Robinson Crusoe

A Novel of Adventure by Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)

Study Guide

Study Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...© 2006

.
Type of Work

.......Robinson Crusoe is an adventure novel presented as an autobiography by the fictional character

Robinson Crusoe. The novel was published in London on April 25, 1719, by William Taylor in the
Ship at Pater Noster Row. The preface pretends that the account of Crusoe's adventures is nonfiction,
saying, "The Editor believes the thing to be a just History of Fact; neither is there any Appearance of
Fiction in it."

Title Background

.......Robinson Crusoe is the shortened version of the title of Daniel Defoe's novel. The full title
appearing in the 1719 book was 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 deliver’d
by Pyrates.

Settings

.......The time is the second half of the seventeenth century, from 1651 to 1694. The places include the
following:

England: York, Hull, Yarmouth, London, Dover

Africa: Guinea and coastal regions to the south
South America: Brazil and an island off northeast Venezuela, near the mouth of the Orinoco River
Continental Europe: Lisbon, Portugal; Madrid and other Spanish cities; Toulouse, Paris, and Calais,
France

Characters

Protagonist: Robinson Crusoe

Antagonist: Adversity

Robinson Crusoe (born Robinson Kreutznaer): Englishman with a yearning to go to sea and conduct
trade. Crusoe is an intelligent, curious, independent, hard-working, and risk-taking man who undergoes
a spiritual awakening on the island on which he is marooned. He never loses his desire to travel and
even returns later to the island on which he spent nearly three decades. Crusoe is a capitalist who
believes in middle-class values. In his relations with non-Caucasians, he believes his proper role is as
master rather than servant. He is suspicious of Catholics, although he generally gets along with them.
In literature, Crusoe has become something of an archetype, representing any man or woman struggling
alone against the forces of nature and against his or her own inner fears.
Crusoe's Father: Immigrant from Bremen, Germany, who conducts a profitable business in Hull,
England, and moves to York. His family name is Kreutznaer but the English corrupt it into Crusoe. The
entire family then uses that name. Mr. Crusoe urges his son to become a lawyer and lead a respectable,
middle-class life.
Crusoe's Mother: Woman from a family named Robinson who married her husband after he moved to
York. She strongly supports her husband's view that Robinson Crusoe should become a lawyer.
First Captain (London-bound ship): Father of Crusoe's friend. After the friend invites Crusoe to sail to
London on his father's ship, Crusoe accepts the offer. In a raging storm, the ship sinks but all aboard
get safely to shore. Then the captain tells Crusoe that he should never again go to sea but instead should
return home. The captain thinks Crusoe is a Jonah, someone who brings bad luck.
Second Captain (Guinea-bound ship): Captain who likes Crusoe and agrees to take him to Guinea,
Africa.
Third Captain: Captain of a ship on which Crusoe makes a return trip to Guinea.
Xury: Young Moor from North Africa who helps Crusoe escape slavery.
Fourth Captain (Ship to Brazil): Kindly Portuguese captain who takes Crusoe aboard off the coast of
Africa and takes him to Brazil.
Owner of Sugar Plantation: In Brazil, Crusoe lodges with this man and learns agriculture from him.
Wells: Englishman who is a business partner of Crusoe in Brazil.
Negro Slave, European Servant: Crusoe buys them and sets them to work on his tobacco plantation in
Brazil.
Widow: Honest woman in London who safeguards Crusoe's profits from his enterprises. She was the
wife of the Second Captain, who died shortly after returning to London.
Three Merchants and Planters: In Brazil, they persuade Crusoe to accompany them on a trip to Guinea
to buy slaves. Crusoe is to act as the trader.
Friday: Young savage whom Crusoe rescues from cannibals. In gratitude, Friday becomes Crusoe's
servant.
Friday's Father: Crusoe and Friday rescue him from cannibals.
Spaniard: Crusoe and Friday rescue him from cannibals.
Fifth Captain (Ship to England From Crusoe's Island): Captain of an English ship. Mutineers depose
him, then take him bound to Crusoe's island. Crusoe helps him overthrow the mutineers, then returns to
England on the captain's ship.
Mutineers: Rebels against the fifth captain.
Two Loyal Crewmen: They stand by the fifth captain during the mutiny.
Crusoe's Two Nephews: Sons of one of his brothers. In 1694, Crusoe accompanies one of his nephews
to the East Indies.
Crusoe's Wife: Crusoe marries her after he returns to England from his adventures. She dies a few
years later.
Children of Crusoe: Two sons and one daughter.
Benamuckee: Name of Friday's God. Friday becomes a Christian after Crusoe instructs him in the faith.
Savages, Slaves, Natives of Various Lands

Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2006

In York, England, where he was born in 1632, eighteen-year-old Robinson Crusoe yearns for a life of
adventure on the high seas. His two brothers previously left home. One, a lieutenant-colonel in an
English regiment, died at Flanders fighting Spaniards. The other simply left and was never heard from
again.
Robinson’s father strongly opposes his son’s dream of sailing off, urging him instead to study law and
establish himself as a respectable member of society. Going to sea would be folly, he tells the boy. His
mother supports her husband’s position.
A year later, while visiting the town of Hull – where his father, a German from Bremen, first lived after
arriving in England – Robinson runs into a friend whose father is master of a ship about to sail to
London. The friend invites Robinson along, free of charge. So powerful is Robinson’s desire to travel
that he embarks without even sending word to his parents. The day is September 1, 1651.
Robinson learns immediately of the perils of sea travel, for the ship encounters a raging squall. Seasick
and terror-stricken, Crusoe vows to return home and never again go to sea if he survives the ordeal. The
next day, the wind and sea grow calm, and at night Crusoe sleeps well. In the morning, the sun shines
and the wind stills. Over a heady drink with his friend, Crusoe forgets his vow. On the sixth day, the
ship puts in at Yarmouth Yards. Eight days later, it sails again – into a storm so furious that it frightens
even the seasoned crewmen.
“The sea ran mountains high," Crusoe says, “and broke upon us every three or four minutes."
The ship springs a leak. Four feet of water lie in the hold, and the level continues to rise. The crewmen
fire guns to attract attention. Just before the ship sinks, a boat from a nearby ship takes all aboard to
shore. Crusoe and the others walk back to Yarmouth. The master of the ship (the father of Crusoe’s
friend) urges Robinson to go home and “not tempt Providence" further. But Crusoe continues on to
London, by land, in part because returning home would be a concession of failure. People would laugh.
He would be shamed.
In London, he embarks on another ship, this one bound for Guinea on the western coast of Africa.
Again, his passage is free, for the captain took a liking to Crusoe when he met him on shore and told
him he need only serve as the captain’s messmate and companion during the voyage. Crusoe receives
an education of sorts on the trip:
“I got a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an
account of the ship's course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand some things that were
needful to be understood by a sailor . . . ."
Crusoe also earns money as a merchant, bringing back to London gold dust worth 300 pounds, and
decides to return to Guinea on another trip. However, the kindly captain will not be aboard, for he died
shortly after returning home. Before the second trip, Crusoe deposits 200 pounds of his money for safe
keeping with the widow of the captain, an honest woman who has treated Crusoe justly.
On Crusoe’s second voyage, Turkish pirates capture the ship and take everyone aboard to the African
Moorish port of Salee, where the pirate captain makes Crusoe his slave. One of Crusoe’s duties is to
catch fish under the watchful eye of his master, and he becomes an expert at this task. After two years,
an opportunity for escape presents itself. One day, the captain stays behind while Crusoe goes out on a
fishing boat with two Moors. Crusoe overpowers one Moor, who swims ashore, and threatens to throw
the other–a boy named Xury–overboard unless he serves Crusoe. The boy vows obedience. They sail
southward to an island, where Xury spies a Portuguese ship. After Crusoe and Xury row out to it, the
captain welcomes them aboard and even buys Crusoe’s boat for 80 pieces of eight, payable when the
ship reaches its destination, Brazil. He also buys Xury under the condition that he free him in 10 years
if he converts to Christianity.
After arriving in Brazil at the Bay de Todos Los Sontos, Crusoe takes lodging with an honest man who
runs a sugar plantation. From him, Crusoe learns agriculture and begins a plantation himself, growing
food and tobacco in partnership with a neighbor, an Englishman named Wells. Meanwhile, the
Portuguese ship captain carries back to Europe a message from Crusoe to the widow in London (the
caretaker of his finances). It requests that she entrust the captain with money and certain merchandise
for delivery to Crusoe when the captain returns to Brazil. All goes as planned, and Crusoe sells some of
the merchandise at a handsome profit, then buys a Negro slave and hires a European servant. His
plantation prospers.
After Crusoe spends four years in Brazil, three businessmen ask him to accompany them on a trip to
Guinea to buy slaves. Crusoe is to do the trading for them because of his knowledge of Africa and the
slave trade; he will receive slaves of his own in the bargain. He accepts the offer, asking his business
partners to arrange to have his plantation looked after while he is gone. And so, on Sept. 1, 1659, eight
years to the day after he left England, Crusoe embarks again.
However, the ship encounters a terrible storm that threatens to sink the ship. Crusoe and 10 others
abandon the vessel and row fast to try to make it to the nearest shore. A giant wave capsizes the boat
and carries Crusoe to land. The sea swallows the others. Crusoe describes his plight:

