DANIEL DEFOE

Daniel Defoe was born in 1660 in London. His father worked as a butcher
and made and sold candles, and the young Daniel regretted the fact that he was
not of the gentry class and could not attend a prestigious school, such as Oxford
or Cambridge. The fact that his parents had left the Church of England to join
the Presbyterian church compounded the boy's problems, especially in finding
acceptance among the upper society. Early in his life, Defoe made preparations
to become a Presbyterian minister, but after having studied religion for some
time, he decided against the ministry, feeling that a parish life would be too
restrictive. Later, he settled into the business world, setting up an import-export
business and haberdashery in London. In 1684, he married Mary Tuffley. By the
early 1690's, Defoe's business had failed; his marriage was also failing. In search
of a new career, he involved himself in politics and became a journalist and
pamphleteer. In 1701,he published a political verse satire against James II and in
defense of the accession of William of Orange to the throne, entitled The True
Born Englishman. In 1702, he published the pamphlet, The Shortest Way
with the Dissenters, attacking harshly the Church of England. As a result of his
controversial writings, Defoe was arrested, imprisoned for a period of time,
tried, and sentenced to pay a fine and to stand three times in the pillory. After his
release from the prison, Defoe immersed himself in political journalism, often
contributing to newspapers. For a period of time, he was a secret agent for the
government and afterwards, he wrote for different parties, switching his
allegiance to whoever would pay him the most. At times, he would even publish
simultaneously and anonymously written articles expressing opposite points of
view, one supporting the Whigs and the other the Tories. From 1704 to 1713,
Defoe published The Review, a periodical that was the forerunner of the work
of Richard Steele and Joseph Addison.
At the age of fifty-nine, Defoe began writing fiction in 1719 and became
the most prolific writer of his day. It is impossible to know exactly how many
literary works he wrote, as many of them were published anonymously. His first
"novel", Robinson Crusoe, was published in 1719 and became an instant
success with the wide public. For the next few years, he published a succession
of realistic adventure stories that were written with incredible speed. Well
known titles include Mariner, Captain Singleton, and A Journal of the Plague
Year. Moll Flanders (published in 1722) is considered to be his best-written
book, and Roxana was his last. All of his "novels" presented realistic characters
in a realistic manner; as a result, many critics see him as the forerunner to
writers like Theodore Dreiser and Ernest Hemingway. Defoe was never accepted
during his lifetime by the literary class, who sneered at his background and the
common people who read his books. To improve his image, Defoe tried his best
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to be a gentleman, even changing his name from Foe to Defoe. He also bought
an expensive coach with a coat of arms emblazoned on it. In spite of his
popularity with the ordinary people, he never became wealthy, as his financial
dealings were a mess. In fact, he never really recovered from the failure of his
business, which occurred more than forty years before his death. Defoe died at
the age of seventy, in 1734. At that time, he was a poor man, hiding from his
creditors . Defoe is mainly remembered for his so called "novels". The central
idea of his books is that Man is good and noble by nature, but may succumb to
an evil social environment(Moll Flanders). The writer wants to make it clear
that society is the source for various crimes and vices. Defoes intention was that
the readers should regard his books as real stories. His books all take the form of
memories or pretended historical narratives, everything in them gives the
impression of reality. Defoes style is characterized by a plain, smooth, easy,
direct and almost colloquial, but never coarse language. His works are much
closer to the vernacular of the ordinary people than any of the previous writers.
He often used long, rambling sentences without strong pauses to give his style
an urgent, immediate, breathless quality, but the units of meaning are small and
clear with frequent repetition so that the writing gives an impression of simple
lucidity. In his books, as in his own life, actions or people in action are stressed;
there is not much plot or portrayal of characters, except the exact journalistic
account of the daily, trivial happenings.
Robinson Crusoe is considered to be one of the forerunners of the English 18th
century realistic novel and it was an immediate success with the wide public. It
is generally acknowledged as Defoes most deeply original, as well as
representative book. Supposedly based on the real adventure of Alexander
Selkirk who once stayed alone on the uninhabited island Juan Fernandez for 5
years, it is in fact, a work of sheer imagination. The events depicted in the story
date back to the middle of the 17th century and originate in the family of an old,
disabled English gentleman, Mr. Crusoe. He designs his son Robinson, for the
law, but the young man has firmly set his mind on becoming a sailor. One day,
Robinson, who is now nineteen years old, disregards his parents advice and sets
out to sea. many years go by. One day, Robinson sees the imprint of a
mans naked foot on the sand. He learns that a certain part of the island is
occasionally visited by cannibals who come there to celebrate their victories
over their enemies and to devour their captives. Robinson witnesses one such
celebration and manages to save one of the victims; this man, whom Crusoe
names Friday, to commemorate the day of his rescue, proves to be a clever
young savage and becomes Robinsons true and faithful companion.Robinson
and Friday kill the savages and release the captives, one of whom happens to be
Fridays father, and the other is a Spaniard from a wrecked ship. The latter
relates to Robinson that his comrades, seventeen in number, live on a
neighbouring island. Robinson decides to offer them hospitality and dispatches
Fridays father and the Spaniard in a boat for the survivers. If we may consider it
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an adventure story, it is also a moral tale, a commercial account and a Puritan

