Tiểu luận tiếng anh : Robinson Crusoe – A Representative of the English Bourgeoisie in the early 18th century

Tiểu luận tiếng anh : Robinson Crusoe – A Representative of the English Bourgeoisie in the early 18th century PART A: INTRODUCTION The 18th century saw Great Britain rapidly growing into a capitalist country. While in France the bourgeoisie was j

Hanoi open university

Faculty of English and Modern Languages

PART A: INTRODUCTION

country While in France the bourgeoisie was just beginning its struggleagainst feudalism, the English bourgeoisie had already become one of the

ruling classes In reality, the phenomena” land hedging and soil plundering”

occurred Farmers were driven out of their own lands and fields were turnedinto pastures for sheep-raising and wood-making industries They had to jointhe force of cheap labor and working in such factories England became atypical example of initial accumulation of capitalism Holding power ineconomics, the English bourgeoisie further encroached on the politic field.They became the driving force in the English society After actuallyoverthrowing the feudalism and establishing the Institutional Monarch system,they led the country to the capitalist path and at that time, compromised withthe feudal class

Together with the dragging state in terms of politics, economicgrowth took tremendously prospective changes on the capitalist way of

intensively industrial development The industrial revolution began: newmachinery was invented that turned Britain into the first capitalist power ofthe world The capitalist path paved the way for heavier exploitation relations.The rocketing growth of industries required the need to trade with foreigncountries and to search for new sources of raw material, labour and market.Thus, mostly under the pressure of the bourgeoisie, England waged manywars for colonial expansions By the middle of the 18th century, England

gained many colonies It was a common saying that ” The sun never sets in

the Great Britain”.

The 18th century is known in the history of European culture as theperiod of Enlightenment In England the period of Enlightenment followed thebourgeois revolution.” Enlightenment” indicates the historical role of thebourgeoisie in the age of the Bourgeois Revolution in comparison with thecorrupt feudalism by recalling the contrast between dark and light It also

century The Enlightenment was a powerful intellectual movement to theEnlighteners The central problem of the Enlightenment ideology was that ofman and his nature The Enlighteners thought it was their duty to enlightenpeople and insisted on a systematic education for all However, the EnglishEnlighteners had little revolutionary aims in their views and actions.

The Enlightenment epoch in English literature may be divided intothree periods: Early Enlightenment, Mature Enlightenment, and Late

century or in the early Enlightenment will mostly be concentrated This periodsaw the flourishing of journalism Numerous journals and newspapers notonly acquainted their readers with the situation at home and abroad, but alsohelped to shape the views of people Most popular were the satirical

moralizing journals The Tatler , The Spectator, The Englishman edited by

Joseph Addison and Richard Steele In their essays, these two writers touchedon various problems of political, social and family life The essays paved theway for the realistic novels brought into English literature by Daniel Defoeand Jonathan Swift.

Furthermore, at that time, there appeared numerous works aboutvoyages and all kind of adventures that became popular People who liked toreach and explore remote land like Robinson Crusoe in the same-named novelby Daniel Defoe became typical form of people at that time.

Daniel Defoe was born in London in 1660 His father , whose name

was Foe, wanted him to become a priest, but he decided to engage inbussiness.His father was wealthy enough to give Defoe a good education andfuture It was Defoe’s cherished desire to become a rich merchant , but hisbussiness was not unsuccessful and he went bankrupt more than once As aresult, he was always in debt The only branch of business that he proved quitesuccessfully is literature His first literary works were satirical poems dealingwith the urgent problems of the time Daniel Defoe is also rightly consideredthe father of the English and the European novel His first and most popular

novel “ The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe”or “ Robinson Crusoe” in short was written in 1719 when Defoe was about60 It was followed by Captain Singleton, Moll Flanders, Roxana and some

other novels of adventure

Defoe’s strength as novelist lies in his realism Every novel writtenby him could make readers feel the air of verisimilitude In fact, he was so

successful in writing ” Robinson Crusoe” Through this realistic novel, the

were best reflected Robinson Crusoe, the hero of the novel, became thetypical representative of the English bourgeoisie at the time.

hand in hand with the process colonization of other countries and with anintensive growth of colonial trade British merchant ships could be seen indifferent parts of the worlds The British bourgeoisie was always sensible tomake and accumulate money as well as property This would somehow leadthem to have quite poor spiritual lives because they were only concernedmaking money.

good qualities as optimism, industriousness, human strength, courage, and so

influenced by the socio-political background of the time.This class was indeeda complicated entity characterized by progressive and regressive featuresmixing and confining to one another as well

These features were vividly reflected in “ Robinson

Crusoe”written by Daniel Defoe In this novel, Robinson Cruso became atypical character of the English bourgeoisie in the early 18th century.