I was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither did I see
any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or being devoured by wild beasts; and that
which was particularly afflicting to me was, that I had no weapon, either to hunt and kill any creature
for my sustenance, or to defend myself against any other creature that might desire to kill me for theirs.
In a word, I had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco in a box.

However, a search turns up a source of fresh water, to Crusoe’s relief, and he spends the night sleeping
in a tree to avoid becoming the prey of any beast that may inhabit the island. In the morning, he
discovers that the ship had not sunk, but did run aground, and he swims out to it and pulls himself
aboard on a rope hanging over the side. First, he finds biscuits and rum to nourish him and raise his
spirits. Then, using spars and masts, he builds a raft and loads supplies onto it: cheese, dried meat, corn,
carpenter’s tools–including saws, an axe, and a hammer–two fowling pieces (shotguns), two pistols,
powder horns, shot, two swords, and two barrels of gunpowder.
The next day, Crusoe returns to the ship for more supplies: nails, spikes, a grindstone, bullets, muskets,
another fowling piece, more gunpowder and shot, clothes, a hammock, and bedding. Aboard the ship
are two cats and a dog. He carries the cats back to shore while the dog swims on his own. At least he
now has living beings to keep him company. He continues to return to the ship over the next several
days to pick it clean of supplies, including knives, forks, scissors, razors, fountain pens, ink, and paper.
He stores most of his supplies in a tent fashioned out of sails. The tent sits next to a hollow worn into a
hillside.
In time, he finds grapes, lemons, and other fruits, as well as vegetables, growing abundantly. After
discovering wild goats on the island, he learns how to raise them and make cheese, milk, and butter. He
also uses them as a source of meat, along with pigeons and turtles. For company, he tames a parrot and
teaches it to speak in the first few years of his residence on the island. Eventually, he takes on a wild
look, having a beard and wearing goatskin apparel. Over his head, he wears a goatskin umbrella.
Prayer becomes extremely important, a means to seek forgiveness for his sins, including the sin of
ignoring his father's advice. He reads the Bible, and it offers him solace against his loneliness.
Many years pass. Crusoe comes to appreciate the peace and quiet of his little world, in which he is both
ruler and subject. One day, he makes a startling discovery: a human footprint in the sand.

How it came thither I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine; but after innumerable fluttering
thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling,
as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at every two or three
steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man. Nor is it
possible to describe how many various shapes my affrighted imagination represented things to me in,
how many wild ideas were found every moment in my fancy, and what strange, unaccountable
whimsies came into my thoughts by the way.