fable. It is one of the great myths of modern civilization. It celebrates the
material triumph of the eighteenth-century Western civilization and the strength
of human rational will to conquer the natural environment. Robinson is cast as a
typical eighteenth-century middle-class tradesman, with most of the qualities of
the complete English tradesman without anyone to trade with. He is the very
prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. His success in building up
a comfortable living environment and later on a private colony is shown, his
courage and patience, his practical skills and his intelligent persistence. In
another sense, Robinson is everyman, struggling with patience and persistent
work to conquer or master nature. His adventures reflect different stages of
civilization in our human world.
Robinson Crusoe revealed Defoee s ability to organize and present details in
order to offer his readers a new view upon the relation between man and
nature.Robinson is presented as remoulding the whole pattern of civilization that
he had left behind.Ian Watt states in The Rise of the Novel e It is significant
that Crusoe did not take advantage of the loneliness that was thrust upon him to
indulge in introspection or to think out mane s relation to the Universe.He had
gone on his journey as a trader to make money and increase his material comfort
and he tried to recreate as best as he could at least something of the material
civilization he had left behind.e e
Pragmatism is one of the essential features that Robinson possesses and
optimism is another key feature that Robinson proves to possess.He strongly
believes that God always helps those who help themselves,showing that he is the
typical representative of the English middle-class mentality,a typical
representative of the enterprising spirit of the English middle-classes who
strongly believed in the importance of labour as being a motivating factor for the
human beings.Robinson is characterized by self-reliance and individualism .The
concept of individualism involves a whole society governed by the individualse
independence both from other individuals and from allegiance to past ways of
thought and action denoted by the word tradition.This problem depends on the
economic organization which allows its members a varied range of choices in
their action.It is generally agreed that modern society is uniquely individualist
and that the causes of this individualism were the rise of modern industry,the
rise of capitalism and the spread of Protestantism.Robinson Crusoe may be
considered an embodiment of economic individualism.All of Defoee s characters
pursue money and book keeping represents the most distinctive feature of
modern capitalism.He embodies the idea of the social contract which played an
important part in the political individualism of the age.Robinson is not
considered an embodiment of individualism only for the primacy of the
economic motifs and for his allegiance to book keeping.He has left his home,his
family, for the classic reason of homo economicus, that is to improve his
condition.Crusoee s original sin is really the dynamic tendency of capitalism
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itself whose aim is never merely to maintain the status quo, but to transform it
incessantly.Leaving home and improving on onee s lot is a vital feature of the
individualist pattern of life.His freedom from social ties is also an individualist
feature and foreshadows the experience of modern society and sets Crusoe apart
from other travelers of his time.
Robinson treats all the other persons in terms of their commodity value.His
relation to Friday is also egocentric he doesne t ask his name,he gives him one
and his language is strictly utilitarian(yes/no).
Robinson Crusoe is the first novel in English fiction in the sense that it is the
first fictional narrative in which an ordinary persone s daily activity is the center
of continuous literary attention.This illustrates the Puritan conception of the
dignity of labour which helped to bring into being the general premise of the
book, that the individuale s daily life is of sufficient importance and interest to be
the proper subject of literature.Defoe's style is closely connected to
journalism(realism,preoccupied very much with details),he is remembered for
his formal realism,which is a mode of presenting things,events,in an ethically
neutral manner ,which consists in holding the mirror up to nature,but also in
conveying a moral pattern.The type of language he uses is colloquial,colourful
and very expressive.
Robinsone s solitude is the measure and the price of his luck.His shipwreck, far
from being a tragic experience is an extraordinary one which makes it possible
for Defoe to present solitary labour not as an alternative to a death sentence,but
as a solution to the perplexities of economic and social reality.Thus, Defoe
achieves a very modern treatment of the problem of solitude.Defoee s story is not
a novel in the sense that it deals so little with personal relations,it works only in
the direction of reality, demonstrating a lack of imagination(different from
inventing),also the lack of coherence and structure,there are only several
episodes put together(thus the episodic nature of Defoee s work),his characters do
not evolve,they are static characters and thus the central implausibility of his
characters.
Moll Flanders is the autobiography of a prostitute.It is dominated by the most
lively realistic details in the handling of which Defoe showed his knowledge of
the English social and economic life.Moll uses her beauty to achieve personal
security and her sex is a commodity which she is continuously trying to
sell.Although she is penitent in the end and thus allowed to find peace after her
numberless adventures, she has no moral sense at all,only a deep and constant
sense of the value of money.Moll Flanders,with her shrewd awareness of the
relation between cash and reputation, points forward to Becky Sharp(from
William Thackeray's novel entitled Vanity Fair) whose behaviour and fortune
show the gap between gentility and morality.Moll represents the active type of
picaro,the one mastering her own destiny.She always has the initiative,she is
careful about her possible profits and losses.However,she is the individualist
created by a mercantile morality.Her only way out of her troubles is her survival
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as an individual,in accordance with the social training preaching egotism above

other values.The book lacks form,it is made up of a string of events and the
protagonist is not seen in stable relationships with other characters.
The Journal of the Plague Year is a minutely realistic account of the Great
Plague and it was supposed to be a diary kept by a London saddler,but in fact it
was a working together of a variety of sources into an original narrative so
vividly circumstancial that the reader feels convinced that the author must be
describing what he himself lived through.Defoee s intention was to reduce all
literature to journalism and to tell invented things as though he were a reporter
writing an account for the press.
Without being an artist in the proper sense of the word,Defoe does have artistic
merits and they arethe concrete language,the racy expressive power of his style
and even the humour he emparts to it may be considered gifts of a writer
abounding in popular sap,conscious enough to put these resources to his full
use.Defoe can be considered as an almost creator of the English novel,a writer
who created his own personal genre,remarkable not for its wisdom,but for its
energy.
The novel proper could be established only when the realistic narrative was
organized into a plot which,while retaining Defoe s lifelikeness,also had an
intrinsic coherence,when the novelist' s eye was focused on characters and
personal relations as essential elements in the total structure and when all these
were related to a controlling moral intention.(this is what the realistic novel
stands for,after all).