PALADE ALINA

ANUL II, SEM. I

Hyperion, Bucuresti

Robinson Crusoe /The artistic impact of the first person narrative

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who
lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near
the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck,
wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely
deliverd by Pyrates

English novelist, pamphleteer, and journalist, author of Robinson Crusoe (1719), a

story of a man shipwrecked alone on an island. Along with Samuel Richardson, Defoe is
considered the founder of the English novel. Before his time stories were usually written as
long poems or dramas. He produced some 200 works of nonfiction prose in addition to close
2 000 short essays in periodical publications, several of which he also edited.
"One day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the
print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand."
(from Robinson Crusoe)
Daniel Defoe was born in London, the son of Alice and James Foe. His father was a
City tradesman and member of the Butchers Company. James Foe's stubborn puritanism the
The Foes were Dissenters, Protestants who did not belong to the Anglican Church
occasionally comes through Defoe's writing. He studied at Charles Morton's Academy,
London. Although his Nonconformist father intended him for the ministry, Defoe plunged into
politics and trade, travelling extensively in Europe.
Daniel Defoe achieved literary immortality when, in April 1719, he published Robinson
Crusoe (Stockton 2321). It dared to challenge the political, social, and economic status quo
of his time. By depicting the utopian environment in which was created in the absence of
society, Defoe criticizes the political and economic aspect of Englands society, but is also
able to show the narrators relationship with nature in a vivid account of the personal growth
and development that took place while stranded in solitude. Crusoe becomes the universal
representative, the person, for whom every reader could substitute himself (Coleridge 2318).
Thus, Defoe persuades us to see remote islands and the solitude of the human soul. By
believing fixedly in the solidity of the plot and its earthiness, he has subdued every other
element to his design and has roped a whole universe into harmony (Woolf 2303).
Daniel Defoe however, recommended Robinson Crusoe to his readers as a didactic
work, and called it "an allusive allegoric history" designed to promote moral ends. This theory
of the author fits Robinson's self-portrait as an example, from which universal principles can
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PALADE ALINA
ANUL II, SEM. I
Hyperion, Bucuresti

be derived. Narrating a special situation, Crusoe always performs a didactic instruction in

three steps.Crusoe first describes an action or observation, then follows introspection and in a
last step, he tries to draw moral lessons from the incident. An example is his journey to
London after the first great storm. He first analyses the motifs that hinder him to go back
home. Then he turns to his inner feelings and finally he reflects a general observance, when he
concludes that from then on he has "since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the
common temper of mankind is, especially of youth." Examples like this can be found in many
situations throughout the book. One can conclude that the introspection and the solitude of
soul are needed for repentance and conversion. "I was a prisoner," Crusoe exclaims, "locked
up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean () this would break out upon me like a storm,
and make me wring my hands and weep like a child." Very much in the Puritan tradition
Crusoe learns to recognise the "particular providences" with which God controls his life.
The book is presented as the memoirs of Crusoe after his adventures, and incorporate his
diaries into their narrative. The memoir-style is used to present a more realistic, immediate
experience, rather than a third-person recounting of events that happened to other people. It
also allows Crusoe to look back and comment on his earlier actions from a position of greater
wisdom.
Epistolary narrative is the style of using what appear to be authentic letters or
documents in the narrative. As Crusoe keeps a diary on the island, he uses entries from it to
directly show his feelings at the time:
JUNE 18. -Rained all day, and I stayed within. I thought at this time the rain felt cold, and I
was something chilly; which I knew was not usual in that latitude.
JUNE 19. -Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been cold.
JUNE 20. -No rest all night; violent pains in my head, and feverish.
(Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, eNotes eText)
By using his diary in this manner, Crusoe is able to both show his developing personal beliefs,
and comment on his younger self. The diary format makes his stay on the island more
believable, as it reads less like an edited and considered manuscript and more like something
written on the spur of the moment.
Robinson Crusoe is both the narrator and main character of the tale.Crusoe narrates in
both the first and third person, presenting what he observes. Crusoe occasionally describes his
feelings, but only when they are overwhelming. Usually he favors a more factual narrative
style focused on actions and events.

Crusoes tone is mostly detached, meticulous, and objective. He displays little

rhetorical grandeur and few poetic or colorful turns of phrase. He generally avoids dramatic
storytelling, preferring an inventorylike approach to the facts as they unfold. He very rarely
registers his own feelings, or those of other characters, and only does so when those feelings
affect a situation directly, such as when he describes the mutineers as tired and confused,
indicating that their fatigue allows them to be defeated.

PALADE ALINA
ANUL II, SEM. I
Hyperion, Bucuresti

Defoe uses first person narrator as a method of narration. This method makes the
relation between the narrator and the reader very close. The reader receives all information
through Crusoes narration. This method makes the novel more authentic and believable.
The reader receives information through the speech of the hero himself. The narrator is
the one who has gone through the experience which he talks about. Thus, it is first-hand
information

Sources:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/crusoe/facts.html
http://www.enotes.com/topics/robinson-crusoe