Robinson Crusoe Forbidden Pages. Robinson Crusoe as the Embodiment of the Enlightenment Ideal of the "Natural Man" - refine

One of the most famous English novels was first published in April 1719. Its full title is “The Life, Extraordinary and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a sailor from York, who lived for 28 years all alone on a desert island off the coast of America near the mouth of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown out by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew of the ship, except for him, perished, outlining his unexpected release by pirates; written by himself" was eventually shortened to the name of the protagonist.

AT basis The work was based on a real story that happened to the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, who served as a boatswain on the Sank Por ship and landed in 1704, at his personal request, on the uninhabited island of Mas-a-Tierra (Pacific Ocean, 640 km from the coast of Chile) . The reason for the misfortune of the real Robinson Crusoe was his quarrelsome character, literary - disobedience to parents, choosing the wrong path in life (a sailor instead of an official in the royal court) and heavenly punishment, expressed in a natural misfortune for any traveler - a shipwreck. Alexander Selkirk lived on his island for a little over four years, Robinson Crusoe - twenty-eight years, two months and nineteen days.

The duration of the novel is September 1, 1651 - December 19, 1686 + the period that the character needs to return home and tell about his unusual adventure. motive way out of parental prohibition (a parallel with the biblical prodigal son) reveals itself in the novel twice: at the very beginning of the work, Robinson Crusoe, who got into a pitching, repents of what he did, but the shame of showing his relatives (including neighbors) in front of him again returns him to the wrong way, which ends with a long isolation on a desert island. The hero leaves the parental home on September 1, 1651; Brazil, where he lives comfortably for the next years - September 1, 1659. A symbolic warning in the form of a recurring sea storm and the time of the beginning of adventures turns out to be a meaningless fact for Robinson Crusoe.

Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" was a truly innovative work of its time. Not only its genre feature, realistic tendencies, natural manner of narration and pronounced social generalization make it such. The main thing that Defoe achieved is the creation of a novel of a new type, what we now mean when we talk about this literary concept. English lovers probably know that there are two words in the language - "romance" and "novel". So, the first term denotes the novel that existed until the 18th century, a literary text that includes various fantastic elements - witches, fairy-tale transformations, witchcraft, treasures, etc. The novel of the new time - "novel" - implies exactly the opposite: the naturalness of what is happening, attention to the details of everyday life, orientation towards reliability. The latter succeeded the writer as well as possible. Readers really believed in the veracity of everything written, and especially fierce fans even wrote letters to Robinson Crusoe, to which Defoe himself answered with pleasure, not wanting to remove the veil from the eyes of inspired fans.

The book tells about the life of Robinson Crusoe, starting at the age of eighteen. It was then that he leaves his parental home and goes on an adventure. Even before reaching a desert island, he experiences many misfortunes: he twice falls into a storm, is captured and endures the position of a slave for two years, and after fate seems to have shown its favor to the traveler, endowed him with moderate prosperity and profitable business, the hero rushes into a new adventure. And this time, he already remains alone on a desert island, life on which constitutes the main and most important part of the story.

History of creation

It is believed that Defoe borrowed the idea of ​​​​creating a novel from a real incident with one sailor - Alexander Selkirk. The source of this story most likely came from one of two sources: either Woods Rogers' Sailing Around the World, or an essay by Richard Steele in The Englishman. And this is what happened: a quarrel broke out between the sailor Alexander Selkirk and the captain of the ship, as a result of which the first was landed on a desert island. He was given the necessary supply of provisions and weapons for the first time and landed on the island of Juan Fernandez (Juan Fernandez), where he lived alone for more than four years, until he was noticed by a passing ship and brought to the bosom of civilization. During this time, the sailor completely lost the skills of human life and communication; it took him time to adapt to the past conditions of life. Defoe changed a lot in the history of Robinson Crusoe: his lost island moved from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, the hero's life on the island increased from four to twenty-eight years, while he did not run wild, but on the contrary was able to organize his civilized life in the conditions of pristine wild nature. Robinson considered himself its mayor, established strict laws and regulations, learned to hunt, fish, farm, weave baskets, bake bread, make cheese and even make pottery.

From the novel, it becomes clear that the ideological world of the work was also influenced by the philosophy of John Locke: all the foundations of the colony created by Robinson look like an arrangement of the philosopher's ideas about government. Interestingly, in the writings of Locke, the theme of the island, which is out of any connection with the rest of the world, was already used. In addition, it is precisely the maxims of this thinker that most likely imposed the author’s convictions about the important role of labor in human life, about its influence on the history of the development of society, because only hard and hard work helped the hero create a semblance of civilization in the wild and preserve civilization himself .

