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Robinson Crusoe's theme, motifs & symbols.
Name:
Raval Mital M.
Roll
no: 26
Year:
2016 – 2018
M.A
Semester: 1
Paper
no: (2) the Neo-classical Literature
Email
Id: ravalmital5292@gmail.com
Assignment
topic: Robinson Crusoe’s theme, motifs & symbol
Submitted
to: Parth Bhatt
Smt.S.B.Gardi
Department of English
M. K. Bhavnagar University.
Introduction:
The novel Robinson Crusoe is written by Daniel Defoe in
1719 in London. The major theme in the novel is that sin has its
retribution, but peace can be found through forgiveness and belief.
Crusoe is the prodigal son. He runs away to sea against the wishes of
his family. A series of disasters happen to him as a sailor, as
punishment for his rebellious nature. When Crusoe finally lands in
Brazil he becomes a prosperous planter. Still unsatisfied with his
wealth, he again provokes providence by becoming a slave trader. As
punishment his ship is wrecked in a storm and he alone escapes to an
uninhabited Island, where Crusoe undergoes a spiritual regeneration,
becoming a Christian and converting Friday to Christianity as well.
After twenty-eight year on the Island, he is finally able to escape.
The prodigal son returns to England and finds himself very rich due
to the ongoing success of his Brazilian plantation. Now, however, Crusoe is mature enough to handle his good fortune in life he settles
down, marries and becomes generous with both family and friend’s
.His changed soul no longer rebellious, finds peace.
Theme:
(1)The Ambivalence of
mastery:
Crusoe’s
success in mastering his situation, overcoming his obstacles and
controlling his environment shows the Ambivalence of mastery in a
positive light. Crusoe’s ship-wreck and he lands in an inhospitable
environment and he makes it his home. His taming and domestication of
wild goats and parrots with Crusoe as their master illustrates his
newfound control moreover. Crusoe’s mastery over nature makes him a
master of his fate and of himself. When he building a home for
himself on the island, he finds that he is master of his life. He
suffers a lot of and still finds prosperity.
But after Friday’s arrival this theme of mastery
becomes more complex and less positive. In chapter XXIII, Crusoe
teaches Friday the word “MASTER” even before teaching him “yes”
and “no” and indeed he lets him “know that was to be crusoe’s
name. Crusoe never entertains the idea of considering Friday a friend
or equal reason, superiority come instinctively to him we further
question crusoe’s right to be called “MASTER” when he later
refers to himself as “ king over the native and European . In short
while Crusoe seems praiseworthy in mastering his fate the
praiseworthiness of his mastery over his fellow ‘human is more
doubtful’.
(2)The
Necessity of Repentance:
Crusoe’s experiences
constitute not simply an adventure story in which thrilling thing
happen, but also a moral tale illustrating the right and wrong ways
to live one’s life. This moral and religious dimension of the tales
is indicated in the preface, which states that Crusoe’s story is
being published to instruct others in God’s wisdom, and one vital
part of this wisdom is the importance of repenting one’s sins.
Crusoe’s needs repentance most as he learns from the fiery angelic
figure that comes to him during a feverish hallucination and say,
“Seeing all
these things have no
Brought thee to repentance,
Now thou shall die.”
Crusoe believes that
his major sin is his rebellious behavior toward his father, which he
refers to as his “original sin”, akin to Adam and Eve’s fist
disobedience of God. This biblical reference also suggests that Crusoe exile from civilization represents Adam and Eve’s
expulsion from Eden.
Crusoe, repentance consists of acknowledging his
wretchedness and his absolute dependence on the lord. After
repentance he, complains much less about his sad fate and views the
island more positively. Later, when Crusoe is rescued and his fortune
restored he divine favor. Ironically, this view of the necessity of
repentance ends up justifying sin. Thus the complex and ambiguous.
(3)The
importance of self Awareness:
Crusoe’s arrival
on the island does not make him revent to a brute existence
controlled by animal instincts and unlike animals, he remains
conscious of himself at all times. His island existence actually
depend on his self awareness. The ideal that the individual must keep
a careful reckoning of the state of his own soul is a key point in
the Presbyterian the doctrine that Defoe took seriously all his life.
We see in that his normal day to day activities, Crusoe keeps
accounts of himself enthusiastically and in various way.
For
Example
It is significant that Crusoe mack shift
calender does not simply mark the
passing of the day, but instead
egocentrically marks the day, he has
spent on the Island.
Crusoe obsessively keeps a journal to record
his daily activities, even when than finding a few pieces of wood on
the beach or waiting inside while it rains impulse toward
self-awareness in the fact that he teaches his parrot to say the
words “poor Robin Crusoe…... Where have you been?” This short
of self-examining thought is natural for anyone alone on a desert
island, but it is given a strange intercity when we recall that
Crusoe has spent months teaching the bird to say it back to him.
(4)Relationship with
nature:
Crusoe’s relationship
with wilderness crops up several times throughout the novel. Crusoe
adapts to the natural habitat of the island, learning that he is a
part of the island, and must respect nature if he is going to coexist
with so many wild things around him. Crusoe also learn he cannot
control the habitat of the island but merely coexist with it which
leads him to a deeper understanding of humanity and faith.
