Friday (Robinson Crusoe)

Man Friday redirects here. For the 1975 lm, see Man eat their captives.[lower-alpha 1]
Friday (lm).
Crusoe observes one of the Caribs, kept captive and about
Friday is one of the main characters of Daniel Defoes
to be eaten, escape his captors. Crusoe ambushes two
pursuers, and the others leave in their canoes without
knowing what happened to their companions. The escaped captive bows in gratitude to Crusoe, who decides
to employ him as a servant. He names him Friday after
the weekday upon which the rescue takes place.
Crusoe describes Friday as being a Native American,
though very unlike the Indians of Brazil and Virginia.
His religion involves the worship of a mountain god
named Benamuckee, ociated over by high priests called
Oowokakee. Crusoe learned a few of his native words
that have been found in a Spanish-Trraba (or Teribe)
dictionary, so Friday may have belonged to that tribe, also
called the Naso people. Friday tolerates cannibalism, and
even suggests eating the men Crusoe has killed.
Crusoe teaches Friday the English language and converts
him to Christianity. He tells him that cannibalism is
wrong. Friday accompanies him in an ambush in which
they save Fridays father.
Crusoe returns to England twenty-eight years after being shipwrecked on the island, and four years after rescuing Friday. Fridays father goes with a Spanish castaway
to the mainland to retrieve fourteen other Spanish castaways, but Crusoe and Friday depart the island before
they return.
Friday accompanies Crusoe home to England, and is
his companion in the sequel The Farther Adventures of
Robinson Crusoe, in which Friday is killed in a sea battle.
In Jules Verne's L'cole des Robinsons (1882), the castaways rescue an African Negro on their island who says
his name is Carenotu. T. Artelett proposes to call him
Mercredi (Wednesday), as it is always done in the islands with Robinsons,[1] but his master Godfrey prefers
to keep the original name.

Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday by Carl Oterdinger

1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe names the

man, with whom he cannot at rst communicate, Friday
because they rst meet on that day. The character is the
source of the expression Man Friday, used to describe
a male personal assistant or servant, especially one who
is particularly competent or loyal. Current usage also includes Girl Friday.

2 Film and television adaptations

The 1935 Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickeys Man Friday features Mickey as Crusoe, with Friday and
other islanders as humanized monkey characters.

Character

Robinson Crusoe spends twenty-eight years on an island

o the coast of Venezuela with his talking parrot Poll,
his pet dog, and a tame goat as his only companions. In
his twenty-fourth year, he discovers that Carib cannibals
occasionally use a desolate beach on the island to kill and

The 1935 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon Robinson Crusoe Isle features Oswald applying for a job
as Robinson Crusoes man Friday. Crusoes twelve
previous Fridays have been eaten by cannibals, mak1

5
ing Oswald Friday the 13th.
In Luis Buuel's 1954 lm Robinson Crusoe, Jaime
Fernndez played Friday alongside Dan O'Herlihy
as Crusoe.
In the 1990s animated series Robinson Sucroe, a parody of Robinson Crusoe, the island Sucroe lands on
is heavily populated by friendly natives, all of whom
are named after days of the week and times of day
(e.g. Tuesday Dawn) as a reference to Friday.
The 1964 lm Robinson Crusoe on Mars recasts the
Robinson Crusoe story as a space adventure. Victor
Lundin played the rescued companion of Crusoe gure Commander Christopher Draper (Paul Mantee),
who dubs him Friday in reference to the novel.
Man Friday, a 1975 British lm, retold the story
from Man Fridays point of view. It starred Richard
Roundtree as Man Friday and Peter O'Toole as Crusoe.
In the 1981 French TV movie Vendredi ou la Vie
sauvage, Friday was played by Gene Anthony Ray.
In the 1997 lm version of Robinson Crusoe,
William Takaku played Friday to Pierce Brosnan's
Crusoe.[2]
In the 2008 American TV series Crusoe, Friday was
played by Tongayi Chirisa.
In the 2010 series Terriers, Hank jokingly refers to
Britt as his Man Friday.
In the 2015 lm Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony Stark
installs a digital personal assistant with a female Irish
voice named F.R.I.D.A.Y. as the operating system
of his Iron Man armor.

Idiom

The term Man Friday has become an idiom, still in mainstream usage, to describe an especially faithful servant or
ones best servant or right-hand man. The female equivalent is Girl Friday. The July 1, 1912, edition of the news
magazine Industrial World, Volume 46, Issue 2, published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, uses the term Girl Friday. The title of the 1940 movie His Girl Friday alludes
to it and may have popularised it.

Notes

[1] The portrayal of Caribs as cannibals is still controversial;

as recently as 2006, complaints were made about the portrayal of Caribs in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Mans Chest.

REFERENCES

5 References
[1] L'cole des Robinsons, chapter 18, Jules Verne.
[2] William Takaku on IMDB

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1

Text

Friday (Robinson Crusoe) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_(Robinson_Crusoe)?oldid=749302697 Contributors: Marteau,

Andres, David Gerard, Luis Dantas, Beardo, Yekrats, Finn-Zoltan, MistToys, MementoVivere, Ta bu shi da yu, Grutness, MarkGallagher, Olaf Simons, BDD, Kitch, Falcorian, Woohookitty, Dodiad, GregorB, 790, BD2412, Rwalker, Naught101, SmackBot, Lainagier,
Master Deusoma, EddyH, TimBentley, Aridd, Matchups, Thorsen, Oscar O Oscar, DwightKingsbury, Clarityend, MightyWarrior, Kennethlaw, Cydebot, PamD, TonyTheTiger, JustAGal, Gmgarretson, Poga, Kedi the tramp, AlmostReadytoFly, Simon Peter Hughes, R'n'B,
Wikipeterproject, Steel1943, Bovineboy2008, A4bot, Deipnosopher, Zoltan Simon, Legoktm, Rlendog, Goustien, ClueBot, Unbuttered
Parsnip, Kitsunegami, Kbdankbot, Addbot, Tassedethe, I is da gr8est, Luckas-bot, Kjell Knudde, AnomieBOT, Russia333, MTeacher1965,
Password10, FrescoBot, Brightonjon, DrilBot, Tamariki, Spidey104, ApusChin, Wobblegenerator, GoingBatty, Anonnim, ClueBot NG,
Wizard21212, Kanghuitari, Lionsfanatic7, Bbdesignservices, RickyDix, Mlcorcoran, BLebow4500 and Anonymous: 43

6.2

Images

File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0

Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007
File:Robinson_Crusoe_and_Man_Friday_Offterdinger.jpg Source:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/
Robinson_Crusoe_and_Man_Friday_Offterdinger.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Carl Oterdinger Original artist: Carl
Oterdinger (1829-89)

6.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0