Daniel De Foe

Daniel De Foe was born in London probably in 1660; his father's surname was Foe, but he began to use the aristocratic-sounding "De" since 1695. His father's family was Puritan, Dissenter and therefore he lived with difficulty the Restoration period, after Cromwell's death. Because of this difficult situation he wasn't able to start traditional humanist studies, but he attended Newington Green, a Dissenting Academy, where he studied modern languages, economics, geography besides the traditional subjects.

He forwent a religious career and he went into business, even if he suffered two bankrupties. He began writing in Whig papers (he published "The Review"), supporting William III of Orange, who granted freedom of worship. He also wrote many satirical pamphlets. When Anne, who was very conservator, became queen, he criticized the new government and then he was arrested and condemned to pillory. In order to get his freedom he denied his liberal ideas and he became a secret agent for the new government.

When he was about sixty he started to write successful novels, like "Robinson Crusoe", "Moll Flanders", "Captain Singleton", "Roxana" and "Colonel Jack". In his last years he had other problems with creditors; he died in 1731 and he was buried in a common graveyard.

Plot

Robinson Crusoe is born in 1632 in York, where he is educated. His father wants him to become a lawyer, but his only desire is to sail. When he's nineteen he leaves home without asking permission and he begins his life sailing around the world. After various adventures, he becomes landowner and he leaves for Africa to take some slaves. He's shipwrecked on a desert island, while all his friends die. He takes many things from his ship and thanks to his wit he succeeds in reproducing the conditions of a civil life: he builds a house, he grows cereals, he breeds some goats and he writes a diary about his daily life.

After several years of loneliness he saves a savage, whom he calls Friday, from the cannibals who sometimes go to the island to do their rituals. Friday will prove a great help to Robinson. After 28 years he saves also some sailors of an English ship. To express their gratitude they reconduce them to London, where Robinson discovers he's rich thanks to his plantation.

The style

His novels are written in first-person; they are fictional autobiographies. De Foe concentrates his description on the primary qualities of objects (like extension, solidity and number). The language is simple and concrete to reinforce the impression of reality conveyed by the first-person narration.

Criticism on De Foe

"Robinson Crusoe" had immediately success among the public and four editions were printed in few months; some imitations were also written. It was the first novel published on a newspaper. On the contrary the sequel of the novel was received coldly. De Foe was never received in the literary circle, because of his second-rate education, and he had several attacks both political and literary (he was defined a mercenary and a sophist). Later "Robinson Crusoe" was revalued also by some important writers, like Poe and Pope, while his other novels were censored during the Victorian age. The novel interested also the economists, like Karl Marx. According to James Joyce , De Foe has been the father of the English novel: with him the true English soul has entered in the literature for the first time (Shakespeare's characters were almost all foreigners). According to Cesare Pavese Robinson's solitude embodies solitude of us all.

Robinson and society

It's the first bourgeois novel with "Gulliver 's travels", Defoe introducing the main character describes a cross-section of English society of 1600 , in which the middle classes are bringing more importance .

In this social sphere Robinson Crusoe is born and lives his first years , son of a German merchant settled in York for work .

In his youth he reveals his intention of not following his father's will and he decides to be at sea and to make new experience that will lead him around the world.

Robinson Crusoe belongs to the middle class which his father praises "the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness,not exposed to the miseries and hardships ,the labour and sufferings of the mechanick part of mankind , and not embarassed with the pride , luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind".

A new social condition which is conservative and static ,where Robinson ,although conscious of his position, represents the bourgeois who wants discovering and conquering the world.

Besides the spirit of adventure he is certainly full of self-confidence and after his shipwreck he is able to start a new life.

Robinson, helped by fortune and by faith, creates an alternative society ,a new world not only primordial but based on the good things of the English society combined with the purity and clarity of the primitive man.

He represents a strong and revolutionary man, linked to faith that according to Defoe is an important last hope for men.

The author with his book imagines an escape from stressfull reality to find something better or at least different.

