Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift

Daniel Defoe & jonathan swift

ROBISON CRUSOE

Gulliver's travels

THE LIFE OF DANIEL DEFOE

Daniel Defoe was born in London. Like his character Robison Crusoe, Defoe was a third child. His mother and father, James and Mary Foe, were Presbyterian dissenters. As a boy, Daniel witnessed two of the greatest disasters of the seventeenth century: a recurrence of the plague and the great fire of London. These events may have shaped his fascination with catastrophes and survival in his writing. He studied in one of the best academies and then became a merchant dealing in various products such as wine and tobacco. When Queen Anne ascended the throne, he was arrested and tried because his position in defence of the dissenters. To be relased he became a secret agent of the government , supporting either Tories or Whigs according to what minister was in power. He wrote and published his journal, "The review" and his first novel, Robison Crusoe, Moll Flanders and Captain singleton. Defoe also died in London because he was sick.

DAniel defoe

novels

Daniel Defoe is considered the father of the English novel. He never planned or revised his work. Moreover his novels are fictional autobiographies and they pretended to be true by stories, memories provided by the hero.

His novels consist of a series of episodes and adventures held together by the unifying presence of a single hero and they are not planned for a critical audience.

Robinson Crusoe

plot

The novel Robinson Crusoe talks about Robinson Crusoe, a character who becomes marooned on an island off the north-east coast of South America. Crusoe is on a ship bound for Africa, where he plans to buy slaves for his plantations in South America, when the ship is wrecked on an island and Crusoe is the only survivor. He keeps himself sane by keeping a diary, manages to build himself a shelter, and finds a way of salvaging useful goods from the wrecked ship.

Robinson Crusoe

plot

Twelve years pass in this way, when Crusoe finds a single human footprint in the sand. But he has to wait another ten years before figuring out whose footprint it was. Natives from the nearby islands have visited the island, and when they next return, Crusoe attacks them. He takes one of the natives captive, and names him Man Friday that’s the day of the week on which they first meet. Crusoe teaches Man Friday English and converts him to Christianity. Crusoe discovers that there are prisoners on an island nearby. Man Friday and Cruseo build a boat and they free the prisoners, who were Man Friday's father and a Spanish man.

Robinson Crusoe

plot

Meanwhile, a ship arrives at the island and the crew throw the captain and his loyal supporters onto the island. Before the ship can leave, Crusoe has teamed up with the captain and his men, and between them they retake the ship from the mutineers, who settle on the island while Crusoe takes the ship home to England. Robinson Crusoe has been away from England for many years. In England he has become wealthy, thanks to his plantations in Brazil so he gets married and settles down.

Robinson crusoe

the hero

It’s easy to understand the character of Robinson Crusoe if you understand that the only reason for his behaviour is to find an alternative to the model provided by his father.

In fact, the story begins with an act of disobedience when he chooses to stay alone but this culminat with his isolation on the island after the shipwreck. His life on the island suddenly develop the issue of the relationship between the individual and society.

Robinson crusoe

the style

This novel is narrated in the first person and gives to the audience a detailed and realistic description of everyday life through Robinson's perspective.

During all the story we can see Crusoe compiling, dividing and ranking his collected detailed data about everything he saw.

To underline the impression of reality, Defoe uses a simple and concrete language, full of matter-of-fact.

Robinson Crusoe

SETTING

WHEN? Second half of the 17th century WHERE? On a desert island Robinson, living on this island, started to build something to survive: he became the prototype of the English colonizer while his friend Friday became the symbol of the colonized.

Robinson Crusoe

themes

Pragmatism and individualism:

A spiritual autobiography:

Defoe decided to represent the English society during the 18th century. In the novel, Robinson Crusoe shows that all men can change their destiny through their actions, so with hard work always following the Bible and God’s will.

Robinson's diary contains references to God, Providence, sin and salvation. During the hard moments on the island, Robinson finds comfort in the Bible and in prayers. In fact he prays to God to be free from sin rather than to be rescued from the island.

Jonathan Swift was born in 1667 in Dublin from an English family. In fact, at the end of the glorious revolution in 1688 he moved back to England where he became the secretary of a Whig statesman who encouraged him to write his first satirical work.

jonathan swift

However, in 1694, when he returned to Ireland, he took an opposite position to the Whig government in London and started to write pamphlets denouncing the injustices that Ireland suffered from.

HIS STYLE

Swift is regarded as the greatest ironist in the English language. He achieves the effect of parody by combining ironic intent with the simplicity of his style and his diction. His use of satire shows his desire to instruct his reader by setting moral standards to reform social conduct.

HIS CONTROVERSIES

Swift is one of the most controversial English writers. His works show that he was seriously concerned with politics and society. He had a conservative attitude and he did not share the optimism of his age.

Gulliver's travels

plot

Gulliver's Travels, of Jonathan Swift,is a satirical novel and it consists of four parts, each dealing with the various adventures of the ship’s surgeon, Lemuel Coll-parts, in different countryand illustrated by maps of the places he visited.

Gulliver's travels

His Transformation

Gulliver, during the novel, changes a lot: at the beginning he was an educated man of English society, then he changed his mind about society, which is described in negative ways. At the end of the novel, Gulliver has become a completely different person.

In the first voyage, he recognised the authority of the king and he believed in the justice of the judicial system. Then he changed his mind, especially during the last two trips.

Gulliver's travels

His Transformation

During the last trip, Gulliver meets the Houyhnhnms and their servants, the Yahoo. Gulliver must accept the idea of ​​being similar to the Yahoos, but he can't.

During the third journey, Gulliver meets, in the land of Laputa, some mathematicians that they spend their time oppressing the inhabitants of other lands.

Gulliver's travels

STYLE

In each trip, Gulliver sees a different reality and, in front of them, he finds himself displaced. Gulliver tells his experiences in the first person, in a prose style full of details.

SATIRE

One of the mst important characteristics of satire is exaggeration. The reader is invited to see something very family in a ridiculous way. Swift's main technique is the voyage by an average man into an unknown land and his return back home. in Gulliver's Travels the prospective on human conduct is always changed and Swift's satirical aims are highlighted.

INTERPRETATION

The novel can be read on different levels. The most common interpretation was that Swift was a pessimist who wanted to ridicule the Europeans to rationality. A second interpretation suggests that the reader had not taken the book's ending seriously.Gulliver becomes the protagonist of satire and no longer speaks for the author but his dislike of the Yahoos and his conduct are a sort of warning for us.