Known all over the world. It very quickly became popular among readers from all countries and was translated into almost all languages of the world. Many years have passed since Daniel Defoe wrote this work, but even now it is read with great curiosity and excites the imagination. Thousands of people learn about the story of Robinson Crusoe for the first time, millions of readers re-read this book again, and everyone finds something of their own in it, everyone sympathizes with the hero. Children play Robinson Crusoe, his name is used in Everyday life, no longer referring to the work itself. The story of Robinson Crusoe has ceased to be the story of a specific person, it has become a symbol.
Robinson Crusoe was an ordinary man. He was not noted for any special abilities. This is what makes him so close to us, his actions are understandable to everyone, and his thoughts and life principles evoke sympathy and kindness towards the hero.
A person who did not occupy a very important place in society, who was used to living using the wealth of his time. He finds himself in a situation in which he has no opportunity to live in normal conditions. Moreover, Robinson is in difficulty; the future scares him. Isolation from civilization seems worse to him than death. He is overcome with despair. This is how the author depicts Robinson in the first days of his life on a desert island.
However, over time, Robinson is forced to think about how to stay alive in new circumstances, and despair changes to hope. Only during illness does sadness return again, intensified by the fact that Robinson feels very lonely.
When he got to the island, he had only what was on it. The tools that were salvaged from the ship helped to survive, and persistent work made it possible. Robinson builds a home for himself and grows grains from the grains he finds. The goats that lived on the island become his livestock and provide him with milk and cheese. It took several years of persistent work to grow enough bread from a few grains. For Robinson, these grains meant more than just the opportunity to eat bread. This was his victory over evil fate.
Improving his living conditions, Robinson does not give up hope of returning home. Tired of waiting for some ship that will sail near the island and be able to save him, Robinson decides to build a boat.
The work contains many examples of what a person can do with unshakable will and determination. Not a single test could break Robinson's character. He challenged the odds and defeated them.
Robinson's indestructible character personifies the best traits of all humanity. A person should not be afraid of difficulties. This idea is the conclusion of the work “Robinson Crusoe”. And that is why the story of an ordinary sailor, who, thanks to persistent work and indestructible character, managed to survive and rise above adverse circumstances, will excite readers of this wonderful book for a long time. Since Robinson's example is relevant not only on a deserted island, but also in everyday life.
I don't like Robinson Crusoe because he bad person. You know this yourself if you have read a book about him. It was he who sold the boy Xuri into slavery, which facilitated his escape from slavery. He was the one who had plantations in Brazil, and we know who worked on those plantations.
It was he who, after 20 years of loneliness, made the first person not a friend, not an employee, but a servant, and gave him an inhuman name instead of a name. He is such a miser that most of his records are a list of property, and he saves money that he does not need on the island just in case.
But we must be fair and give him his due.
He did not sit at home, but repeatedly went on wanderings. True, he took with him some goods for trade, but it seems that his commercial activities did not give him profit. When he eventually received the money, it was from his Brazilian estates. So, the goods were more for human eyes, and the sea was calling him, but the sea was unfriendly to Robinson. Each journey ended in disaster, one of which glorified the hero.
He spent many years on a desert island, alone, but despair recedes in the first days. He begins to work: he transports from the wrecked ship everything that was not stolen by the sea. Builds housing. He studies that piece of land lost in the ocean where he was brought. Teaches a parrot. Tames the kids and creates his own herd. On this isolated island, he creates "humanity" in one person with its own culture, where the greatest value becomes not money, but human work. Over time, he creates a whole commune of people different cultures and nations united by a common destiny.
Hardy, brave and strong, hard-working and patient, he commands respect from everyone and has been popular for a century. I respect him too, at least for the fact that he didn’t go wild, didn’t forget his faith and language, was able to overcome prejudice against the Spaniards, was smart and brave during a skirmish with pirates, knew how to do any thing, and when he couldn’t, he learned. Because he felt fear and despair, and was not subjected to it and remained the son of humanity, and not the animal world, as happened with Alexander Selkirk, one of Crusoe’s prototypes.
And I can’t forget that he treated people of a different race that way.
I respect you and I don't like you.
