DANIEL DEFOE
Daniel Defoe was born in 1660 in London. His father worked as a butcher and made and sold candles, and the young Daniel regretted the fact that he was not of the gentry class and could not attend a prestigious school, such as Oxford or Cambridge. The fact that his parents had left the Church of England to join the Presbyterian church compounded the boy's problems, especially in finding acceptance among the upper society. Early in his life, Defoe made preparations to become a Presbyterian minister, but after having studied religion for some time, he decided against the ministry, feeling that a parish life would be too restrictive. Later, he settled into the business world, setting up an import-export business and haberdashery in London. In 1684, he married Mary Tuffley. By the the early 1690s, Defoe's business had failed; his marriage was also failing. In search of a new career, he involved himself in politics and became a journalist and pamphleteer. In 1701 he published a political political verse satire against James II and in defense of the accession of William of Orange to the throne, entitled The True Born Englishman. In 1702, he published the pamphlet, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, attacking the Church of England. As a result of his controversial writings, Defoe was arrested, imprisoned for a period of time, tried, and sentenced to pay a fine and to stand three times in the pillory. After his release from prison, Defoe immersed himself in political journalism, often contributing to newspapers. For a period of time, he was a secret agent for the government and afterwards he wrote for different parties, switching his allegiance to whoever would pay him the most. At times he would even publish simultaneously and anonymously written articles expressing opposite points of view, one supporting the Whigs and the other the Tories. From 1704 to 1713, Defoe published The Review, a periodical that was the forerunner of the work of Richard Steele and Joseph Addison. At the age of fifty-nine, Defoe began writing fiction in 1719 and became the most prolific writer of his day. It is impossible to know exactly how many literary works he wrote, as many of them were published anonymously. His first "novel", Robinson Crusoe, was published in 1719 and became an instant success with the wide public. For the next few years, he published a succession of realistic adventure stories that were written with incredible speed. Well known titles include Mariner, Captain Singleton , and A Journal of the Plague Year. Moll Flanders (published in 1722) is considered to be his bestwritten book, and Roxana was his last. All of his "novels" presented realistic characters in a realistic manner; as a result, many critics see him as the forerunner to writers like Theodore Dreiser and Ernest Hemingway. Defoe was never accepted during his lifetime by the literary class, who sneered at his background and the common people who read his books. To improve improve his image,
Defoe tried his best to be a gentleman, even changing his name from Foe to Defoe. He also bought an expensive coach with a coat of arms emblazoned on it. In spite of his popularity with the ordinary people, he never became wealthy, as his financial dealings were a mess. In fact, he never really recovered from the failure of his business, which occurred more than forty years before his death. Defoe died at the age of seventy, in 1734. At that time, he was a poor man, hiding from his creditors . Defoe is mainly remembered for his so called "novels". The central idea of his books is that man is good and noble by nature, but may succumb to an evil social environment(Moll Flanders). The writer wants to make it clear that society is the source for various crimes and vices. Defoe’s intention was that the readers should regard his books as real stories. His books all take the form of memories or pretended historical narratives, everything in them gives the impression of reality. Defoe’s style is characterized by a plain, smooth, easy, direct and almost colloquial, but never coarse language. His works are much closer to the vernacular of the ordinary people than any of the previous writers. He often used long, rambling sentences without strong pauses to give his style an urgent, immediate, breathless quality, but the units of meaning are small and clear with frequent repetition so that the writing gives an impression of simple lucidity. In his books, as in his own life, actions or people in action are stressed; there is not much plot or portrayal of characters, except the exact journalistic account of the daily, trivial happenings.
Robinson Crusoe was one of the forerunners of the English 18 th century realistic novel and it was an immediate success. It is generally acknowledged as Defoe’s most deeply original as well as representative book. Supposedly based on the real adventure of Alexander Selkirk who once stayed alone on the uninhabited island Juan Fernandez for 5 years, it is in fact, a work of sheer imagination. The events depicted in the story date back to the middle of the 17 th century and originate in the family of an old, disabled English gentleman, Mr. Crusoe. He designs his son Robinson, for the law, but the young man has firmly set his mind on becoming a sailor. One day, Robinson, who is now nineteen years old, disregards his parents’ advice and sets out to sea. ……many years go by…. One day Robinson sees the imprint of a man’s naked foot on the sand. He learns that a certain part of the island is occasionally visited by cannibals who come there to celebrate their victories over their enemies and to devour their captives. Robinson witnesses one such celebration and manages to save one of the victims; this man, whom Crusoe names Friday to commemorate the day of his rescue, proves to be a clever young savage and becomes Robinson’s true and faithful companion.Robinson and Friday kill the savages and release the captives, one of whom happens to be Friday’s father, and the other is a Spaniard from a wrecked ship. The latter relates to Robinson that his comrades, seventeen in number, live on a neighbouring island. Robinson decides to offer them hospitality and dispatches Friday’s father and the Spaniard in a boat for the survivers. If we may consider it an adventure story, it is also a moral tale, a commercial account and a Puritan fable. It is one of the great myths of modern
