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In this essay I intend to look at what role control and organization of space plays, more

specifically how spatial power is used in order to subdue, control and exercise power, in

Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe and Francis Sheridan’s History of Nourjahad. By

examining different types of space, such as personal, geographical, spiritual and symbolic

space in the works in question, I will argue that the one that exercises full control in spatial

power can manipulate “the other”, or his surroundings through projecting his culture into that

particular space and then maintain in full control of it and its occupants. In my discussion I

will argue that the control of different kinds of space is elementary in both Robinson Crusoe

and History of Nourjahad and helps display manipulative characters like Crusoe and

Schemzeddin respectively.

Personal space

When Robinson Crusoe finds himself marooned on a deserted island it is particularly

interesting to observe his immediate actions. Like any other normal human being he reacts

with fear and bewilderment when he realizes that he cannot escape from the island. One of the

first things he does is creating a shelter from unknown dangers, such as wild beasts or

savages: “My thoughts were now wholly employ’d about securing my self against Savages, if

any should appear, or wild Beasts, if any were in the Island; and I had many thoughts of the

Method how to do this, and what kind of Dwelling to make, whether I should make me a

Cave in the Earth, or a tent upon the Earth” (44).

Naturally, what first occupies his thoughts is the concern of security. The French

philosopher Gaston Bachelard wrote that “the sheltered being gives perceptible limits to his

shelter” (Bachelard, The Poetics of Space, 5), which in its turn creates the illusion of safety.

“A house constitutes a body of images that give mankind proofs or illusions of stability”

(Bachelard, 17) because Crusoe is basically finding himself in a situation of “primitiveness”,

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which he finds frightening. He feels inclined to make a distinction between inside/outside,

where safety is inside and wilderness and dangers are outside. He draws up a demarcation line

of property and marks of his “corner of the world” (Bachelard, 4) and this corner becomes his

personal space. The concern of security is easily observed in his choice of terms for his

dwelling. Initially he regards his dwelling as merely a cave, or a tent, but rather quickly he

starts to refer to his habitation as a “Fence or Fortress” (45), where he fortifies himself like a

medieval king:

The Entrance into this Place I made to be to by a door, but by a short ladder to go over
the Top, which Ladder, when I was in, I lifted over after me, and so I was compleatly
fenc’d in, and fortify’d, as I thought, from all the World, and consequently slept secure
in the Night, which otherwise I could not have done, tho’, as it appear’d afterward, there
was no need of all this Caution from the Enemies that I apprehended Danger from.
(Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 44 -45)

By doing this Crusoe moves inward, away from a foreign landscape, a space he cannot yet

control. Fundamentally, he is defining his own personal space as an opposition to the untamed

wilderness around him. Initially he can only imagine what exist on the island and outside his

habitation. The image of “the noble savage” or the potential threat of cannibalism and

savagery develops in Crusoe’s mind at this stage because as Edward W. Said points out: “All

kinds of suppositions, associations, and fictions appear to crowd the unfamiliar space outside

one’s own (Said, Orientalism, 54). As time goes by and Robinson Crusoe feels more

confident, as a result of him appropriating himself and his culture onto the environment, he

ventures more out and about on the island itself. He establishes a pattern of first acquiring

space, controlling it and then dominating it. Crusoe commences the project of personal

expansion, and by doing this he accrues spatial control of the island. He starts to domesticate

goats, teaches a parrot he domesticates to speak and keeps cats and dogs.

The journal he keeps in the beginning is also a part of this organization of his personal

space. By keeping a journal he documents his use of time and how he is productive. It helps

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him rationalize and give time and space a meaning through writing and reading. He finds it

appropriate to adept the environment to himself, to make it his through familiarizing and

ground it in his own cultural background. He accumulates goods from the ship in his cave

where he stores it. He domesticates his surroundings and he brings order to the place:

“Dec.17. From this Day to the Twentieth I place’d Shelves, and knock’d up nails on the Posts

to hang every Thing up that could be hung up, and now I began to be in some Order within

doors” (55). His personal space is established and Crusoe has in his mind brought order and

meaning to the place, which keeps him safe from running “about like a Mad-man” (36).