The book about the adventures of Robinson Crusoe can rightfully be considered one of the most famous works in European literature. Even those of our compatriots who are not particularly inclined to spend time reading will certainly be able to tell that they once upon a time read about the amazing adventures of a sailor who lived alone for almost thirty years on a desert island. However, far fewer readers will remember who wrote Robinson Crusoe. In order not to return to the book again, but to immerse yourself again in the atmosphere of a carefree childhood, re-read this article and remember what the author wrote about, thanks to whom the amazing adventures of the sailor saw the light of day.
Robinson Crusoe and Munchausen
The events in the life of a sailor, described by Daniel Defoe, are one of the books of the 17th and 18th centuries, which took a special place among works of children's literature along with the adventures of Baron Munchausen. But if the story about the famous eccentric who claimed that he pulled himself out of the swamp by his hair is reread by adults only during a period of nostalgia for childhood, then the novel that Daniel Defoe created is a completely different matter. It should be noted that the name of the author who wrote about the amazing adventures of the baron is known only to specialist bibliographers.
Robinson Crusoe. Theme of the work
We will try to answer the question of what is the main task of this work. Those who remember the story in which Robinson Crusoe found himself, the content of this work, will understand why the author created it. The main theme of the novel is the problem of a person from a civilized society who finds himself alone with nature.
About the creation of the work
The work is quite typical for realistic novels in England at that time.
The prototype of the main character is the sailor Selkirk and, of course, Daniel Defoe himself. The author endowed Robinson with his love of life and perseverance. However, Robinson is almost 30 years older than the writer: when the middle-aged sailor lands on his native shore, full of energy, educated by Defoe, is already operating in London.
Unlike Selkirk, Robinson spends not four and a half years on a desert island, but 28 long years. The author consciously puts his hero in such conditions. After his stay on Robinson remains a civilized person.
Daniel Defoe was able to write with amazing accuracy about the climate, flora and fauna of the island where Robinson ended up. The coordinates of this place coincide with the coordinates of the island of Tobago. This is explained by the fact that the author carefully studied the information described in books such as “The Discovery of Guiana”, “Travels Around the World” and others.
The novel saw the light
When you read this work, you understand that whoever wrote Robinson Crusoe took great pleasure in working on his brainchild. The work done by Daniel Defoe was appreciated by his contemporaries. The book was published on April 25, 1719. Readers liked the novel so much that in the same year the work was republished 4 times, and in total during the author’s lifetime - 17 times.
The writer's skill was appreciated: readers believed in the incredible adventures of the main character, who spent almost 30 years on a desert island after a shipwreck.
Robinson Crusoe is the third son of a wealthy man. Since childhood, the boy dreams of sea travel. One of his brothers died, the other went missing, so his father is against him going to sea.
In 1651 he goes to London. The ship he is sailing on is wrecked.
From London he decides to sail to Guinea, now the ship is captured by a Turkish corsair. Robinson falls into slavery. For two years he has no hope of escaping, but when surveillance weakens, Robinson finds an opportunity to escape. He, the Moor and Xuri are sent to fish. Throwing the Moor overboard, he persuades Xuri to flee together.
A Portuguese ship picks them up at sea and takes them to Brazil. Robinson sells Xuri to the ship's captain.
In Brazil, the main character settles down thoroughly, buys land, works, in a word, comes to the “golden mean” that his father dreamed of.
However, his thirst for adventure pushes him to travel to the shores of Guinea for labor force. Neighboring planters promise to run the farm in his absence and hand over slaves to him along with everyone else. His ship is wrecked. He is the only one left alive.
Having difficulty reaching the shore, Robinson spends his first night in a tree. From the ship he takes tools, gunpowder, weapons, food. Robinson understands that he subsequently visits the ship 12 times and finds “a heap of gold” there, philosophically noting its uselessness.
Robinson arranges for himself reliable housing. He hunts goats, and then domesticates them, establishes agriculture, and constructs a calendar (notches on a post). After 10 months of staying on the island, he has his own “dacha,” which the main character locates in a hut in that part of the island where hares, foxes, turtles live, and melons and grapes grow.
Robinson has a cherished dream - to build a boat and sail to the mainland, but what he has built can only allow him to travel near the island.
One day the main character discovers a footprint on the island: for two years he has been possessed by the horror of being eaten by savages.
Robinson hopes to save a savage who is destined “for slaughter” in order to find a comrade, assistant or servant.
Towards the end of his stay on the island, Friday appears in his life, whom he teaches three words: “yes”, “no”, “mister”. Together they free the Spaniard and Friday's father, captives of the savages. Soon after this, the crew of an English ship arrives on the island, taking their captain, his assistant and the ship's passenger prisoner. Robinson frees the prisoners. The captain takes him to England.