He builds a wall around his home and keeps muskets at the ready.
Several more years pass. One night, the sound of gunfire startles him. In the morning, he finds the
wreckage of a ship and, later, human remains along the shore. From a lookout, he spies savages around
a fire over which they cook human beings. Cannibals! They have just finished eating victims. When
they are preparing two more men for the fire, Crusoe charges them with two muskets and a sword. He
manages to rescue and befriend one of the men, a young savage. So grateful is the man that he pledges
to serve Crusoe forever, and Crusoe names him Friday after the day of the week on which he effected
the rescue. "I . . . taught him to say Master," Crusoe says, "and then let him know that was to be my
name: I likewise taught him to say Yes and No and to know the meaning of them."
Crusoe outfits Friday with clothes–linen underpants from the ship, a goatskin jerkin, and a cap of hare
skin. Over time, Crusoe teaches Friday elementary English and the rudiments of the Christian religion,
which Friday adopts. One day Crusoe asks Friday how he came to be captured, and Friday says the
“nation" of savages to which he belongs was overpowered by an enemy nation that greatly
outnumbered Friday’s nation. "They more many than my nation, in the place where me was," Friday
says. "They take one, two, three, and me."
Friday says the enemy nation of cannibals is holding the crew of the wrecked ship. They decide to
construct a boat to visit the land where the captives are held. In the interim, however, a boat of
cannibals arrives with three more victims. Crusoe and Friday manage to save two of them, a Spaniard
and Friday’s father, who reunites with his son. The Spaniard is one of the crew of the wrecked ship.
Months later, the Spaniard and Friday’s father go out in the newly constructed boat to bring back the
rest of the Spaniards.
While those two are gone, Crusoe and Friday sight an English ship. (It arrived at the island after a stop
in Jamaica, Crusoe discovers later.) Fourteen men from it row ashore in a longboat. Three of the men
are captives of the others. While the captives sit under a tree, the other men enter the woods to sleep or
to explore. Crusoe then reveals himself to one of the captives, who explains his situation: He is the
captain of the ship, and the men with him are the first mate and a passenger. The men in the woods are
mutineers; they brought only one gun from the ship. Their ringleaders are two “desperate villains," the
captain says. If they are subdued, he says, the rest of the men would return to the ship and abandon
their mutiny. Crusoe gives the three men firearms and, moments later, they confront the men in the
woods. They kill one man and wound another. When the latter cries for help from the rest of the
mutineers, the captain tells him to make peace with God, then strikes him with the butt of his musket
“so that he never spoke more." The other men surrender and plead for mercy, and the captain says he
will spare them if they agree to man the ship. The mutineers vow to be loyal, and the captain believes
them.
In December of 1686, with Friday accompanying him, Crusoe returns to England on the ship manned
by most of the restored and repentant crew. A few of the mutineers remain on the island to escape the
wrath of English justice. After arriving in England on June 11, 1687, Crusoe discovers that his father
and mother are dead but that relatives of the family live in Yorkshire. Businessmen with an interest in
the ship and its cargo–grateful that Crusoe had saved the vessel and its crew–reward him with 200
pounds sterling.
After traveling to Lisbon in search of records about his lands in Brazil, Crusoe learns that his plantation
has made him incredibly wealthy:

I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand pounds sterling in money, and had an estate,
as I might well call it, in the Brazils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in
England: and, in a word, I was in a condition which I scarce knew how to understand, or how to
compose myself for the enjoyment of it.

He sells his plantation, increasing his wealth, and gives a generous amount to the widow who managed
his accounts.
Crusoe marries and becomes the father of a daughter and two sons. After his wife dies, Crusoe goes to
sea again in 1694, this time to the East Indies as a private trader. Along the way, he visits his island and
discovers that the Spaniards (the men whom Friday’s father and the Spaniard from the wrecked ship
went to fetch in a boat) and the mutineers left behind now live there.
"Five of them [had] made an attempt upon the mainland," Crusoe writes, "and brought away eleven
men and five women prisoners, by which, at my coming, I found about twenty young children on the
island."
Crusoe remains on the island 20 days. Before he leaves, he gives the islanders weapons and
ammunition, clothing, and two craftsmen, a carpenter and a smith. He then goes on to Brazil and there
purchases a boat on which he sends back to the island more supplies, seven more women, five cows,
and some sheep and hogs.

Style

Daniel Defoe writes in the straightforward manner of a chronicler or diarist. In fact, the central
character, Crusoe, keeps a diary. Moreover, he tracks time by carving the days into a post. The narrator
tells his tale sequentially, with one event following another, in simple language that even children can
understand. In telling his tale, the narrator frequently reflects on how he went wrong and what he must
do to set himself right with God. Throughout the novel, Defoe presents not only specific details but
also specific dates, lending verisimilitude to the novel. Note, for example, the following passage from
Chapter VII, "Agricultural Experience":

From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain, so that I could not stir, and was now very careful
not to be much wet. In this confinement, I began to be straitened for food: but venturing out twice, I
one day killed a goat; and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very large tortoise, which was a
treat to me, and my food was regulated thus: I ate a bunch of raisins for my breakfast; a piece of the
goat's flesh, or of the turtle, for my dinner, broiled - for, to my great misfortune, I had no vessel to boil
or stew anything; and two or three of the turtle's eggs for my supper.

