THE IMPACT OF ROBINSON CRUSOE

Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
Poor old Robinson Crusoe!
      They made him a coat
      Of an old nanny goat;
I wonder how they could do so!
      With a ring a ting tang,
      And a ring a ting tang,
Poor old Robinson Crusoe!

THE APPEAL OF ROBINSON CRUSOE

• The thrill of adventure lures us into identifying with Crusoe and his triumph over mishaps, particularly since the specific details of Defoe's portrayal make his experiences real for us. This view does not account for the enthusiasm of sophisticated readers like Johnson and Rousseau.

• English readers often see Crusoe as the typical (really idealized?) Englishman–manly, self-reliant, courageous, heroic, and resourceful. This narrow chauvinistic response excludes all non-English readers, yet Crusoe transcends national, religious, and cultural boundaries. The French, in particular, have had a longstanding affection for Crusoe. They admired him as a man of heroic stature, a man who overcame dire adversities. During the French Revolution, Crusoe's courage, independence, and determination reflected the spirit and values of the Revolution. To emphasize their similarity, the novel was partially rewritten: Friday patriotically refused to leave his home for Europe, and Crusoe praised Nature, not God, for the barley. Gerard Grandville's illustration for an 1840 edition of Crusoe represented the French view of Crusoe as a larger-than-life figure. Crusoe was so well known in France that, until the 1930s, a large umbrella was called un robinson.

• John J. Richetti expanded the view of Crusoe as the typical Englishman, seeing him rather as the archetypal "personage of the last two hundred and fifty years of European consciousness." Obviously this view is Eurocentric and excludes non-Europeans. But Crusoe seems infinitely adaptable and travels well to other cultures. In a nineteenth century Eskimo translation published in Greenland, one illustration depicted Friday bowing to Crusoe. Friday wore a loincloth, and Crusoe was dressed like an Eskimo in furs, with a harpoon in the background; the scenery consisted of palm trees, dense bushes, and a partially snow-covered hill.

• Coleridge saw Crusoe in universal terms, as "a representative of humanity in general; neither his intellectual nor his moral qualities set him above the middle degree of mankind...." He is "the universal representative, the person for whom every reader could substitute himself. But now nothing is done, thought, or suffered, or desired, but what every man can imagine himself doing, thinking, feeling, or wishing for." He rises only where "in religion, in resignation, in dependence on, and thankful acknowledgement of the divine mercy and goodness" (1832).

• For James Beattie, "Robinson Crusoe, though there is nothing of love in it, is one of the most interesting narratives that ever was written; at least in all that part which related to the desert island: being founded on a passion still more prevalent than love, the desire of self-preservation; and therefore likely to engage the curiosity of every class of readers, both old and young, both learned and unlearned" (1783).

• The division of labor and industrialization have cut off modern men and women from simple tasks; we no longer know the whole process of basic activities, like growing wheat, milling flour, and baking bread. This was true in Defoe's time also, though to a lesser extent. So the details of Crusoe's everyday life fascinate us, as we watch him recreate civilization alone. He makes us look at the activities and necessities of everyday life in a new way, and we enjoy each discovery with Crusoe.

• Walter Allen sees in Crusoe the dramatization of "the inescapable solitariness of each man in his relation to God and the universe." Edward Gordon Craig, a modern illustrator, gives a personal and modern spin to Allen's suggestion: "we secretly enjoy loneliness through him."

ROBINSON CRUSOE: MYTH AND ARCHETYPE

myth:
          Myth originates in the effort of primitive people to explain some practice, belief, institution, or natural happening. Myths are anonymous and accepted as true. "Broadly speaking myths and mythologies seek to rationalize and explain the universe and all that is in it. Thus, they have a similar function to science, theology, religion and history in modern societies" (Bernard Doyle, Encyclopedia Mythica). Common types of myth are creation myths or stories which explain how the gods, the world or a phenomenon came about. A mythic figure is a heroic figure involved in events which have a significant effect on the universe or society.

          Other kinds of myths and uses for myth developed as society became more sophisticated. Plato, for instance, created myths or narratives of supernatural beings to speculate about open-ended subjects, that is, topics for which absolute certainty is impossible. William Blake created a private mythology in his poetry, saying "I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's." A myth may be a false belief, e.g., the myth of progress. Or it may be a fictional, fully developed setting for a literary work, like Thomas Hardy's myth of Wessex or Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County.

 
archetype:
          (1) An archetype is the original or prototype who sets the pattern for similar beings, for example, Frankenstein (monster) or Hercules (hero).

          (2) A basic concept in Jungian psychology, the archetype is a pattern of thought or an image which is passed down from one generation to the other, a process which Jung called the "psychic residua of numberless experiences of the same type." The collective unconscious thus holds the same images as humanity's primitive ancestors, like the good mother, the wise man, the magician, the vampire, and the monster

         Archetypes appear in the myths, religion, literature, art, and fairy tales of most, perhaps all societies. Common archetypes are the death-rebirth motif, going to the sea, the fatal woman, Cinderella-stories, and the sacrificial hero or god.