In June 1686, Robinson returns from his journey. His parents died long ago. All income from the Brazilian plantation is returned to him. He takes care of two nephews, marries (at 61), and has two sons and a daughter.
Reasons for the book's success
The first thing that contributed to the success of the novel was the high skill of the one who wrote Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe did a tremendous amount of work studying geographical sources. This helped him describe in detail the features of the flora and fauna of the uninhabited island. The author's obsession with his work, the creative enthusiasm that he experienced - all this made his work unusually reliable, the reader sincerely believed in Defoe's plan.
The second reason for success is, of course, the fascination of the plot. This is an adventure novel of an adventurous nature.
Dynamics of personality development of the main character
It is easy to imagine that at first, upon arriving on the island, Robinson felt the deepest despair. He is just a weak man left alone with the sea. Robinson Crusoe is cut off from what he is used to. Civilization makes us weak.
However, he later realizes how lucky he is to be alive. Realizing his situation, the main character begins to settle down on the island.
During his twenty-eight years of living on a desert island, Robinson learned a lot that helped him survive. The remoteness from civilization forced him to master the skills of making fire, making candles, dishes, and oil. This man independently made his own house and furniture, learned to bake bread, weave baskets, and cultivate the land.
Perhaps the most valuable skill that Robinson Crusoe acquired over many years is the ability to live, and not exist, in any conditions. He did not complain about fate, but only did everything to make it better for him; hard work helped him in this.
Psychological character of the novel
The work about Robinson Crusoe can rightfully be considered the first psychological novel. The author tells us about the character of the main character, the trials he endures. Whoever wrote Robinson Crusoe tells an unusually accurate account of the experiences of a man on a desert island. The writer reveals the recipe thanks to which main character finds the strength not to lose courage. Robinson survived because he managed to pull himself together and work hard without giving in to despair.
In addition, Defoe endowed the main character with the ability to analyze his behavior. Robinson kept a diary, which for a long time was his only interlocutor. Main character learned to see the good in everything that happened to him. He acted knowing that things could have been much worse. A difficult life required him to be an optimist.
About the character of the main character
Robinson Crusoe, the chapters of Defoe's work tell us a lot about this hero, is a very realistic character. Like any other person, this sailor has good and bad qualities.
In Xuri's case, he reveals himself to be a traitor, unable to empathize with others. It is characteristic, for example, that Friday calls him master, and not friend. Robinson speaks of himself as the owner of the island or even as the king of this land.
However, the author gives the main character many positive qualities. He understands that only he himself can be responsible for all the misfortunes in his life. Robinson is a strong personality who constantly acts and achieves improvements in his destiny.
about the author
The life of Daniel Defoe himself is also replete with adventures and full of contradictions. Having graduated from the theological academy, he, however, spent his entire life quite long life engaged in commercial enterprises associated with high risks. It is known that he was one of the participants in the uprising against royal power, after which he went into hiding for a long time.
All his activities were connected with a dream that was clear to many: he wanted to get rich.
By the age of 20, he had established himself as a successful businessman, but subsequently suffered bankruptcy, after which, escaping from debtor's prison, he lived in a shelter for criminals under an assumed name.
Later he studied journalism and became an influential political figure.
Defoe hid from creditors until the end of his days and died completely alone.
Reviews of the book "Robinson Crusoe" allow you to get a complete picture of this work. This is the famous novel by the Englishman Daniel Defoe, which was first published in 1719. His main topic- moral rebirth of man in communication with nature. The book is based on real events. The Scottish boatswain Alexander Selkirk found himself in a similar situation.
Creation of a novel
Reviews of the book "Robinson Crusoe" are collected in this article. They allow us to find out what this novel, which today many consider the first in the literature of the Enlightenment, was dedicated to.
By the time of writing this novel, Daniel Defoe already had several hundred works under his belt. Many of them could not be recognized because the author often used pseudonyms.
Basis of the work
In reviews of the book "Robinson Crusoe" it is often mentioned that the work is based on real story, which was told to a British journalist by Captain Woods Rogers. Defoe most likely read it in the newspapers.
Rogers talked about how the sailors abandoned his assistant Selkirk, who had an extremely violent and unbalanced character, on a desert island in the Atlantic Ocean. He quarreled with the captain and crew, for which he was disembarked, provided with a gun, a supply of gunpowder and tobacco, and a Bible. He spent almost four and a half years alone. When he was found, he was dressed in goat skins and looked extremely wild.