The case of personal space in History of Nourjahad is somewhat different, but as Robinson

Crusoe desires a better habitation or other things to improve his life on the island so does

Nourjahad express his desires to Schemzeddin: “My wishes, answered the favourite, are so

boundless, that it is impossible for me to tell you directly; but in two words, I should desire to

be possessed of inexhaustible riches, and to enable me to enjoy them to the utmost, to have

my life prolonged to eternity” (25).

Paradoxically this desire leads to confinement. His desire for excess leads to his

captivity, “one that renders him simultaneously tyrannical and feminized, an absolute master

enslaved to his progressively debased appetites” (Richardson, 7). Nourjahad is manipulated to

believe that his wishes are fulfilled, but in spite of this “fulfilment” he becomes confined to

his palace. He is prisoner of his own personal desires. His personal space has become the

opposite of “boundless” in spite of his “inexhaustible riches” and that his life is “prolonged to

eternity”. Like the Genie in the teapot from Arabian folktales, Nourjahad is ends up being

confined to his desires because of greed, one of the seven deadly sins from Christianity.

In contrast to Robinson Crusoe, Nourjahad becomes lazy and commits another one of

the seven deadly sins, namely sloth. Nevertheless there are parallels in the two characters and

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how they are in fact slaves of their personal space. Robinson Crusoe begins to believe that it

is destiny and God’s will that has doomed him to live the rest of his life on the island, whilst

Nourjahad realizes his amoral and avarice at the end of the short story when he displays

willingness to die, which Schemzeddin explains him that: “thy readiness to die, shews how fit

art to live” (77). Crusoe does also accept his destiny applied by “the heavenly authority”, but

colonial ambition misguides him to think that he can go beyond his personal space, take on a

divine authority and control the island in full.

Geographical space

Although Robinson Crusoe expresses contentment with his life on the island when he has

accommodated himself he is longing for home, and for freedom. He dreams of terra firma,

the mainland, which he hopes to get to by boat one day, either with a passing ship or a self-

made boat. However, he is gradually filled with an ambition to control and dominate the

whole island, which is seen in his notions like this: “I had a great Mind to see the whole island

(79) and “I thought of nothing but sailing round the Island” (100). These “dreams” and

ambitions are connected to what Said calls “imaginative geography” (Said, 57), where

everything European is “powerful and articulate” and “the other”, or the Oriental is “defeated

and distant” (57). Said writes further on: “It is Europe that articulates the Orient; this

articulation is prerogative, not of a puppet master, but of a genuine creator, whose life-giving

power represents, animates, constitutes the otherwise silent and dangerous space beyond

familiar boundaries” (Said, 57). Robinson Crusoe sees an opportunity to acquire new territory.

Thus is he distracted from what he really desires, namely freedom and home.

By now he controls his personal space and has acquired spatial power to some extent

on the island, and he starts to think of himself in a slightly different way than when he first

arrived on the island: “I was Lord of the whole Manor; or if pleas’d, I might call my self

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King; or Emperor over the whole country which I had possession of. There were no Rivals. I

had no Competitor, none to dispute Sovereignty or Command with me” (94). It is a capitalist

dream, to have monopoly and unlimited access to his resources. Crusoe takes on a role as a

despot as he starts regarding himself in terms of both “Lord” and “King” of the island.

He sees his opportunity to tame wilderness, or the geographical space, which he did

with his plantations in the Brazils before his ambition to venture into the slave trade led to his

misfortune of shipwrecking and ending up on the desolate island. In other words, he has not

learned a thing from his prior experience of greed, possession and ownership. The pattern of

acquiring, controlling and dominating was established in the Brazils and has gotten a strong

foothold in Crusoe’s mind after some years in solitude where he has become master over the

domesticated space with goats and dogs. His desire to possess is also seen in how he stores

goods from the shipwreck in the beginning of the story. He regards the island as “my little

Kingdom” in the “sixth year of my Reign” (100) and by using these notions he justifies his

colonial ambitions and later conquering endeavours. Said reminds us of that “The other

feature of Oriental-European relations was that Europe was always in a position of strength,

not to say domination” (Said, 40). The European colonizer Robinson Crusoe regards himself

as a “natural” authority on the island, and he desires this ultimate power of an authority.