Life of Robinson Crusoe

Robinson is one of three sons in the family. The elder brother of the protagonist died in the war in Flanders, the middle one went missing, so the parents were triple worried about the future of the younger. However, he was not given any education; from childhood, he was mainly occupied with dreams of sea adventures. His father persuaded him to live measuredly, to observe the "golden mean", to have a reliable honest income. However, the offspring could not get out of his head childhood fantasies, a passion for adventure, and at the age of eighteen, against the will of his parents, he went on a ship to London. Thus began his journey.

On the very first day, there was a storm at sea, which pretty much frightened the young adventurer and made him think about the insecurity of the journey he had taken and about returning home. However, after the end of the storm and the usual booze, doubts subsided, and the hero decided to go further. This event became a harbinger of all his future misadventures.

Robinson, even as an adult, never missed an opportunity to embark on a new adventure. So, having settled down well in Brazil, having his own very profitable plantation, making friends and good neighbors, having just reached that very “golden mean” that his father once told him about, he agrees to a new business: to sail to the coast of Guinea and secretly purchase slaves there to increase the plantations. He and the team, only 17 people, set off on a fateful date for the hero - the first of September. Sometime on the first of September, he also sailed on a ship from home, after which he suffered many disasters: two storms, captivity by a Turkish corsair, two years of slavery and a difficult escape. Now a more serious test awaited him. The ship again fell into a storm and crashed, his entire crew died, and Robinson was alone on a desert island.

Philosophy in the novel

The philosophical thesis on which the novel is built is that man is a rational social animal. Therefore, the life of Robinson on the island is built according to the laws of civilization. The hero has a clear daily routine: it all began with reading the Holy Scriptures, then hunting, sorting and cooking the killed game. In the remaining time, he made various household items, built something or rested.

By the way, it was the Bible, taken by him from the sunken ship along with other essentials, that helped him gradually come to terms with his bitter fate of a lonely life on a desert island, and then even admit that he was still that lucky, because all his comrades died, and he life was given. And for twenty-eight years in isolation, he not only acquired, as it turned out, the much-needed skills of hunting, farming, various crafts, but also underwent serious internal changes, embarked on the path of spiritual development, came to God and religion. However, his religiosity is practical (in one of the episodes, he distributes everything that happened in two columns - “good” and “evil”; in the “good” column there was one point more, which convinced Robinson that God is good, He gave him more than he took) - a phenomenon in the 18th century.

Among the enlighteners, who was Defoe, deism was widespread - a rational religion based on the arguments of reason. It is not surprising that his hero, without suspecting it, embodies the philosophy of enlightenment. So, in his colony, Robinson gives equal rights to the Spaniards and the British, professes religious tolerance: he considers himself a Protestant, Friday, according to the novel, is a newly converted Christian, the Spaniard is a Catholic, and Friday's father is a pagan, besides also a cannibal. And they all have to live together, but there are no conflicts on religious grounds. The heroes have a common goal - to get off the island - and for this they work, not paying attention to confessional differences. Labor becomes the center of everything, it is the meaning of human life.

It is interesting that the story of Robinson Crusoe has a parable beginning - one of the favorite motifs of English novelists. "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" is the basis of the work. In it, as you know, the hero returned home, repented of his sins before his father and was forgiven. Defoe changed the meaning of the parable: Robinson, like the "prodigal son" who left his father's house, emerged victorious - his work and experience ensured a successful outcome.

The image of the main character

The image of Robinson can not be called either positive or negative. It is natural and therefore very realistic. Youthful recklessness, pushing him to more and more adventures, as the hero himself says at the end of the novel, remained with him in adulthood, he did not stop his sea travels. This recklessness is completely contrary to the practical mind of a man, who is accustomed to think through every little thing in detail on the island, to foresee every danger. So, one day he is deeply struck by the only thing that he could not foresee - the possibility of an earthquake. When it happened, he realized that a collapse during an earthquake could easily fill up his dwelling and Robinson himself, who was in it. This discovery made him seriously frightened and moved the house to another, safe place as quickly as possible.

His practicality is manifested mainly in the ability to earn a living. On the island, this is his persistent trips for supplies to the sunken ship, the manufacture of household items, adaptation to everything that the island could give him. Outside the island, it is his profitable plantation in Brazil, the ability to get money, which he always kept a strict account of. Even during a sortie on a sunken ship, despite the fact that he understood the absolute uselessness of money there, on the island, he nevertheless took it with him.

