The novel in 18th century THE FIRST NOVEL

THE NOVEL THE REALISTIC NOVEL ROBISON CRUSOE DANIEL DEFOE UTOPIAN FICTION GULLIVER’S TRAVELS JONATHAN SWIFT THE EPISTOLARY NOVEL PAMELA SAMUEL RICHARDSON THE SENTIMENTAL NOVEL TRISTRAM SHANDY LAURENCE STERN

THE REALISTIC NOVEL ROBINSON CRUSOE Point out : Features Setting Characters Themes

Truth and fiction Robinson Crusoe is considered the first modern novel. For the first time, we have a fictitious narrative which the author tries to pass of as true, and where realistic elements are of the greatest importance. The story is told by a first-person narrator, and is thus a fake autobiography. To enchance its realism Defoe supplies many facts about Robinson Crusoe: his name and surname, what part of England he comes from, who his parents and relatives are, and so on.It is given, in short, a life-profile.

ROBINSON AND FRIDAY

JUST FOR FUN

Friday portrait A comely handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight strong limbs.. tall and well shaped.. about 26 y.o… very good countenance.. Something very manly in his face.. all the sweetness and softness of an European in his countenance; his hair was long and black; forehead very high and large, and a great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes,..skin.. Of a bright kind of olive colour.. Very agreeable;..his face was round and plump;.. His nose small.. A very good mouth, thin lips, fine teeth well set, and as white as ivory

Robinson describes Friday in details expressed in negative form.. … his limbs are not too large.. Not a fierce and surly aspect.. Hair.. Not curled like wool.. Skin.. Not quite black, but very tawny, and yet not of an ugly yellow nauseous tawny.. Nose.. Not flat like the negroes.. What for?? To enhance Friday’s physical beauty

That Robinson stressed Friday’s good-looking aspect, he praises him for not looking too much like a typical savage. What makes him handsome are his European features.

Robinson’ portrait Robinson Crusoe is in many ways the celebtration of the English mercantile spirit. Today Robinson appears to us as the representative of the Englishman who in those years was beginning to colonize the world, turning deserted spots into civilized places and lucrative trading posts.

Robinson is a character perfectly identified with the society in which he lives though he is forced by adversary fate, to suffer the wild silence of a desert island. He suffers the magic of the lost place that gives him the desire to meet a human, independently from his color of skin or from his social condition.

Robinson portrait Robinson is the archetype pioneer: he is armed only with his own strength and intelligence, and has a Puritan’s firm convinction that he has God on his side. He has been rightly defined as the new “Homo economicus” representative of the early 18th-century Englishmen who were founding Britain’s commercial empire in countries as far away as Canada or India.

Their relationship Robinson, in shaping the wild environment to his will, fights the hostile nature and savages to preserve his life. He builds a shelter, makes his clothes and tools, domesticate goats and grows crops. He recreates the values and rules of the society he left behind when he finally meets Friday and teaches him English and Christian religion. In doing so he turnes Friday from a free man to a servant.

Although Robinson is interested in knowing about Friday’s own culture, he sees as his right to be lord and master of the island despite the fact that Friday was there before him.

His logic follows that of the British govenment who saw it as their wright to conquer and control most of Africa and later India. The savage Friday doe not really has a voice. He only learns to speak when Robinson teaches English. They have the master-slave relationship.

THE MYTH OF THE NATURAL MAN ROUSSEAU AND ROBINSON In the 18th century many philosophers and scientist put forward a view of the universe as a living organism (this view was also favoured by the discoveries of the new science, biology, which showed how living organisms were not fixed but subject to change and evolution). The philosophers of the Enlightenment saw nature as a dynamic entity and believed in the interaction between nature and man.

From this idea comes the myth of the “bon sauvage” that is of the good natural man, which will be central to both the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Its main exponent was the French-Swiss philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau. He considers society to have spoilt the freedom and virtue of primitive people who lived close to nature.

Conclusions Robinson Crusoe is a very interesting novel. I had never read a book that spoke of the difficult condition to survive in a desert island alone. It's a novel that lets reflect on the psychologic conditions of a human that feels the need to live with others and that is faced with the surrounding nature trying to adapt it to his needs. Robinson is a great man! He faces adversities and above all his solitude in a marvelous way, looking for the presence of God in the wonder of the nature, during his great moments and also in bad time, especially in the illness. It’s a beautiful way to love life in all its aspect.