His domesticated space and his colonial ambition are seriously threatened the moment

he finds the footprint in the sand. This crucial point in the novel triggers a series of interesting

things in Crusoe’s actions. At this point he has in his opinion established control over the

domesticated space and has for a period of time claimed the island his “Kingdom”. The

footprint is a manifestation of violated space. It throws Crusoe into total confusion and fear:

“But after innumerable fluttering Thoughts, like a Man perfectly confus’d and out of my self,

I came Home to my Fortification, not feeling, as we say, the Ground I went on, but terrify’d to

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the last Degree” (112). Notably, Crusoe tries to bring some rationality concerning his reaction

to the footprint in retrospective. The truth is; he is scared to death.

His fear is especially displayed in how he changes his view of his habitation: “When I

came to my Castle, for so I think I call’d it after this” (112). From referring to his dwelling a

fortification and then home, he has now started viewing it as a “Castle”, where conflict with

“the other”, the unknown, seems inevitable.

In Nourjahad’s case geographical freedom is more of the same kind as the longing Robinson

Crusoe feels for the mainland, which involves freedom of movement. Nourjahad is confined

to his personal space and can only read and dream of what exists outside because he is inside:

“The accounts of travellers, descriptions of the manners and customs of various countries, and

books of geography, afforded him a little more entertainment. All these places, said he, I shall

visit in my own proper person, and shall then be able to judge whether these accounts are

just” (55). Within the plotted context of the short story this never happens. He is trapped by

his own ambitions to see and enjoy the land outside. Geographical space serves in essence just

as a metaphor for freedom in Sheridan’s oriental tale, or as Felicity Nussbaum reminds us of:

“As a man confined to the domestic, he finds his release in the imagination” (292). Again this

confinement, in the same way as with Crusoe on his island, sparks off dreams of freedom.

Spiritual space

When Crusoe arrives on the shores of the island he regards the island as confinement: “the

Island was certainly a Prison to me” (71). He accepts his destiny fairly quickly as he thinks it

is God’s will. He believes it was God’s deliverance that he survived the storm and it is God’s

providence that he landed on an abundant island. And as Robinson Crusoe desires more

spatial control on the island he justifies this religiously: “(…) Hand of God’s providence,

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which had thus spread my Table in the Wilderness” (95). By acknowledging this divine

intervention he begins to feel special and tend to regard himself as an extension of God, an

earthly redeemer, God’s representative on the island. He is the island’s sole ruler, not an

uncommon assertion among white Christian Europeans in foreign countries in colonial times.

This spiritual space acts as a justification and a means of manipulation. In controlling

the spiritual space Crusoe can control Friday easier:

I endeavour’d to clear up this Fraud, to my man Friday, and told him, that the Pretence
of their old Men going up the Mountains, to say O to their God Benamuckee, was a
Cheat, and their bringing Word from thence what he said, was much more so; that if
they met with any Answer, or spoke with any one there, it must be with an evil Spirit:
And then I entered into a long Discourse with him about the Devil, the Original of him,
his Rebellion against God, his Enmity to Man, the Reason of it, his setting himself up in
the dark Parts of the world to be Worshipp’d instead of God, and as God, and the many
Strategems he made use of to delude Mankind to his Ruine; how he had a secret access
to our Passions, and to our affections, to adept his Snares so to our Inclinations, as to
cause us even to be our own Tempters, and to run upon our Destruction by our own
Choice.
(Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 157)

Crusoe holds the linguistic power that lies in language and manipulates Friday and succeeds

in making “the Savage” a “good Christian” (159). Crusoe justifies this on the background of

the common belief as what Said presents as a relationship between the coloniser and the

savage, where this “essential relationship, on political, cultural, and even religious grounds,

was seen – in the West (…) – to be one between a strong and a weak partner” (Said, 40).