His positive qualities include thriftiness, prudence, foresight, resourcefulness, patience (it was extremely difficult to do something for the economy on the island and it took a lot of time), diligence. Of the negatives, perhaps recklessness and impulsiveness, to some extent indifference (for example, to his parents or to the people who remained on the island, whom he does not particularly remember when the opportunity to leave it arises). However, all this can be presented in another way: practicality may seem redundant, and if you add the hero's attention to the money side of the issue, then it can be called mercantile; recklessness, and indifference in this case, can speak of the romantic nature of Robinson. There is no unambiguity in the character and behavior of the hero, but this makes him realistic and partly explains why many readers believed that this was a real person.

Friday image

In addition to Robinson, the image of his servant Friday is interesting. He is a savage and cannibal by birth, saved by Robinson from certain death (he, by the way, was also supposed to be eaten by his fellow tribesmen). For this, the savage promised to faithfully serve his savior. Unlike the protagonist, he never saw a civilized society and before meeting with a non-believer he lived according to the laws of nature, according to the laws of his tribe. He is a "natural" person, and by his example the author showed how civilization affects the individual. According to the writer, it is she who is natural.

Friday improves in a very short time: he learns English pretty quickly, stops following the customs of his fellow cannibals, learns to shoot a gun, becomes a Christian, and so on. At the same time, he has excellent qualities: he is faithful, kind, inquisitive, quick-witted, reasonable, not devoid of simple human feelings, such as love for his father.

Genre

On the one hand, the novel "Robinson Crusoe" belongs to the literature of travel, so popular in England at that time. On the other hand, there is clearly a parable beginning or a tradition of an allegorical story, where the spiritual development of a person is traced throughout the narrative, and a deep moral meaning is revealed on the example of simple, everyday details. Defoe's work is often called a philosophical story. The sources for the creation of this book are very diverse, and the novel itself, both in content and in form, was a deeply innovative work. One thing can be said with certainty - such original literature had many admirers, admirers, and, accordingly, imitators. Similar works began to be singled out as a special genre of "robinsonade", rightly named after the conqueror of an uninhabited island.

What does the book teach?

First of all, of course, the ability to work. Robinson lived on a desert island for twenty-eight years, but he did not become a savage, did not lose the signs of a civilized person, and all this thanks to work. It is conscious creative activity that distinguishes a person from a savage, thanks to which the hero kept afloat and withstood all tests with dignity.

In addition, undoubtedly, the example of Robinson shows how important it is to have patience, how it is necessary to learn new things and comprehend what you have never touched before. And the development of new skills and abilities gives rise to prudence and a sound mind in a person, which was so useful to the hero on a desert island.

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Alexander Selkirk was born in 1676 in Scotland on the North Sea coast to a shoemaker's family. He was bored in his father's workshop. But irresistibly attracted to the Red Lion tavern, where experienced sailors gathered. Hiding behind the barrels, he listened to stories about the "Flying Dutchman" - a sailing ship with a crew of the dead, about the country of gold El Dorado, about brave sailors and fierce storms, about daring raids by corsairs and looted wealth.

At the age of eighteen he left home and went to sea. Alas: soon the ship was captured by French pirates. The young sailor was captured and sold into slavery. But he managed to free himself and get hired on a pirate ship.

He returned home with a gold earring in his ear and a purse stuffed tightly. But the quiet life soon bored. And at the beginning of 1703, in the London Gazette, Selkirk read that the famous Captain Dampierre was preparing to sail to the West Indies on two ships for gold. Such a prospect suited the Scot who was “sick” with the sea and adventures, and Alexander signed up as a member of the crew. He was to serve as a boatswain on the 16-gun galley Sank Pore. In addition to her, the flotilla included the 26-gun brig St. George, a gift from the King of England.

The purpose of the campaign is an attack on Spanish ships, the capture of cities on land. The course is the southern seas, the countries of Latin America. In a word, a predatory expedition, common for that time, under the slogan of the struggle between England and hostile Spain.

Written ashore

At first, the ship's life proceeded calmly, but the captain of the Senkpor ship, on which Selkirk served, suddenly died. Dampier appointed a new one - Thomas Stradling, a man famous for his tough temper and cruel character. The difficult journey began. And not only because the boatswain Selkirk did not have a good relationship with the new captain. Ships now sailed across almost unexplored seas. For a year and a half, the ships roamed the Atlantic Ocean, making daring raids on Spanish ships, and then, following the path of Magellan, they entered the Pacific Ocean. Off the Chilean coast, the British ships parted ways. The Senkpor headed for the islands of the Juan Fernandez archipelago, where it hoped to stock up on fresh water. It was here that the events took place, thanks to which the name of Selkirk remained in history.

