Robinson Crusoe **Robinson Crusoe*

Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Defoe





Robinson Crusoe




full title · The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures
of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty
Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America,
near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast
on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With
An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates



author · Daniel Defoe


type of work · Novel


genre · Adventure story; novel of isolation


language · English


time and place written · 1719; London, England


date of first publication · 1719



publisher · William Taylor


narrator · Robinson Crusoe is both the narrator and main character
of
the tale.


point of view · Crusoe narrates in both the first and third person,
presenting what he observes. Crusoe occasionally describes his feelings,
but only when they are overwhelming. Usually he favors a more factual
narrative style focused on actions and events.


tone · Crusoe's tone is mostly detached, meticulous, and objective.
He displays little rhetorical grandeur and few poetic or colorful turns
of phrase. He generally avoids dramatic storytelling, preferring
an inventorylike approach to the facts as they unfold. He very rarely
registers his own feelings, or those of other characters, and only
does so when those feelings affect a situation directly, such as
when he describes the mutineers as tired and confused, indicating
that their fatigue allows them to be defeated.


tense · Past


setting (time) · From 1659 to 1694



setting (place) · York, England; then London; then Sallee, North Africa;
then Brazil; then a deserted island off Trinidad; then England;
then Lisbon; then overland from Spain toward England; then England;
and finally the island again


protagonist · Robinson Crusoe


major conflict · Shipwrecked alone, Crusoe struggles against hardship, privation,
loneliness, and cannibals in his attempt to survive on a deserted
island.


rising action · Crusoe disobeys his father and goes out to sea. Crusoe
has a profitable first merchant voyage, has fantasies of success
in Brazil, and prepares for a slave-gathering expedition.


climax · Crusoe becomes shipwrecked on an island near Trinidad,
forcing him to fend for himself and his basic needs.


falling action · Crusoe constructs a shelter, secures a food supply,
and accepts his stay on the island as the work of Providence.


themes · The ambivalence of mastery; the necessity of repentance;
the importance of self-awareness


motifs · Counting and measuring; eating; ordeals at sea


symbols · The footprint; the cross; Crusoe's bower


foreshadowing · Crusoe suffers a storm at sea near Yarmouth, foreshadowing
his shipwreck years later. Crusoe dreams of cannibals arriving,
and later they come to kill Friday. Crusoe invents the idea of a governor
of the island to intimidate the mutineers, foreshadowing the actual
governor's later arrival.