Firstly, Robinson Crusoe was a typical figure of adventurous and

enterprising nature In fact, he wanted to discover everything, especially his

longing to the sea It is understandable because at that time, going to the seawas considered the only way to discover and visit new land as well as theworld outside Therfore, his dream of going to the sea coincided with hisdream of discovery and adventure Robinson liked traveling so much with noregard to possible dangers and challenges he might cope with Right at the

begining of the novel, some of his confessions can be seen: “ my head began

to be filled very early with rambling thought” (1- p.1) He once said to his

mother: “ my thoughts were so entirely bent on up seeing the world” (1- p.6).

He dared to abondon everything to pursue his longing to discoveries andadventure He also ventured to enter a new stage of his life.

Robinson Crusoe did not only travel as in case of a normal tourist oran enthusiastic adventurer with his scientific discovery His later voyageswere especially attached with the comercial calculation on the trade ships.Robinson got acquainted with this business quickly He once confessed that hetruly became a trader.

He wanted to challenge himself with his own decision He even

stated: “ But I that was born be my own destroyer could no more resist the

offer than I could restrain my first rambling design, etc In a word, I would gowith all my heart”.(1- p.32).

For the first time, Robinson boarded on a trade ship and later he was

so cheerful to see the shared profits He said: “I took delight to learn, this

voyage made me both a sailor and amerchant; for I brought home 5 pounds, 9ounces of gold dust for my adventure, which yielded me in London at myreturn almost 300 l, and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts.” (1- p.13).

As a merchant, he traded in many places such as Guinea, Sallie and AfricanShore.He used his money to buy nmany articles to load on the ship The factthat Robinson did engage in slave trades for the first time as he sold Xury, asmall Negro boy to the captain of a ship A genuine merchant, a man of thebourgeoisie was all the more plainly emerging.

Robinson Crusoe could not give up this nature even after undergoingsuch a horible misfortune as a castawy on a desert island for more than 28years To the end of the novel, Defoe repainted a true merchant Robinson The

hero started a new trading voyage He had now a vast capital of “ 4 or 5,000

pieces of eight” He continued telling about his business” the ship being thenreturned, he sent me account that they had accepted for the offer and hadremitted 33,000 pieces of eight to a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon” (1-

p.256).At the same time, his plantation in Brazil mad him a good fortunemade from his capital rather than from his labour For this reason, heindirectly lived on the surplus being created by the other people’s labor.

To sum up, the adventurous and enterprising nature of Robinson canbe seen clearly Through this point, he reflects naturally and clearly the image

Secondly, Robinson Crusoe was a man of labor and strength,which was said to be a positive feature of the English bourageoisie In fact,

he managed to stabilize his living and built up his own assets by his ownhands Defoe succeeded in giving a magic reincarnation to Robinson.Robinson Crusoe was no more inexperienced youth, but now on the desertisland, a strong, capable man who could withstand all the difficulties thanks to

labor He firmly stated: “ It was in vain to sit still and wish for what not to be

had.” (1- p.40) He “ went on, and working everyday, as [his] strength andtime allowed” (1- p.68) In that direction of his will, he went to work

immediately He spent 13 days sailing to the ship to take everything there

ashore These joourneys required him to “ labor very hard all day” (1- p.42).