Climax

The climax of the novel occurs on Crusoe's island when Crusoe helps the English captain overcome the
mutineers and regain control of his ship. This action means that Crusoe at long last has a means to
return to England. There are also mini-climaxes in various episodes, including Crusoe's religious
awakening after he becomes ill for several days with chills, fever, and a severe headache (Chapter VI,
"Ill and Conscience Stricken") and his discovery of a human footprint (Chapter XI, "Finds Print of
Man's Foot on the Sand").

Themes

Adventure: Life as a Perilous Journey

Robinson Crusoe goes to sea in search of high adventure rather than lead a humdrum life in England.
He finds more than his share of adventure on several ships in stormy seas, in several countries on two
continents, and on an island on which he must tame nature, learn survival skills, and fight savages. In
some ways, he represents every man on his journey through life, as did Odysseus in Homer's Odyssey,
coping with many dangers and ultimately returning home after a long time.

Importance of Religion

Robinson Crusoe not only discovers the world–or a goodly part of it–during his adventures. He also
discovers the importance of religion in his life. Once a lukewarm Christian, he becomes a devout
Christian after interpreting stormy seas as signs of God's displeasure and after becoming marooned and
struggling through an illness. He writes:

I daily read the word of God, and applied all the comforts of it to my present state. One morning, being
very sad, I opened the Bible upon these words, "I will never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
Immediately it occurred that these words were to me; why else should they be directed in such a
manner, just at the moment when I was mourning over my condition, as one forsaken of God and man?
"Well, then," said I, "if God does not forsake me, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it,
though the world should all forsake me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all the world, and should lose
the favour and blessing of God, there would be no comparison in the loss?"

Freedom and Slavery

In the beginning of the novel, Robinson Crusoe yearns to be free and independent. When he goes to
sea, he escapes the prison of ordinary life in England. In the rest of the novel, Crusoe repeatedly
struggles for freedom–from an angry sea, from pirates who capture him, from an empty pocketbook,
from a foundering ship, from fear and hunger, from the confines of his island. Others seek freedom as
well, including mutineers, their captives, and the captives of cannibals. Ironically, Crusoe tolerates and
benefits by people who know no freedom, slaves.

Colonialism and Capitalism

In the second half of the 17th Century, when the action in the novel takes place, European companies
vied for control and exploitation of colonized lands around the world. Crusoe appears to represent this
imperialist spirit, first when he goes to Guinea, next when he travels to Brazil and opens a plantation,
and finally when he becomes "king" of an island.

Self-Reliance

Crusoe learns to depend on his wits and talents to survive. On his island, he makes furniture, grows
crops, and tames and uses animals.

Loneliness vs.Solitude

Crusoe’s loneliness on the island evolves into solitude. Being alone terrified him when he arrived; later,
aloneness became desirable. Theologian Paul Tillich once observed, “Language has created the word
loneliness to express the pain of being alone, and the word solitude to express the glory of being
alone." Crusoe came to appreciate the glory of being alone. His anxiety at discovering a human
footprint is therefore quite understandable.

Real-Life Crusoe

Defoe based Robinson Crusoe on the real-life experiences of Scotsman Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721),
a shoemaker’s son who went to sea in 1695. In 1703, he became sailing master on the Cinque Ports,
one of two ships on a privateering expedition under the command of William Dampier (1651-1715). In
1704, as the ship sailed past an island group, Selkirk demanded to be let off the ship for fear that
damage it incurred during battles with Spaniards would sink it. The crew cast him off at Más a Tierra,
one of three islands making up the Juan Fernández Islands, about 400 miles west of Chile. His only
belongings were clothing, a gun, a few tools, tobacco, and a Bible. English seamen rescued him in
February 1709 after he spent nearly five years on the island. Spanish explorer Juan Fernández
discovered the islands in 1563 and lived on them for a short time. In Defoe's novel, Crusoe's island is in
the Atlantic Ocean, off Venezuela.

Foreshadowing

.......In Chapter 1, Robinson Crusoe's father warns him not go to sea. "If I did take this foolish step,"
Crusoe says in paraphrasing his father, "God would not bless me." In the same chapter, Crusoe–
ignoring his father's warning–runs away on a London-bound ship. In a raging storm, Crusoe and the
others aboard abandon ship when it begins to sink. They make it safely to shore in a rowboat. The
master of the ship later says that the shipwreck is a sign from God that He wants Robinson to return
home to his father. Moreover, the ship master tells Robinson, "If you do not go back, wherever you go,
you will meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments. . . ." The warnings from Robinson's
father and the ship master foreshadow–indeed, foretell–the life-threatening misadventures that befall
Crusoe later on.

