1. The theme and the significance of the novel “Robinson Crusoe”
●Robinson Crusoe sings a song of labor, presenting it as the source
of human pride and happiness as well as a means to change man’s
living conditions from desperation to prosperity. It’s a slogan
which the bourgeoisie used to justify their accumulation of
wealth.
●It is an artistic projection of colonial expansion. (the civilized vs.
the savage)
●The theme of “back to nature” and religious devotion.
On the whole, Robinson Crusoe is significant as the first English novel which glorifies the individual experience of ordinary people in plain and simple language, and also as a vivid and positive portray of the English bourgeoisie at the earlier stages of its development.
2. The image of Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is portrayed as a hero of the common stock, an individualist---a self-made man, who shows marvelous capacity for work, boundless courage and energy in overcoming obstacles and a shrewdness in accumulating wealth and gaining profits.
The character of Robinson Crusoe is representative of the rising English bourgeoisie. He is most practical and diligent, always religious and at the same time mindful of his own profit.
Modern novelist James Joyce eloquently noted that the true symbol of the British conquest is Robinson Crusoe. “He is the true prototype of the British colonist. The whole Anglo-Saxon spirit is in Crusoe: the manly independence, the unconscious cruelty, the persistence, the slow yet efficient intelligence, the sexual apathy, the calculating taciturnity.”
In this novel, Defoe created the image of a true empire-builder, a colonizer and a foreign trader, who has the courage and will to face hardships, and who has determination to preserve himself and improve his livelihood by struggling against nature and fate.
3. T he features of Defoe’s novels
As a writer of the Enlightenment, Defoe attached great importance to the moulding of character and to the education through the influence of varied environment. For example, Defoe traces the development of Robinson Crusoe from a naive and tactless youth into a clever and hardened man, tempered and tried by numerous trials in his eventful life, especially his struggle against nature on the island.
Defoe’s intention is that the re aders should regard his novels as true stories. For that reason, he deliberately avoids all art; all fine writing, so that the reader should concentrate only on a series of plausible events. Defoe’s novels take the form of memories or pretended historica l narratives;everything in them gives the impression of reality.
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