From for long years Alone, he completely forgot how to talk, and all the way home he hid crackers in different places on the ship. It took a lot of time, but they finally managed to return him to the state of a civilized person.
The main character Defoe is very different from his prototype. The author, of course, significantly embellished the situation by sending Robinson to a desert island for 28 years. Moreover, during this time he did not lose his human appearance at all, but was able to adapt to life alone. Therefore, in reviews of Defoe's book "Robinson Crusoe" it is often noted that this novel is a shining example an optimistic work that gives the reader strength and enthusiasm. The main thing is that this book remains timeless; for many generations the novel has become a favorite work.
At what age do they read a novel?
Today it is worth recognizing that this novel is mainly read in adolescence. For young people, this is primarily an exciting adventure story. But we should not forget that the book poses important literary and cultural problems.
In the book, the hero has to resolve many moral issues. Therefore, it is useful that teenagers read the novel. At the very beginning of their lives, they receive a high-quality “vaccination” against meanness and cynicism; they learn from Defoe’s hero that money is not the main thing in this life. After all, one of the key roles in the work is played by the transformation of the main character. From an avid traveler who saw enrichment as the main thing in his life, he turns into a person who strongly doubts the need for money.
Significant in this regard is the episode at the beginning of the novel, when the hero is just thrown onto a desert island. The ship he was sailing on crashed nearby and can be reached without much difficulty. The main character stocks up with everything he might need on the island. Supplies, weapons, gunpowder, tools. On one of his trips to the ship, Robinson discovers a barrel full of gold and reasons that he could easily exchange it for matches or other useful things.
Characteristics of the hero
When characterizing the main character, it is worth noting that at the very beginning Robinson appears before us as an exemplary English entrepreneur. He is the embodiment of a typical representative of bourgeois ideology. By the end of the novel, he turns into a person who considers constructive and creative abilities to be the main thing in his life.
Talking about the youth of the protagonist, the author notes that Robinson dreamed of the sea from his youth, like many boys of his generation. The fact is that England at that time was one of the leading naval powers in the world. Therefore, the profession of a sailor was honorable, popular and, importantly, highly paid. It is worth recognizing that in his wanderings Robinson is driven solely by the desire to get rich. He does not strive to join a ship as a sailor and learn all the intricacies of seamanship. Instead, he travels as a passenger, seeking to become a successful merchant at the first opportunity.
Analysis of the novel
Analyzing this novel, it is worth noting that it became the first educational novel in literature. This is what made him go down in art history. At that time, work was perceived by many as a punishment and an undesirable necessity. The roots of this lie in a perverted interpretation of the Bible. At that time, it was believed that God punished the descendants of Adam and Eve with labor because they disobeyed his orders.
Daniel Defoe is the first author in whom labor becomes the basis of human activity, and not just a means of obtaining (earning) the most necessary things. This was consistent with the sentiments that existed among the Puritan moralists at that time. They argued that work was a worthy activity that should not be ashamed or avoided. This is exactly what the novel Robinson Crusoe teaches.
Main character progress
The reader can follow the progress in the development of the main character. Finding himself on a desert island, he is faced with the fact that he can do practically nothing. Only over time, overcoming many failures, does he learn how to grow bread, care for domestic animals, weave baskets and build a reliable home. He learns all this through trial and error.
For Robinson, work becomes a salvation that helps him not only survive, but also grow spiritually.
Character Features
First of all, Robinson Crusoe differs from other literary characters of that time in the absence of extremes. He is a hero who completely belongs to the real world.
In no case can he be called a dreamer or visionary, like Cervantes' Don Quixote. This is a prudent person who knows the value of money and work. He is like a fish in water in practical management. At the same time, he is quite selfish. But this trait is understandable to most readers; it is aimed at the bourgeois ideal - personal enrichment.
Why has this character been so popular with readers for several centuries? In that main secret that educational experiment that Defoe staged on the pages of his novel. For the author's contemporaries, the interest of the situation described primarily lay in the exceptionality of the situation in which the main character found himself.
The main features of this novel are verisimilitude and its maximum persuasiveness. Daniel Defoe manages to achieve the illusion of authenticity with the help of a large number of small details that, it seems, simply cannot be invented.