(5)Overcoming
fear:
Crusoe overcomes fear several times throughout
the novel. When he fist comes to be alone on the island he is so
fearful of his surrounding that he sleep with a weapon in a tree and
panics at the slightest movement within the forest. He only recovers
when he remembers his wits and his faith. He also display’s great
amount of horror when he first encounters cannibals on the island.
Once he overcomes his fear of these cannibals he is rewarded with the
companionship of Friday.
Motifs:
(1)counting and
measuring.
Crusoe
is careful note-taker whenever number and quantities are involved. He
does not simply tell us that his hedge encloses a large space, but
inform us with a surveyor’s precision that the space is “150
yards in length and 100 yards in breadth”. He tells us, that he
spends a long time making his carvel in chapter XVI. But that it
tacks precisely twenty days to fell the tree and fourteen to remove
the branches. It is not just an immense tree, but is “five foot ten
inches in diameter at the lower part… and four foot eleven inches
diameter at end of twenty two foot”. Furthermore time is measured
with similar exactitude, as Crusoe’s journal shows. We may often
wonder why Crusoe feels it useful to record that it did not rain on
December 26, but for him the necessity of counting out each day is
never questions. All these example of counting and measuring
underscore Crusoe’s practical, businesslike character and his hands
on approach to life.
(2) Eating:
After
shipwreck Crusoe’s first concern is regarding to his food. In the
chapter V, he frets about not having “anything to eat or drink to
comfort me”. He very soon provides himself with food and indeed
each new edible item marks a new stage in his mastery of the island,
so that his food supply become a symbol of his survival. His securing
of goat meat starves of grain is viewed as a miracle. His cultivation
of raisins, almost luxury food for Crusoe, marks a new comfortable
period in his island existence. In a way, these images of eating
convey Crusoe’s ability to integrate the island into his life. The
cannibals transform Crusoe from the consumer into a potential object
to be consumed.
(3) Ordeal at sea:
When
the shipwreck we see Crusoe’s encounter with water. In the novel
Crusoe’s encounter with water are often associated with a kind of
symbolic ordeal, or test of character. When , the very first storm
com Crusoe’s friend frightens, but does not deter Crusoe. Then, in
his first trading voyage he proves himself a capable merchant and in
his second voyage, he is able to survive enslavement. His escape from
his Moorish master and his successful encounter with the African both
occur at sea. Most significantly, Crusoe survive from his shipwreck
after a lengthy immersion in water. But when cannibal arrive in
Canoes Sea remains a source of danger and fear. All the life-testing
water imagery in the novel has subtle association with the rite of
baptism.
Symbols:
(1)The Footprint:
The
most palpable symbol from Robinson Crusoe is the human footprint.
When Crusoe seeing the footprint, automatically beings to question
who the foot-print belongs to and the person’s motivation for being
on the island. Crusoe interprets the presence of the footprint that
of an evildoer who will not likely be his ally on the island. His
reaction to the foot-print makes it obvious that Crusoe has
conflicting feelings about companionship and returning to a society
of men.
(2) The Cross:
Crusoe
marks the passing of days “with his knife upon a large post in
capital letters and making it into a great cross…sets it up on the
shore where he first landed…” The larger size and capital letters
show us how important this cross is to Crusoe as a time keeping
device. The cross is also a symbol of his own new
existence on the island. Christian cross is a symbol of the
Christian’s new life in Christ after baptism. Yet Crusoe large
cross seems somewhat blasphemous in making no reference to Christ.
(3) The Island
“It is a bridge enabling Crusoe
To become a colonizer”
Another important symbol is the island that Crusoe has
been shipwrecked on it. Throughout the island transforms physically
as Crusoe develops as a person. The island is unkempt, untamed and
wild when Crusoe first arrives. As Crusoe grows spiritually the
island becomes more habitable for him. He tames the land and even
starts to tame the animals of the island. As he grows as a person he
explores the island to greater extent and it becomes a more rewarding
place.
On the island -
“Crusoe finds the power to overcome a
Hostile world of hunger and sickness
And human brutality
even the power to overcome his most
dangerous adversary, himself…”
(4) Journal:
Journal
symbolizes Crusoe’s new life on the island. He no longer has human
companionship and must use the record of how he spends his time on
the island as a way to stay connected to the civilized world where
letters and language and records are part of everyday life. The
journal also serves as a way for Crusoe to explore his spirituality
and learn more about himself with each passing day and records his
transformation.
(5) Crusoe’s Bower:
Crusoe
discovers a delightful valley in which he decides to build a country
retreat or “Bower” In Chapter XII. This bower contrasts sharply
with Crusoe’s first residence, since it is built not for the
practical purpose of shelter or storage, but simply for pleasure:
“because I was so enamored of the place”. Crusoe is no longer
focused solely on survival, which by this point in the novel is more
or less secure.
Conclusion:
“ Robinson Crusoe” the novel is
colonial novel and the title of this novel and entire novel based on
colonial aspects and with the help of it we know that how Crusoe
tries to established his mastership and what things shows that Crusoe
as a colonizer.
Reference:
www.hyperink.com>books>ouickletouickletondenieldefoe’srobinsoncrusoe>themeandsymbols.
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