Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe Summary
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Daniel Defoe
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Notes & Analysis
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Novel
Robinson Crusoe, as a young and impulsive wanderer, defied his
parents and went to sea. He was involved in a series of violent storms at sea
and was warned by the captain that he should not be a seafaring man. Ashamed to
go home, Crusoe boarded another ship and returned from a successful trip to
Africa. Taking off again, Crusoe met with bad luck and was taken prisoner in
Sallee. His captors sent Crusoe out to fish, and he used this to his advantage
and escaped, along with a slave.
He was rescued by a Portuguese ship and started a new adventure.
He landed in Brazil, and, after some time, he became the owner of a sugar
plantation. Hoping to increase his wealth by buying slaves, he aligned himself
with other planters and undertook a trip to Africa in order to bring back a
shipload of slaves. After surviving a storm, Crusoe and the others were
shipwrecked. He was thrown upon shore only to discover that he was the sole
survivor of the wreck.
Crusoe made immediate plans for food, and then shelter, to protect
himself from wild animals. He brought as many things as possible from the
wrecked ship, things that would be useful later to him. In addition, he began
to develop talents that he had never used in order to provide himself with
necessities. Cut off from the company of men, he began to communicate with God,
thus beginning the first part of his religious conversion. To keep his sanity
and to entertain himself, he began a journal. In the journal, he recorded every
task that he performed each day since he had been marooned.
As time passed, Crusoe became a skilled craftsman, able to
construct many useful things, and thus furnished himself with diverse comforts.
He also learned about farming, as a result of some seeds which he brought with
him. An illness prompted some prophetic dreams, and Crusoe began to reappraise
his duty to God. Crusoe explored his island and discovered another part of the
island much richer and more fertile, and he built a summer home there.
One of the first tasks he undertook was to build himself a canoe
in case an escape became possible, but the canoe was too heavy to get to the
water. He then constructed a small boat and journeyed around the island. Crusoe
reflected on his earlier, wicked life, disobeying his parents, and wondered if
it might be related to his isolation on this island.
After spending about fifteen years on the island, Crusoe found a
man's naked footprint, and he was sorely beset by apprehensions, which kept him
awake many nights. He considered many possibilities to account for the
footprint and he began to take extra precautions against a possible intruder.
Sometime later, Crusoe was horrified to find human bones scattered about the
shore, evidently the remains of a savage feast. He was plagued again with new
fears. He explored the nature of cannibalism and debated his right to interfere
with the customs of another race.
Crusoe was cautious for several years, but encountered nothing
more to alarm him. He found a cave, which he used as a storage room, and in
December of the same year, he spied cannibals sitting around a campfire. He did
not see them again for quite some time.
Later, Crusoe saw a ship in distress, but everyone was already
drowned on the ship and Crusoe remained companionless. However, he was able to
take many provisions from this newly wrecked ship. Sometime later, cannibals
landed on the island and a victim escaped. Crusoe saved his life, named him
Friday, and taught him English. Friday soon became Crusoe's humble and devoted
slave.
Crusoe and Friday made plans to leave the island and, accordingly,
they built another boat. Crusoe also undertook Friday's religious education, converting
the savage into a Protestant. Their voyage was postponed due to the return of
the savages. This time it was necessary to attack the cannibals in order to
save two prisoners since one was a white man. The white man was a Spaniard and
the other was Friday's father. Later the four of them planned a voyage to the
mainland to rescue sixteen compatriots of the Spaniard. First, however, they
built up their food supply to assure enough food for the extra people. Crusoe
and Friday agreed to wait on the island while the Spaniard and Friday's father
brought back the other men.
A week later, they spied a ship but they quickly learned that
there had been a mutiny on board. By devious means, Crusoe and Friday rescued
the captain and two other men, and after much scheming, regained control of the
ship. The grateful captain gave Crusoe many gifts and took him and Friday back
to England. Some of the rebel crewmen were left marooned on the island.
Crusoe returned to England and found that in his absence he had
become a wealthy man. After going to Lisbon to handle some of his affairs,
Crusoe began an overland journey back to England. Crusoe and his company
encountered many hardships in crossing the mountains, but they finally arrived
safely in England. Crusoe sold his plantation in Brazil for a good price,
married, and had three children. Finally, however, he was persuaded to go on
yet another voyage, and he visited his old island, where there were promises of
new adventures to be found in a later account.
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