Hello Readers!
This assignment
is a part of internal evaluation of student's academic activity in the
Department of English, MK Bhavnagar University. Here is my assignment.
Name: Rohit
Vyas
Class: Semester
1
Roll No: 29
PG Enrolment
Number: 2069108420200041
E-mail:
rohitvyas277@gmail.com
Course: M.A.
English, at Department of English, M.K. Bhavnagar University
Paper 2 - Neo-Classical Literature, Unit 2
Submitted to: Dr. Dilip Barad
Robinson
Crusoe: Study of Character with Various Aspects
Human Behavior – A
Mystery
To
elaborate the thought, one may state that human behavior has always been
mysterious. Though it can be of taking important decisions or Robinson Crusoe
is also a character with usurpation temperament and giving attempts to acquire
land. His money mindedness also reflects in his actions while he sells Friday. We
can see here how immediately human behavior changes and quickly the tables are turned.
Crusoe as Fatal
Character
Crusoe
lives on an island for many years. And there he decides to colonize the island
and thinks that I own this island. This self taught thought was proven wrong by
the appearance of cannibals who were already staying there unnoticed. Those
cannibals are doing their rituals for killing one cannibal for each day. All of
a sudden one cannibal escaped from the crowd and ran the opposite the shore and
finds Crusoe. That cannibal becomes frightened of Crusoe and tries to escape
from him but Crusoe saves that cannibal from other barbarians. That cannibal is
found on Friday, so Crusoe names him Friday.
True to his old friends, he
promised them restitutions for their labors on his behalf when he was in full
control of his wealth. After making recompense to the old captain and others,
Crusoe had to decide which way to steer his course "and what to do with
the estate that Providence had thus put into my hands." He decided first
to go
to England, but was somewhat apprehensive about going by sea. Acting on his
hunches, he decided not to go two different times on two different ships, and
this was greatly to his advantage as both ships were lost at sea.
Friday’s character is
like below:
A savage;
whom Crusoe rescues from certain death from the hands of cannibals. Friday is
handsome, intelligent, brave, and loyal, none of which are qualities usually
associated with "savages." He serves Crusoe faithfully throughout his
life.
For a year, Crusoe continued in the
same mood and, for safekeeping, he moved his boat to a little cove under some
high rocks so that no savages could discover it. Apart from his necessary
duties, he no longer left his habitation because he still vividly remembered
the footprint and the remains of a cannibal feast.
While contemplating God's direction
of the universe, he was confused at times as to whether God directed the
universe directly or, as Crusoe believed, by little hunches and hints. Since
Crusoe was preoccupied with fear for his safety, he no longer invented things
or contrived substitutes. He made no fires, lest the smoke give away his
presence; he did not fire his gun, fearing that it might be heard, nor did he
drive a nail or chop wood, for the same reason — that is, it might be heard.
Because he feared to start a fire, he contrived to burn some wood at the mouth
of a hollow until it became dry charcoal, which he carried home.
It was while he was cutting wood
that he found a large cave, but to his distress, two eyes shined out of the
darkness within. Recovering from his fright, he ventured in, with a fire brand
only, to find a dying old he-goat. Unable to get him out, he decided to let him
lie there, so as to frighten away any exploring savages. Going back to the
cave, he found it to be a suitable storage room for guns and ammunitions
because the floor was level and dry.
The he-goat suddenly died, and
Crusoe buried him inside the cave since he was too heavy to drag out. Crusoe
was now in his twenty-third year of residence on the island. He remembered how
his dog died, how he taught his parrot to speak more fluently, and how the cats
multiplied so fast that he had to start shooting them.
Since it was the month of December,
Crusoe went out early to check his fields to see if it was time to harvest, but
he was surprised by a fire on the shore. Running back to his habitation, he
armed himself with guns for defense and prayed that God would deliver him from
the barbarians. After waiting for several hours, he decided to go out and
observe the proceedings. He found nine savages sitting around a fire. After a
while, they got into two canoes and paddled away. Going down to their camp
site, he again found the horrible remains of human bodies. Once again,
murderous thoughts consumed his brains and he was perplexed. Luckily, he did
not find a trace of them until May of his twenty-fourth year.
About the sixteenth of May, during a
very great storm, Crusoe heard the noise of a gun fired, perhaps from out at
sea. Almost immediately, he heard a second shot and decided that it must be a
ship in distress. Not being able to help it, he hoped perhaps that it could
help him, and so he set a large fire to attract attention. The storm, however,
put the fire out. He tried again and left the fire burning all night. The next
day, with his gun in hand, he went out to see the ship and saw the wreck of a
ship "cast away in the night upon those concealed rocks which I found when
I was out in my boat."
Thanking God that he had not met a
similar fate, he looked upon the broken bodies and wished that at least one had
escaped so that he could have a companion to talk with. A corpse floated up
with money in the pocket of the drowned man but, much more important, the coat
also contained a pipe. Driven both; by a need for possessions and a need for companionship,
Crusoe decided to venture out to the boat to see what it held and to see if
anyone was alive. Once again, the violent currents were visible. Terrified of
being driven out to sea, he hauled his boat into a little creek and sat on the
sand with ambivalent feelings. Determined to get to the ship, he attempted the
feat the next morning and, after two hours labor, he finally reached the wreck.
From the wreck of the Spanish ship, a half-starved dog swam to Crusoe, which he
fed.
Boarding the shipwreck, he found the
bodies of drowned men and many ruined provisions. He maneuvered two chests onto
his boat, some liquor, a powder horn, some brass kettles, and journeyed home,
very fatigued. After spending the night in his boat, he awoke refreshed and
endeavored to take his treasures to his new cave. Opening the chest, he found
no things of great use to him — cordial waters, bottles ornamented with silver,
sweetmeats, shirts, handkerchiefs, and three great bags of money and gold bars.
Having stored all these things away,
he took his boat to his old harbor and went back to his habitation. He was more
cautious than before but went about his business as usual.
For the next two years, Crusoe was
preoccupied with schemes to escape from the island. During this time, his mind
dwelt upon possible errors which he had committed earlier in his life. First,
he realized that he should have followed his father's advice and never left his
home in England. Then, if he had not desired greater wealth than was his lot in
Brazil, he would never have been shipwrecked, and would now be living a happy
and wealthy life in Brazil. Thus, he realized that his greatest sin or error
was that he could never be satisfied with his "station in life."
It was obvious to Crusoe that he had
created more wealth than he had ever had before, but it was all useless to him.
One rainy night in March, being unable to sleep, he again reviewed his life and
his present circumstances. Realizing that he was less anxious during his first
years on the island before finding the footprint in the sand, he lamented that
he had never been warned of the possible dangers that surrounded him, but
thanked Providence for protecting him during all the years that he was naively
unaware of the many dangers.
Conclusion
Thus we can read the
character in many ways like psychological aspect and colonial aspect, imperial
aspect and fatal character also.