After another skirmish with Captain Stradling, boatswain Selkirk decided to leave the Senkpor, by that time already pretty battered and leaking. In October 1704, an entry appeared in the ship's log: "Alexander Selkirk was written off the ship of his own free will." They loaded a flintlock gun, a pound of gunpowder, bullets and flint, clothes and linen, tobacco, an ax, a knife, a cauldron into the boat, they did not even forget the Bible.

Selkirk chose to commit himself to fate on the uninhabited island of Mas a Tierra, part of the Juan Fernandez archipelago, 600 km west of Chile, instead of staying on a decrepit ship under the command of a hostile captain. In his heart, he hoped that he would not have to stay on the island for long. After all, ships often came here for fresh water. But before the ship appeared on the horizon, he had to take care of the food - he was left with food supplies only for one day.

Fortunately, there were many wild goats on the island. So, as long as there is gunpowder and bullets, food is provided. However, time passed, and the rescue ship did not appear. Willy-nilly, I had to settle seriously on a piece of land lost in the ocean. Having examined the "possessions", Selkirk found that the island is covered with dense vegetation and is about 20 km long and 5 km wide. On the shore it was possible to hunt turtles and collect their eggs in the sand. Birds abounded, and lobsters and seals were found off the coast.

Life on the island

The first months of the newly-minted Robinson were especially difficult. And not so much because of the hourly struggle for existence, but because of loneliness. As he told later, it took 18 months to come to terms with hermitage. Sometimes Selkirk was seized with fear: what if this voluntary exile is for life?! And he cursed the land that sheltered him in the ocean, as well as the hour when he decided on a rash act. If he had known then that the ship "Sankpor" had crashed shortly after its landing and almost the entire crew perished, perhaps he would have thanked fate.

Every day Selkirk climbed the highest mountain and stood looking at the horizon for hours. A lot of work and invention was required to establish a "normal" life on the island. Like primitive people, he learned to make fire by friction, and when gunpowder ran out, he began to catch wild goats with his hands. Once, during such a hunt, he fell into an abyss with a goat and lay there unconscious for three days. After that, Selkirk began to cut the tendons of the legs of the kids, which made them lose their agility.

More than four years have passed. One thousand five hundred and eighty days and nights one on one with nature! What a strain of physical and moral strength, so as not to fall into despondency, not to let despair prevail! Diligence, perseverance in achieving goals, enterprise - all these qualities were inherent in Selkirk, just as his literary colleague Robinson Crusoe will be endowed with them to an even greater extent.

Sail on the horizon

In early 1709, Selkirk's hermitage came to an end. January 31 at noon from his observation post, he noticed a point. Sail! First time in years! But will the ship pass by? We need to signal soon! But even without that, it was clear that the ship was heading towards the coast of Mas a Tierra. The ship anchored, a boat set sail from it. These were the first people he saw after 4.5 years of loneliness. One can imagine how surprised the sailors were when they met on the shore a “wild man” in animal skins, overgrown, who at first could not utter a word. It was not until he was on board the Duke, that was the name of the ship that had saved Selkirk, that he regained the power of speech and told what had happened to him.

Selkirk himself was also surprised a lot: it turns out that he owes his salvation to ... William Dampier! It was Dampier who managed to equip the expedition, which included the Duke, and, making a round-the-world voyage, again visit the archipelago in order to pick up the unfortunate boatswain.

Only on October 14, 1711, Alexander Selkirk returned to England. When Londoners found out about the adventures of a fellow countryman, he became popular. But soon Selkirk got bored with the public. He was unable to express his experience vividly. After 8 years, this gap was brilliantly filled by Daniel Defoe.

We present the most interesting works.

Zaitseva Marusya

In the work of D. Defoe "Robinson Crusoe" the main character is Robinson Crusoe, who remained a man in difficult conditions.
Robinson was drawn to the sea from childhood, and he dreamed of becoming a sailor, but his father wanted him to become a judge and therefore cursed his son.
Robinson sometimes regretted that he did not obey his father and ran away from home, because his father warned him how many trials he would have to endure.
Robinson's first test was captivity. When he sailed on a ship, they were attacked by pirates - the Moors. Robinson was in captivity for a long time, but there he learned tricks. In the end, he escaped from captivity, using his cunning.
The most difficult test was getting Robinson to the island, where a lot of difficulties awaited him.
On the island, anyone can become a savage, but Robinson stubbornly fought for life. Although Robinson was afraid of difficulties, he managed to cope with them.
First, Robinson was constantly visited by fear, fear of wild animals, hunger, attacks by savages. He was afraid to become a savage, to stoop to such a level.
Robinson heroically overcame all the difficulties of his lonely life. Robinson gathered all his willpower and remained a man in almost unsurvivable conditions.
On Robinson Island, not only did he remain a man, he re-experienced all stages of the development of technology. He built himself a house, not missing a single detail, began to breed a herd of goats, he had his own barley fields, he made himself a beautiful fence, no worse than a Chinese wall, and, most importantly, he became a believer, and after all, when he ran away from parental home, he was a stupid brat. In any case, the island helped him to make himself a person. As they say, there is no evil without good.
I believe that Robinson remained a man thanks to his work, another in his place would either turn into a savage, or lay down and die. Robinson was helped by hard work and the ability to cope with difficult situations.