ROBINSON KRUZO (English Robinson Crosoe) is the hero of the novel by D. Defoe “The Strange Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Written by Himself” (1719). Image of R.K. has great universal significance. This side of him was especially noted by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his novel “Emile, or About 351 Education” (1762). Finding himself on a desert island after a shipwreck, R.K. single-handedly goes through many stages in the formation of humanity as a working community, learns agriculture, construction, crafts, and over time, when the Spaniards arrive on the island, gradually rises to fair forms of social life. However, R.K. not initially divorced from the conquests of civilization. When the empty ship (all the crew members, except R.K., died) washes up on the shore, he takes out everything that could be useful to him in his later life, and after some hesitation, he also takes the money remaining on the ship. Robinson Crusoe was preceded by a great deal of travel literature. Inner world This hero was largely defined by the allegorical book of the Puritan writer John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's Progress (1678). The difference between R.K. the fact that religiosity in him constantly struggles with sanity. Defoe's novel started literary direction: works called Robinsonades narrated the clash of an isolated person or group of people with a hitherto unconquered nature. (" Mysterious Island"Jules Verne). The immediate impetus for the appearance of this book was the true story of the Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, described in the journalism of that time, who quarreled with the captain of his ship and landed on an uninhabited island belonging to the Juan Fernandez archipelago in Pacific Ocean, where he spent four years and four months until he was picked up by an English ship under the command of famous traveler Woods Rogers. This man first reported the story of Selkirk in his subsequently published diaries. There is information that Defoe himself met with Selkirk, at that time famous journalist. Big success"Robinson Crusoe" prompted Defoe to quickly write its second part - " Further Adventures Robinson Crusoe" (1719). R.K. revisits his island, where he creates a model colony, travels to other countries, including Russia. During this journey, he is almost killed when he is attacked by a pack of wolves. A year later, Defoe published the didactic book “Serious Reflections on the Life and Surprising Adventures of R.K., with His Vision of the Angelic World” (1720). In this unexpected and poorly received book, Defoe argued that the adventures of R.C. represent an allegorical depiction of the life of the author himself, who had to face all kinds of injustice. Defoe compares his enemies to “the worst kind of savages and cannibals.”
Lit.: Elistratova A.A. Defoe // History English literature. M.; L., 1945. T.1, issue. 2.
(based on the novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe)
"Robinson Crusoe" is a book known throughout the world. It very quickly became popular among readers from all countries and was translated into almost all languages of the world. Many years have passed since Daniel Defoe wrote this work, but it is still read with great interest and excites the imagination of readers. Thousands of people learn about the story of Robinson Crusoe for the first time, millions of readers reread this book over and over again, and everyone finds something of their own in it, everyone sympathizes with the hero. Children play Robinson Crusoe; they use his name in everyday life, no longer referring to the work itself. The story of Robinson Crusoe has ceased to be the story of a specific person, it has become a symbol.
Robinson Crusoe was probably an ordinary person, with his joys and sorrows. He may not have had any special talents. This is what makes him so close to us, his actions are understandable to everyone, and his thoughts and life principles evoke sympathy and kindness towards the hero. Moreover, Robinson is in a difficult situation; the future scares him. Isolation from civilization seems worse to him than death. He is overcome with despair. This is how the author depicts Robinson in the first days of his life on a deserted island.
However, over time, Robinson is forced to think about how to survive in new conditions, and despair is replaced by hope. Only during illness does the sadness return again, intensified by the fact that he feels very lonely.
When Robinson got to the island, he had only what was on it. The tools that were salvaged from the ship helped to survive, and persistent work made it possible. Robinson builds a home for himself and grows bread from the grains he finds. The goats that lived on the island become his livestock and provide him with milk and cheese. It took several years of persistent work to grow enough bread from a few grains. For Robinson, these grains meant more than just the opportunity to eat bread. This was his victory over evil fate.
Improving his living conditions, Robinson decides to build a boat.
The work contains many examples of what a person can do with an unshakable will and determination. Not a single test could break Robinson's character. He challenged the odds and defeated them.
Robinson's indestructible character personifies the best traits of all humanity. A person should not be afraid of difficulties. This idea is the conclusion of the work “Robinson Crusoe”. And that is why the story of an ordinary sailor, who, thanks to persistent work and indestructible character, managed to survive and rise above adverse circumstances, will excite readers of this wonderful book for a long time. Since Robinson's example is relevant not only on a deserted island, but also in everyday life.