Key Dates in the Novel

1632: Crusoe is born

Sept. 1, 1651: Crusoe boards a ship bound for London
Sept. 1, 1659: Crusoe boards the slave-trading ship
Sept. 30, 1659: Crusoe arrives on the island.
Dec. 19, 1686: Crusoe leaves the island.
June 11, 1687: Crusoe arrives back in England.
1694: Crusoe goes to the East Indies with his nephew and also visits the island on which he was
marooned.

Weather: Two Seasons

Crusoe reports that his island has two seasons, writing, "I found now that the seasons of the year might
generally be divided, not into summer and winter, as in Europe, but into the rainy seasons and the dry
seasons, which were generally thus:

The half of February, the whole of March, and the half of April - rainy, the sun being then on or near
the equinox.
The half of April, the whole of May, June, and July, and the half of August - dry, the sun being then
to the north of the line.
The half of August, the whole of September, and the half of October - rainy, the sun being then come
back.
The half of October, the whole of November, December, and January, and the half of February - dry,
the sun being then to the south of the line.

Crusoe's Cognitive Therapy

Many modern psychologists encourage patients to use cognitive therapy to overcome anxiety and
depression, as well as other conditions characterized by negative thought patterns. In cognitive therapy,
a patient attempts to change the way he thinks. Through treatment that includes mind exercises, the
patient learns that he tends to magnify the likelihood of negative outcomes. Some patients write down
their irrational, negative thoughts and counter them with rational, positive thoughts in what is intended
to be an honest appraisal of their thought processes. Seeing the results of their brainstorming on paper
somehow objectifies their mental status and puts it in the proper perspective. Crusoe performs such a
writing exercise in Chapter IV ("First Weeks on the Island"):

I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstances I was reduced to; and I drew up
the state of my affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any that were to come after me - for I
was likely to have but few heirs - as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring over them, and afflicting
my mind; and as my reason began now to master my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well
as I could, and to set the good against the evil, that I might have something to distinguish my case from
worse; and I stated very impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the
miseries I suffered, thus:-

Evil: I am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of all hope of recovery.
Good: But I am alive; and not drowned, as all my ship's company were.
Evil: I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world, to be miserable.
Good: But I am singled out, too, from all the ship's crew, to be spared from death; and He that
miraculously saved me from death can deliver me from this condition.
Evil: I am divided from mankind - a solitaire; one banished from human society.
Good: But I am not starved, and perishing on a barren place, affording no sustenance.
Evil: I have no clothes to cover me.
Good: But I am in a hot climate, where, if I had clothes, I could hardly wear them.
Evil: I am without any defence, or means to resist any violence of man or beast.
Good: But I am cast on an island where I see no wild beasts to hurt me, as I saw on the coast of
Africa; and what if I had been
shipwrecked there?
Evil: I have no soul to speak to or relieve me.
Good: But God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to the shore, that I have got out as many
necessary things as will either
supply my wants or enable me to supply myself, even as long as I live.

Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony that there was scarce any condition in the world
so miserable but there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it; and let this
stand as a direction from the experience of the most
miserable of all conditions in this world: that we may always find in it something to comfort
ourselves from, and to set, in the
description of good and evil, on the credit side of the account.

Study Questions and Essay Topics

What is Robinson Crusoe's most admirable character trait? What is his least admirable trait?
The captain of the London-bound ship thinks Crusoe is a Jonah, someone who brings bad luck.
Where did this use of the name Jonah originate? Hint: Look in the Old Testament of the Bible for the
story of the Hebrew prophet Jonah.
Is Crusoe's religious awakening the result of genuine repentance? Or is there another reason for his
religious ardor?
Why does Crusoe tolerate slavery?
What kept Crusoe from despairing and giving up after he arrived on the island?
Write an informative essay that explains European attitudes toward slavery during Daniel Defoe's
lifetime.
 Write an essay describing the area (mouth of the Orinoco River) where Crusoe was marooned.
Write an informative essay about the perils of sea travel in the second half of the 16th Century.
Include in your essay a discussion of the dangers posed by piracy.
Was Robinson Crusoe a changed man at the end of the novel? Or was he essentially the same man
that he was at the beginning?