Martyakov Dima

In the work of D. Defoe, the main character is Robinson Crusoe. The first test for Robinson was a conflict with his father. He ran away from his home when he was eighteen years old. The second test was captivity. Robinson got to the Moors. After 8 years, he escaped from the Moors with the help of cunning.
The third test for Robinson was the island. He got there during a storm. Robinson did not know how to survive, as he did not have food and water. But every day he adapted more and more to the climate of the island.
On a desert island, Robinson had a hard time at first. But then he learned a lot: to hunt, fish, build, sew.
Robinson was at first stupid and unbelieving, but after a few years he became very wiser.
When Robinson returned from the island on an English ship, his parents died, since Robinson lived on the island for a very long time: 28 years, 2 months and 19 days, and his parents, when Robinson was eighteen years old, were already old.
Robinson remained a man because he wore clothes, started a diary and a calendar.
If he had not done this, he would not have been a man, but a savage.

Zaitsev Yura

The main character of D. Defoe's book is called Robinson Crusoe. Heir to a wealthy father, he experienced many hardships from the age of eighteen.
He always thought about the sea, but his father strictly forbade sea adventures and even cursed him when Robinson decided to go to sea. Robinson did not listen. During the voyage, his ship was attacked by pirates - the Moors. After being taken prisoner for three years, he became a brave man. He soon ran away from the pirates.
The next confirmation of the father's curse happened when Robinson Crusoe sailed from Brazil to Africa for slaves. He failed during a shipwreck. Soon I ended up on an island where there was no one to talk to.
Once on the island, he was frightened and did not immediately get used to it. After the shipwreck, he needed help. There were no clothes, it was extremely difficult to get food, so he was starving. He did not have the courage to go into the depths of the forest. And there were many more difficulties on the island.
But the time came when he got tired of being afraid, and he began to fight them non-stop. First, he dragged all the things from the bow of the ship. There were guns, muskets, gunpowder, buckshot and other things for life on a desert island. Secondly, he made a house, raised goats, learned to farm, became a believer.
He ran away from his parental home self-confident in his actions, unbelieving, unintelligent, after all the trials he became completely different, having changed his disposition.
He survived and remained a man thanks to work and self-control.

From the site administration

I am sure many of you know about the life of Robinson Crusoe. But few people know that Daniel Defoe described a story that is actually real...

When Alexander Selkirk, a sailor from Scotland, turned 19, he left his family and got into the command of the Cinque Ports ship, which in the Pacific Ocean in 1703 took part in the corsair raid of the Dampier pirate squadron. Alexander was well treated, so he was appointed assistant captain. And the leadership of the ship after the death of the first captain was taken by Thomas Stradling. He was a rather tough man and treated everyone badly, including Selkirk.

It was too hard for Alexander to be on a ship that went closer to Chile, to the Juan Fernandez archipelago. At this time, he made a conscious decision to leave the ship and stay on one of the islands. Alexander hoped that the British or French would take him sooner or later, so he took with him only what he considered necessary: ​​a knife, an ax, bullets, gunpowder, navigational instruments and a blanket.

Loneliness on the island did not break Selkirk. And his analytical mind helped him survive in the wild. He built a dwelling for himself, learned how to get his own food (hunted marine life, ate plants), tamed wild goats. This went on for a long time. In anticipation of at least some kind of ship, he had to live alone, doing various things necessary for existence (clothing, a calendar, for example). One day he saw a Spanish ship sailing near the shore. But, remembering that England and Spain became rivals, Selkirk decided to hide.

So four years passed. The expedition of Woods Rogers, passing near the island, kindly took Alexander. His appearance, of course, was wild: long hair, a beard sufficiently grown, clothes made of goat skins, having forgotten human speech, which was restored after a while. Defoe according to the eyewitness Rogers and wrote a novel that is still known. The island where Selkirs lived to this day is called the island of Robinson Crusoe, which attracts many curious tourists.