With a few tools rescued from the ship, he built a hut and made aboat When Robinson Crusoe arrived at the island, the only provision that hehad was tobaco He also found a river of freshwater to drink from Hesalvaged more food from the remains of his ship blown to the island, but heknew that it would not last He went exploring and found out that there weremany goats on the island, and delicious fruits Later he discovered that theempty husks of corn he had thrown on the ground grew and became stalks ofbarley From this experience, he cultivated a field of corn To make sure thathe had enough food to last him, he tamed goats and put them into pens tomake sure that he would always have goats to eat if nothing else Throughouthis stay on the island, he succeeded in growing cornfields, rice fields, andhaving pens for goats Although food was a major conflict in the begining ofhis isolation on the island, Robinson Crusoe was able to overcome it andmaintain a very successful way of obtaining food.

Among such hardships emerged his will and admirable effort He

always believed: “labor and patience carried me through” (1- p.87) He also

spent two months more to make something for containing food and five othermonths to launch the boat into the seawater He did a great deal of toils

to accomplish his plan for “ [he] learnt not to despair any work, etc.”

(1- p.70) When seeing anything possible to do, he attempted to finish it all.

His motivation urged him all the time to get ahead in his life

Every effort Robinson made met both his present demand and hisfuture concerning He always had objectives to attain and to better his actuallife: a fine place to live in, good and delicious food to eat and to drink, etc.Most notable, he made a candle by saving the tallow of goats and making thewick of some oaken His creativity through labor was exposed in time.

According to him: “all this would answer [his] end, etc.”(1- p.72) For him,

labor was never separated from creativity.

Thanks to labor, Robinson gradually obtained many things He couldescape from despair and fear by working wholeheartedly at any time possiblewith the view to bettering his life Though he sometimes had to spend a lot of

time on making simplest things, he never lost heart In fact, “ I worked hard

till indeed , my strength was almost exhausted.” (1- p.80), he said His lust for

life and his inventiveness helped him overcome the hardships while hispowers of deduction and observation led him to important discoveries Hewas a truly heroic character, a man dominating nature

To sum up, Robinson was a man of labor, untiring and industrious.A man whose will and strength overwhelming nature appeared consistently inRobinson That is the reason why he stood steadily on his own feet Robinson,in the passive position at first by one way or another, attempted to win overthe nature This also truly satisfied the world outlook of the bourgeoisie at thattime Moreover, he was the assertion of a lofty and beautiful truth and of theauthor’s belief in noble values of laboring people The story of his labor is likea song praising human untiring labor

One of the most important relationships that exist in DanielDefoe’s “ Robinson Crusoe” is that between Crusoe and Friday Thisrelation was the best reflection of the bourgeois relations The man, named

Friday because of the day he was saved, gave thanks to Robinson for saving

his life by showing a position of subservience to him In the novel, the themeof master servant relationship is clear After being the master of the wholeisland, nature and animals, Robinson Crusoe was successful to be a masterover human beings too Since the first day in which he saw Friday, he decidedto make him his slave in order to help him with cultivation and other work heachieved on the island as he already felt that he was like a king or a empror A very strong relation linked between both of Robinson Crusoe andFriday It’s the relation of love and mutualism as Friday shared Crusoe in allthe work and activities on the island There is also a very important relationthat links the two man It is the spiritual or the religious relationship It wasCrusoe that teached Friday the rituals of the Christian doctrine, he was able tochange him from cannibalism to a real Christian man who believed in God.Master servant relationship in “ Robinson Crusoe” can also be seen as arelation of capitalism as they devided labour among them with equal shares The fact is that Robinson saved Friday from the cannibals but the

motive urged him to do so was that “ [he] was call’d plainly by Providence to

save this poor creature” (1- p.170) It seemed that Robinson tended to revise

everything in God’s will and his Providence He came to a philosophy that

“ We are all made by some secret power” (1- p.77) Friday was a worshiper of

the pagan god Benamuckee Although Crusoe claimed freedom of religion onthe island, he slowly attempted to reform Friday into a believer of God In thisnovel, Crusoe described Friday as a Protestant, even before he had started hisreform of the man the fact is not because Crusoe disliked pagan religion, forhe allowed the other natives to practice their pagan rites, but that Friday wasthe servant of Crusoe Crusoe exerted the power he believed he had asFriday’s master to change the man as he wished He wanted Friday to beProtestant and changed him accordingly without any thought to the wishes of