The 1700 is the century where European subjugated unknown peoples ,so he embodies the typical figure of colonizer because he organizes a primitive empire : his stay on the island is not seen as a return to Nature ,but as a chance to exploit and dominate it with his ability. He doesn't destroy other cultures and he tries to understand them ,so Robinson is a forerunner of cultural relativism (Persian letters of Montequieu).

Defoe deals with one of the theme that will lead to the industrial revolution : the union of science and method, that is of reason and pratical way.

Indeed if wits and reason allow Robinson to survive and they are two of the elements of the Enlightenment theory peculiar of the bourgeoisie, also persistence and practicality are very important because they are the expressions of mind.

Providence

Providence is one of the motive powers of the novel, maybe the most important , doubtless the dearest for Robinson Crusoe.

Providence is the destiny , the fate , against which there is no remedy . The protagonist feels it like the infallible , mysterious God's hand that leads as it wants men's life. Robinson sometimes is not satisfied with the conditions God and nature had reduced him. Wishing for escape and adventure , he brings his life into play an other time , by defying his father's terrible prophecy.             

Providence's hand often draws incomprehensible destinies for men, which they must accept without wondering the reasons. Men must accept god's will and find inside themselves the strength to live and to honour , as well as it is possible, that will. Defoe, in his long reflections, uses this metaphor: God is an able artisan, a potter who lovely works the clay and makes different wonderful pots.

The pots must be satisfied and proud of the shape and qualities received: they can't ask to the potter: "why have you made us in this way?". For the same reason the protagonist has to learn that he never has to complain about his situation, decided by Providence, nor to exalt himself too soon: good luck doesn't last for ever and its laws are mysterious.

In the first months of his life on the island, like in his youth, Robinson had forgotten Lord. Suddenly he falls ill and he thinks all is lost: he is in front of death another time. In sleep he meets God, the one he had often offended with his actions. It's a nightmare. When he wakes up, he takes comfort from some words read by chance in the Bible and so he finds again trust in providence. He is converted. God promises him safety and freedom in which he didn't nearly believe any more. When he feels dejected, he will find a valid support by reading bible. That's why he recognizes the unmistakable hand of providence in everything happens to him. It's a safe and infallible guide, that sometimes is almost similar to superstition. He will be led by the hand of providence, like a child by his mother.         

God has chosen only him among millions of people, had led him to the island and had saved him, in order to make his life an example, a marquetry of providence. Robinson feels God's presence in daily work, in the harmony of nature, in the adventures that fill up his long days of captivity.                                 

The island is only a place, one among many places providence could choose. There he performs the duty God has imposed him. So he imagines he is the leader, the absolute king of the island because of God's will, and he thinks he can decide about life and death of his subjects. He feels like the new Adam. Only the sight of a human footprint breaks for a moment the harmony achieved with God and the faith in Providence deteriorates. But everything has already been prepared for his final liberation. It is already possible to imagine one of the most important calvinist theories: the predestination.

Friday

Friday is the first answer of the Providence at Robinson's request to have a fellow; in fact after him De Foe puts next to his protagonist other minor character, like Friday's father and the Spanish, but is with this main character that the writer gives a turning point, he walks out the descriptive style to privilege one more reflective, with ample space devoted to religion, faith and the effects that they have on men.

The character of Friday is essential because it makes the importance of some values too often undervalued like religion and family re-emerge. When Robinson starts to talk him about his faith and his God, because of the several questions of the savage he's in difficulties; Friday shows himself very interested; his reaction at father's sight, who is received with hugs cries and caresses, while Robinson, who is far from his family for 23 years, thinks to his father only because he regrets he didn't take his advices.

Comment

What has stricken us more has been fortune in misfortune: it seems impossible that he succeeds in getting out of every difficult situation, like when he gets out unhurt of the impact with rocks, or always finds honest people and partners.

A book that we liked very much, that touches on the eternal themes of life: survival, nature, solitude, hope.

N.B=When writing "Robinson Crusoe", De Foe was inspired by "A cruizing voyage round the world" by Captain Rogers, which told the story of Alexander Selkirk, a sailor who survived alone in the island of Juan Fernandez for five years.