototype who sets the pattern for similar

beings a pattern of thought or an image passed down from onegeneration to the other

Many books in one

Adventure story Moral tale and/or Puritan fable(spiritual

autobiography) Commercial accounting (economic treatise) Fictional autobiography Bildungsroman

Robinson the worker

Spiritual autobiography

The spiritual autobiography usually follows a common pattern:

the narrator sins ignores God's warnings hardens his heart to God repents as a result of God's grace and mercy experiences a soul-wrenching conversion achieves salvation

The writer emphasizes the character's former sinfulness as a way of glorifying God; the deeper his sinfulness, the greater God's grace and mercy in saving him

The character reviews his life from his new perspective and writes of the present and the future with a deep sense of God's presence in his life and in the world

Puritanism

Puritanism started in 16th century as a movement to reform the Church of England

It accepted the interpretations of John Calvin on

the nature of man free will predestination other basic concepts

After the restoration of Charles II as king in 1660 it split into three major denominations

Presbyterian Congregational Baptist

The Puritans saw God as the awesome divinity of Old Testament His maintaining and directing everything in the universe was God's Providence

A few Puritan concepts

The concept of God's Providence is related to free will, predestination, and grace

God predetermines who is to be damned and elects who is to be saved

God is actively and directly involved in the affairs of nations and individuals.

The Puritans saw grace as a gift from a God; human beings were unworthy to receive salvation because of their depraved natures

Natural depravity refers to human nature; that is, every human being is by nature corrupt and perverted as a result of Adam and Eve's fall

Only God can determine who should be saved In their fallen state

Vocation is God's call to social, economic, civil, and religious roles or behaviour Individuals must use their talents, which come from God

Robinson the repentant

Original sin

Crusoe receives warnings against going to sea from his father and the captain of the first ship he sails on. In ignoring their warnings, he denies God's providential social order in the world

Providence might send him punishments and deliverances to awaken a sense of his sinfulness and to turn him to God

The duplication of dates for significant events is evidence of Providence at work. Lots of date coincide in the novel

Robinson uses religious language, imagery, and Biblical references

He converts Friday to Christianity

He looks at his past through the eyes of the convert who constantly sees the working of Providence

His conversation with his father about leaving home can be interpreted from a religious perspective

Robinson as economic man

His relationships with others are based primarily on their use for him; they are commodities who exist for his economic advantage

It is on the island that Crusoe discovers an economic system of value based on an item's use

No social pressures or laws limit Robinson's freedom to act in his own interests, so he functions with total laissez faire

On the island, he is the prototypical self-made man even if he relies on goods he retrieves from the ship

As economic man he has been specifically identified with capitalism, particularly by Marxist critics. His solitary state on the island, his limited relationships with others, including his own family, and the insignificance of sex/women reflect the nature of capitalism, which emphasizes individual self-interest

Robinson the capitalist

Other economic elements

Other basic capitalistic elements in the novel are

importance of contractual relationships, economic motive, drive to accumulate venturing in search of economic opportunity utilitarianism weak connection to community and country

Pragmatic and individualistic outlook and rational method

observion listing solutions pros and cons choosing the best

Robinson king of his island

Marx on Robinson

Karl Marx in Das Kapital uses Robinson Crusoe as a favourable example of the pre-capitalist man producing goods because they are useful and only as much as is useful to him and not seeking a profit

“Moderate though he be, yet some few wants he has to satisfy, and must therefore do a little

useful work of various sorts, such as making tools and furniture, taming goats, fishing and hunting. Of his prayers and the like we take no account, since they are a source of pleasure to him, and he looks upon them as so much recreation. In spite of the variety of his work, he knows that his labour, whatever its form, is but the activity of one and the same Robinson, and consequently, that it consists of nothing but different modes of human labour Necessity itself compels him to apportion his time accurately between his different kinds of work. Whether one kind occupies a greater space in his general activity than another, depends on the difficulties, greater or less as the case may be, to be overcome in attaining the useful effect aimed at. This our friend Robinson soon learns by experience, and having rescued a watch, ledger, and pen and ink from the wreck, commences, like a true-born Briton, to keep a set of books. His stock-book contains a list of the objects of utility that belong to him, of the operations necessary for their production; and lastly, of the labour time that definite quantities of those objects have, on an average, cost him”.

Economic original sin

He represents a modern social and economic ideal

his desire to venture forth and his aspirations to make more are the hallmarks of capitalism

Robinson's "original sin" of restlessness and disobedience can be seen as an economic motive

"His ‘original sin' is really the dynamic tendency of capitalism itself, whose aim is never merely to maintain the status quo, but to transform it incessantly" Ian Watt

Robinson the colonizer

Colonial vision

Capitalism and colonialism are closely related

To keep expanding, capitalism requires a cheap source of raw materials and markets for finished products, thus colonies

So colonialism is one form of imperialism

Robinson acts as a colonizer when he takes complete dominion over the island and the people. The land and all its products belong to him.

His actions duplicate those of nations

As an imperialist he sees himself as king and others as his subjects: he creates a kingdom

He imposes his will on others: Friday, the English mutineers

For James Joyce Robinson Crusoe is "prophetic forecasting English imperialism”

Robinson the imperialist

Fictional autobiography Retrospective, 1st person narration

Objective approach through details and memories

Stress on authenticity also with the use of a journal

Modern realism: truth should be discovered at the individual level by verification of the senses through lists, time scale, repetition

Description of primary qualities such as solidity, estension, number

Simple, concrete language

The book is made up of a series of episodes and adventures pf a single hero

The narrator is also the main character so they share the same point of view

Characters and actions are seen from inside

Complete control of time at all levels

Bildungsroman

Individual versus society

Relationship between private and public spheres

Robinson engages in the double task of self-integration and integration into society

He gives voice to the conflict between the priorities of self-integration and that of social integration

He embodies the tension between his desire and its fulfillment (thirst for adventure) and social obligation and its fulfillment (his father recommendation of accepting the middle state of life)

References

The presentation is loosely base on course material about 18th century English novel in http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_18c/index.html