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E-202 Marginalized WhitenessIn this essay I intend to look at what role control and organization of space plays, morespecifically how spatial power is used in order to subdue, control and exercise power, inDaniel Defoe’s novel
 Robinson Crusoe
and Francis Sheridan’s
 History of Nourjahad 
. Byexamining different types of space, such as personal, geographical, spiritual and symbolicspace 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 Iwill 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 andSchemzeddin respectively.
Personal space
When Robinson Crusoe finds himself marooned on a deserted island it is particularlyinteresting to observe his immediate actions. Like any other normal human being he reactswith fear and bewilderment when he realizes that he cannot escape from the island. One of thefirst 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 theMethod how to do this, and what kind of Dwelling to make, whether I should make me aCave 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 hisshelter” (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”,1
 
E-202 Marginalized Whitenesswhich 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 lineof 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 hisdwelling. Initially he regards his dwelling as merely a cave, or a tent, but rather quickly hestarts to refer to his habitation as a “Fence or Fortress” (45), where he fortifies himself like amedieval 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 compleatlyfenc’d in, and fortify’d, as I thought, from all the World, and consequently slept securein the Night, which otherwise I could not have done, tho’, as it appear’d afterward, therewas 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 yetcontrol. Fundamentally, he is defining his own personal space as an opposition to the untamedwilderness around him. Initially he can only imagine what exist on the island and outside hishabitation. The image of “the noble savage” or the potential threat of cannibalism andsavagery develops in Crusoe’s mind at this stage because as Edward W. Said points out: “Allkinds of suppositions, associations, and fictions appear to crowd the unfamiliar space outsideone’s own (Said,
Orientalism
, 54). As time goes by and Robinson Crusoe feels moreconfident, as a result of him appropriating himself and his culture onto the environment, heventures more out and about on the island itself. He establishes a pattern of first acquiringspace, controlling it and then dominating it. Crusoe commences the project of personalexpansion, and by doing this he accrues spatial control of the island. He starts to domesticategoats, 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 personalspace. By keeping a journal he documents his use of time and how he is productive. It helps2
 
E-202 Marginalized Whitenesshim rationalize and give time and space a meaning through writing and reading. He finds itappropriate to adept the environment to himself, to make it his through familiarizing andground it in his own cultural background. He accumulates goods from the ship in his cavewhere 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 Poststo hang every Thing up that could be hung up, and now I began to be in some Order withindoors” (55). His personal space is established and Crusoe has in his mind brought order andmeaning 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 RobinsonCrusoe 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 havemy life prolonged to eternity” (25).Paradoxically this desire leads to confinement. His desire for excess leads to hiscaptivity, “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 tohis palace. He is prisoner of his own personal desires. His personal space has become theopposite of “boundless” in spite of his “inexhaustible riches” and that his life is “prolonged toeternity”. Like the Genie in the teapot from Arabian folktales, Nourjahad is ends up beingconfined 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 and3
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