Oprisan Adina-Florentina, II B Romanian-English, Romanian-English, group 6
The Meaning of R eligion eligion in Defoe’s Robin son
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Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is a realistic novel which tells the story of a man who ends up being alone on an isolated island after a terrible storm, realizing that he is the only survivor of the expedition and the only thing he can do is to seek shelter and food lest he should die for starvation. The first thing he feels - when he looks around and sees that he is alone - is panic, a strong fear and he also suffers a lack of adaptability in such a situation, but once he discovers the power of providence his life becomes guided by hope. In my opinion, Defoe’s character could not face the situation he was was in if he was not to find the Bible and read it. Regarding the fact that he is a human being, he needs to communicate to someone and through this book he manages to find the answers to all his questions more or less. The things are getting clear for him after he reads some passages from the Bible and he thinks that the reason he is in this situation is the fact that he disobeyed his father. In my essay I am going to talk about the impact the Bible had on Robinson, what became religion for him after this unfortunate shipwreck and how he managed to turn a savage into a better Christian than himself. Firstly, all the catastrophe begins when Robinson Crusoe, the main character of the novel disobeys the advice his father gives him not to go to the sea lest he should die as his elder brother did. Being alone on the island, Robinson looks back to his father counsel and realizes that all his misfortune is a punishment for his sin:
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In the relating what is already past of my Story, this will be the more easily believ’d, when I shall add, that thro’ all the variety of Miseries that had to this Day befallen me, I n ever had so much as one Thought of it being the Hand of God, or that it was a just Punishment for my Sin; my rebellious Behaviour against my Father, or my present Sins which were great; or so much as a Punishment for the general Course of my wicked Life. (Defoe 88)
Robinson is in a continuous expectation for an answer from God, from the Divinity and this is what keeps him alive, because he knows that there is still a hope. The critic Mcinelly suggests that “by isolating his protagonist on a deserted island, Defoe ef fectively establishes Crusoe as a character apart and distinct from other human beings. Most important, Crusoe comes to view his isolation as the result of a divine will; that is, God is both aware of and responsible for his isolation.” ( 8 ) So, Crusoe has no choice than to accept the God’s will and the plan He has for him. Hopeless and desperate, Crusoe writes in his journal that he prays to God for salvation: “Very ill, frighted almost to Death, with the Apprehensions of my sad Condition, to be sick , and no Help: Pray’d to GOD for the first Time since the storm off of Hull, but scarce knew what I said, or why; my Thoughts being all confused.” (Defoe 86) After he reads the Bible, all his actions are guided by this book and he learns that religion could be a kind of medicine for the soul. Secondly, another moment which is representative for this novel is the moment when Crusoe is one day shocked and terrified to the fullest to discover a footprint of a man on the shore. This is the moment when he begins to feel “the Fear of Man” (Defoe 163) thinking immediately that it could be the footprint of the devil or of a cannibal who are supposed to live in the region. According to the critic Ritchie, “the fear produced by the footprint interferes with
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Crusoe's pursuit of God; although literally a footprint, it is also a visible manifestation of a spiritual reality, the fear of other people.” ( 796 ) At some point in the novel, Crusoe saves the life of a savage from the hands of the cannibals they are fighting to and gives him a name, Friday, “which was the day I sav’d his Life”(Defoe 206) The main character thought that he should teach this poor savage about religion and the existence of God, this being one of our duties not only as good Christians but also as human beings: “but was now to be made an Instrument under Providence to save the Life, and for ought I knew, the Soul of a poor Savage, and bring him to the true knowledge of Religion, and of the Christian Doctrine, that might know Christ Jesus, to know whom is Life eternal.”(Defoe 220) Alberto Manguel talks in his essay The Library of Robinson Crusoe about the importance of the Bible which becomes at some point an important tool for Robinson in teaching Friday: “The Bible is at the core of this new human society: it colors each of Crusoe’s actions, it dictates the meaning of his sufferings, it is the instrument through which he will try, Prospero-like, to make a useful servant out of Friday.”( 62 ) Receptive and willing to learn, Friday manages to learn quickly enough some English words, but more than that, he is fascinated with the existence of a God, who is a superior power and after Robinson teaches him some notions about religion, the savage becomes a very good Christian, even better than Robinson himself, as he says in the novel. To conclude the present analysis, I would say that religion is a key fact in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, because all the actions of Robinson and all his decisions he has to make during the shipwreck are lead by the thought that there is someone with him who protects him and who will keep him alive and who will also answer to all his questions and this someone is God.
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Bibliography Brett C., Mcinelly, " Expanding Empires, Expanding Selves: Colonialism, The Novel, And Robinson Crusoe." Studies In The Novel , 2003 Daniel, Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, Oxford University Press, 1972 Daniel E., Ritchie, "Robinson Crusoe As Narrative Theologian." Renascence, 1997 Manguel, Alberto, The Library Of Robinson Crusoe, American Scholar, 2001
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