Crusoe soon dominates the spiritual space and controls Friday as his slave. He clears

out Friday’s old belief, which Crusoe deems a “Fraud” and a “Cheat”, and replaces it with his

religion, where God is the representative of all good and the Devil and his evil ambition to

lead men into temptation though our passions. Some time later Crusoe has succeeded in

subjecting Friday into his total control.

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Spiritual space has a prominent place in History of Nourjahad as well, and the Genie is one

example of this because it (actually she) acts like a divine moral spirit that holds many

answers and keys to human desires: “What have I to fear, (…), possessed of endless riches

and of immortality? Your own passions, said the heavenly youth» (27). The myth of the kettle

with the confined Genie is also a spiritual space, and when rubbed it is released.

The problem with Nourjahad is that he corrupts his wishes because they are immoral

and this means that he does not have control over the spiritual space, like Crusoe, because it is

Schemzeddin that is the manipulator and the “creator” of the spiritual space of Nourjahad.

Schemzeddin has acquired this “omniscient” power in order to teach Nourjahad both a moral

and a spiritual lesson of modesty because he his deluded by his passions of lust and avarice.

Symbolic space

When Robinson Crusoe finds himself abandoned on the island he remembers his father’s

words. “That Boy might be happy if he would stay at home, but if he goes abroad he will be

the miserablest Wretch that was ever born: I can give no Consent to it” (7). The father figure

resembles a paternal god-like figure, which take up the symbolic space in Crusoe’s reality and

represents paternal power, moral and righteousness: “Now, I said aloud, My dear Father’s

Words are come to pass: God’s Justice has overtaken me” (67).

Crusoe later begins to desire this symbolic space of paternal power: “Besides, I

fancied my self able to manage One, nay, Two or Three savages, if I had them, so as to make

them entirely Slaves to me, to do whatever I should direct them, and to prevent them, and to

prevent their being able at any time to do me any hurt” (145) The reason for this can be

argued to be that Crusoe needs to fully control this in order to colonize the island. Indeed, at

the point when he manifests himself as master of the island he ensures himself the position of

exclusive power, which can manipulate and dominate the environment completely.

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Crusoe does also convince himself that this is a divine plan since his “subjects”

apparently displays desire to be controlled by him: “He kneel’d down again, kiss’d the

Ground, and laid his Head upon the Ground, and taking me by the Foot, set my Foot upon his

Head; this it seems was in token of swearing to be my slave for ever” (147). Perhaps this

implies that Crusoe justifies his enslaving of Friday and the other slaves on the background of

his rebellion towards his own father. More specifically he believes that the enslavement is an

act of paternal compassion; it is for their benefit that they come under the protection of

Crusoe. Like Prospero in The Tempest Crusoe considers himself in the role of God and this is

how he views his paternalism on the island:

My island was now peopled, and I thought my self very rich in Subjects; and it was a
merry Reflection which I frequently made, How like a King I look’d. First of all, the
whole country was my own meer Property; so that I had an undoubted Right of
Dominion. 2dly, My People were perfectly subjected: I was absolute Lord and
Lawgiver; they all owed their Lives to me.
(Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 174)

A bond of obligations is established and affirms Crusoe’s control of the symbolic space,

which is based on the pattern where “the geographical space (…) is penetrated, worked over,

taken hold of” (Said, 211), which emphasizes subjection, servitude and submission for the

mere cause of hierarchical order on the island. As Leroy-Beaulieu once wrote: “Colonization

is the expansive force of a people; it is its power of reproduction; it is its enlargement and its

multiplication through space; it is the subjection of the universe or a vast part of it to that

people’s language, customs, ideas, and laws” (cited in Said, 219). By attributing his own

culture onto his environment and its subjects Crusoe attains full control.

Crusoe’s firm belief of this paternal role is seen in statements like “me and all my

army” (175) and “my family”. Nonetheless, there are many signs that he sees himself as

God’s representative on earth: “I should be the Instrument of their Deliverance” (176). The

symbolic space holds the key to paternal power for Robinson Crusoe.