civilization. It celebrates the material triumph of the eighteenth-century Western civilization and the strength of human rational will to conquer the natural environment. Robinson is cast as a typical eighteenth-century middle-class tradesman, with most of the qualities of the “complete English tradesman” without anyone to trade with. He is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. His success in building up a comfortable living environment and later on a private colony is shown, his courage and patience, his practical skills and his intelligent persistence. In another sense, Robinson is everyman, struggling with patience and persistent work to conquer or master nature. His adventures reflect different stages of civilization in our human world. Robinson Crusoe revealed Defoe̕ s ability to organize and present details in order to offer his readers a new view upon the relation between man and nature.Robinson is presented as remoulding the whole pattern of civilization that he had left behind.Ian Watt states in The Rise of the Novel ̛̕ ̛ It is significant that Crusoe did not take advantage of the loneliness that was thrust upon him to indulge in introspection or to think out man̕ s relation to the Universe.He had gone on his journey as a trader to make money and increase his material comfort and he tried to recreate as best as he could at least something of the material civilization he had left behind.̕̕ ˸
Pragmatism is one of the essential features that Robinson possesses and optimism is another key feature that Robinson proves to possess.He strongly believes that God always helps those who help themselves,showing that he is the typical representative of the English middle-class mentality,a typical representative of the enterprising spirit of the English middle-classes who strongly believed in the importance of labour as being a motivating factor for the human beings.Robinson is characterized by self-reliance and individualism .The concept of individualism involves a whole society governed by the individuals̕ independence both from other individuals and from allegiance to past ways of thought and action denoted by the word tradition.This problem depends on the economic organization which allows its members a very range of choices in their action.It is generally agreed that modern society is uniquely individualist and that the causes of this individualism were the rise of modern industry,the rise of capitalism and the spread of Protestantism.Robinson Crusoe may be considered an embodiment of economic individualism.All of Defoe̕ s characters pursue money and book keeping represents the most distinctive feature of modern capitalism.He embodies the idea of the social contract which played an important part in the political individualism of the age.Robinson is not considered an embodiment of individualism only for the primacy of the economic motifs and for his allegiance to book keeping.He has left his home,his family for the classic reason of homo economicus, that is to improve his condition.Crusoe̕ s 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.Leaving home and improving on one̕ s lot is a vital feature of the individualist pattern of life.His freedom from social
ties is also an individualist feature and foreshadows the experience of modern society and sets Crusoe apart from other travelers of his time.
Robinson treats all the other persons in terms of their commodity value.His relation to Friday is also egocentric –he doesn̕ t ask his name,he gives him one and his language is strictly utilitarian(yes/no). Robinson Crusoe is the first novel in English fiction in the sense that it is the first fictional narrative in which an ordinary person̕ s daily activity is the center of continuous literary attention.This illustrates the Puritan conception of the dignity of labour which helped to bring into being the general premise of the book, that the individual̕ s daily life is of sufficient importance and interest to be the proper subject of literature.Defoe's style is closely connected to journalism(realism,preoccupied very much with details),he is remembered for his formal realism,which is a mode of presenting things,events,in an ethically neutral manner ,which consists in holding the mirror up to nature,but also in conveying a moral pattern.The type of language he uses is colloquial,colourful and very expressive.
Robinson̕ s solitude is the measure and the price of his luck.His shipwreck, far from being a tragic experience is an extraordinary one which makes it possible for Defoe to present solitary labour not as an alternative to a death sentence,but as a solution to the perplexities of economic and social reality.Thus, Defoe achieves a very modern treatment of the problem of solitude.Defoe̕ s story is not a novel in the sense that it deals so little with personal relations,it works only in the direction of reality demonstrating a lack of imagination(different from inventing),also the lack of coherence and structure,there are only several episodes put together(thus the episodic nature of Defoe̕ s work),his characters do not evolve,they are static characters and thus the central implausibility of his characters. Moll Flanders is the autobiography of a prostitute.It is dominated by the most lively realistic details in the handling of which Defoe showed his knowledge of the English social and economic life.Moll uses her beauty to achieve personal security and her sex is a commodity which she is continuously trying to sell.Although she is penitent in the end and thus allowed to find peace after her numberless adventures, she has no moral sense at all,only a deep and constant sense of the value of money.Moll Flanders,with her shrewd awareness of the relation between cash and reputation, points forward to Becky Sharp(from William Thackeray's novel entitled Vanity Fair) whose behaviour and fortune show the gap between gentility and morality.Moll represents the active type of picaro,the one mastering her own destiny.She always has the initiative,she is careful about her possible profits and losses.However,she is the individualist created by a mercantile morality.Her only way out of her troubles is her survival as an individual,in accordance with the social training preaching egotism above other values.The book lacks form,it is made up of a string of events and the protagonist is not seen in stable relationships with other characters.
The Journal of the Plague Year is a minutely realistic account of the Great Plague and it was supposed to be a diary kept by a London saddler,but in fact it was a working together of a variety of sources into an original narrative so
vividly circumstancial that the reader feels convinced that the author must be describing what he himself lived through.Defoe̕ s intention was to reduce all literature to journalism and to tell invented things as though he were a reporter writing an account for the press. Without being an artist in the proper sense of the word,Defoe does have artistic merits and they are the concrete language,the racy expressive power of his style and even the humour he emparts to it may be considered gifts of a writer abounding in popular sap,conscious enough to put these resources to his full use.Defoe can be considered as an almost creator of the English novel,a writer who created his own personal genre,remarkable not for its wisdom,but for its energy.
The novel proper could be established only when the realistic narrative was organized into a plot which,while retaining Defoe ̛ s lifelikeness,also had an intrinsic coherence,when the novelist' s eye was focused on characters and personal relations as essential elements in the total structure and when all these were related to a controlling moral intention.(this is what the realistic novel stands for,after all).