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In Sheridan’s History of Nourjahad there is Schemzeddin that occupies this symbolic space of

paternal power, which enables him to manipulate and control his scheme over Nourjahad. In

the same way Robinson Crusoe feels at the equally doomed by God and saved by him

Nourjahad feels that he has been granted “inexhaustible riches” (25) and doomed by some

divine intervention, which not really true since it is Schemzeddin who controls this scheme,

which is made clear by Schemzeddin himself to Nourjahad:

Hence, miserable man, pursued he, retire to thy house, and if thou art not quite
abandoned, endeavour by a sober and regular conduct to expiate thy offences against
heaven and thy sovereign; but as a punishment for thy crime, presume not, without my
leave, to stir beyond the limits of thy own habitation, on pain of a more rigerous and
lasting confinement”
(Sheridan, History of Nourjahad, 35)

Schemzeddin acts like a wisdom figure and manipulator, which also enables him to control

the symbolic space in the story. He even controls the “subterraneous cave” (29), where all the

“inexhaustible riches” (25) is stored, which Nourjahad thinks is his secret.

Conclusion

In my discussion of spatial power I have tried to show the importance of space in Robinson

Crusoe and History of Nourjahad by looking at different forms of space. Primarily, personal

space is a question of desires and concerns, more precisely a yearning for freedom and

happiness and concern for security. When Crusoe has established his personal space he is

misguided to believe he has rights to dominate the foreign landscape in full and thus he

establishes a pattern of acquiring, controlling and dominating space and its subjects. In truth,

Crusoe is as much as a captive of his own ambitions as Nourjahad is of his own desires. They

are slaves of their own personal space.

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Geographical space is more of a question concerning colonial ambitions in Robinson

Crusoe and is related to the confidence he feels based on the security he has established in his

personal space of his habitations on the island. Nonetheless, Crusoe’s confidence is shattered

to pieces when he discovers the footprint. Sheer optimism is turned into suspicion and

hostility of the unknown and the cannibals that comes to the island once in a while.

The topic of spiritual space revolves around the importance of justification in the case

of Crusoe. He needs to justify his destiny and hence his actions by attributing it all to a divine

power. Then Crusoe starts to regard spiritual space as a vehicle of manipulation as well and by

using the Bible and the concepts of God as good and the Devil as evil he “Christianises”

Friday. Crusoe, like a “good” colonizer utilizes his linguistic power and controls Friday.

Spiritual space in History of Nourjahad is also a matter of morality in addition to how

Schemzeddin makes use of the spiritual concept of “the Genie” in his plot. This plot is

orchestrated solely to teach Nourjahad a lesson of morality.

Symbolically, space plays a crucial role in both works in terms of paternalism,

linguistic power that in its turn “justifies” submission and manipulation of someone else, “the

other” represented by Friday and his father in Robinson Crusoe, and “the immoral”

represented by Nourjahad in Sheridan’s short story.

The division of space is crucial for Robinson Crusoe in order for him to take control

over the island’s environment. The control of space is crucial to Schemzeddin’s scheme too in

History of Nourjahad, where Nourjahad is confined to his palace in order for Schemzeddin to

succeed in his manipulation of Nourjahad. Robinson Crusoe and Schemzeddin are both in full

control in their roles as manipulators, which means that they retain supreme spatial power, in

which they can project their objectives. Robinson Crusoe and Schemzeddin differ in relation

to spatial power in their objectives; Crusoe has colonial ambitions, while Schemzeddin has a

moral project where he wants to teach Nourjahad an important moral lesson.

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Bibliography

Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space, trans. Maria Jolas, Beacon Press, Boston, 1964

Defoe, Daniel. The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, & c. 1719, in Robinson Crusoe –
An Authorative Text, Second ed., ed. Michael Shinagel, W.W. Norton & Company, New York,
1994

Said, Edward W. Orientalism, Vintage Books, New York, 1979

Sheridan, Francis. History of Nourjahad, 1767, in Three Oriental Tales, ed. Alan Richardson,
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 2002

Spaas, Lieve. et. al. Robinson Crusoe: Myth and Metamorphoses, Macmillan Press Ltd.,
London, 1996

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