Name: VYAS NUPUR HITESHBHAI.

Roll No: 43

Paper No: 2 – The neo-classical literature

Topic: The theme of Master-slave relationship in Robinson Crusoe.

Year: 2015-2017

Submitted to M.K.B.U., Department of English

Email id: nupurvyas1995@gmail.com

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 Introduction:-

This novel Robinson Crusoe is written by Daniel Defoe and this not only the novel but more than just an adventurous novel or journey of the protagonist of this story and that character is Robinson Crusoe who is name of the novel. This novel includes themes like repentance, overcoming fear, melancholy nature relationship and motifs like counting and measuring, eating, ordeals at sea, and also symbol like the footprint, and the cross, and the Crusoe’s bower etc.

What is master and slave relationship?

The master-slave dialectic as proposed by Hegel remains prominent throughout the novel. Slave trade and concept of master and slave is projected to have persisted prominently in Crusoe’s time. The master- slave relation in the novel,  first of all is displayed when Crusoe is taken captive by the moors and made a slave to a certain master.

About this novel Robinson Crusoe

Key facts:

1] Full title: The life and strange surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Marinar: who lived eight and twenty years all alone in an  uninhabited island on the coast of America.

Author:- Daniel Defoe

Type of work:- Novel

Genre:- Adventure Story; novel of isolation

Language:- English

 Time and place written:- 1719; London England

Narrator:- Robinson Crusoe is both narrator and main character of the tale.

Point of view: crusoe narrates in both the first and third person, presenting what he observes. Crusoe  occasionally describes his feelings but only when they are overwhelming. Usually he favors a more factual narrative style focused on actions and events.

Tone:- crusoe’s tone is mostly detached, meticulous and objective.

Tense- past

Setting [time]:- from 1659 to 1694 Protagonist:- Robinson Crusoe

Major conflict- shipwrecked alone, crusoe struggles against hardship, privation, loneliness, and cannibals in his attempt to survive on a deserted Island.  Rising action:- crusoe disobeys his father and goes out to sea. crusoe has a profitable first merchant voyage, has fantasies of success in Brazil, and prepares for a slave-gathering expedition.

Climax :-Crusoe becomes shipwrecked on an  Island near Trinidad,  forcing him to fend for himself and his basic needs. Falling action:- crusoe constructs shelter, secures the food supply, and accepts his stay on the island as work of providence.

About master and slave relationship in this novel:-

            The master slave relationships starts with chapter “my man Friday” crusoe names the native Friday to commemorate the on, which crusoe saves  native’s  life. “I made him know that his name was to be Friday, which was the day I saved his life I also taught him to say “master” and let him know that was to be my name” “I also taught him to say ‘yes’ and ‘No’”. 

                  These lines suggest English man’s mentality, because they rulling over the world. Crusoe tries to convert him and become civilized man. Friday by nature he was cannibal. Crusoe over teaches him simple English words and   clothes him. Crusoe is delighted with his new companion and teaches him to eat goat meat instead of human flesh. Cruiser was believe in Christianity he was believer of God. crusoe and Friday relationships start off by Crusoe taking him under his wing and protecting him from his fellow savages. Due to this rescue Friday becomes very loyal towards him and submits.At the times relationship between the two is almost like father and son and crusoe seems to have respect and trust for Friday. However, at other times it is apperent that Crusoe is the master and Friday is merely his Slave. The naming showed a certain hierarchy, placing Crusoe above Friday. This shows Crusoe’s true nature, coming from an English Christian background Friday does not fight this master -slave relationship; in fact, he welcomes  it and  reflects very devote as thanks to crusoe for saving his life. This is shown when crusoe states ,

“At last he lay his  head flat upon the ground, close to my foot; and sets My other foot upon his head to let me know, how he would serve me as long as he liv’d”

The ideslised master servant relationship defoe depicts between crusoe and Friday can also be seen in terms of cultural imperlalism.

“I found Friday had  still desire to eat some of the flesh and was a Cannibal by nature”

“I showed so much horror at the idea that he kept his desire to himself I had made him see that I would kill him if he at tempted to satisfy his desire”.

Although Friday is a servant, he never appears to resist or recent his new servitude and actually views it as appropriates for saving his life, Despite Friday’s response, his servitude to Crusoe is seen as a symbol of imperialist operation throughout the modern world. Friday’s  instance servitude towards Crusoe raises question about Crusoe own sense in rank and power. As Friday Bowing to Crusoe, Crusoe come easily lift Friday from the ground but chooses not to even when Crusoe saves Friday’s father and the Spaniard from being murdered and devoured by the cannibals, you see Crusoe put a pedestal on the Spaniard and only has Friday and Friday’s father cut tree while spaniard supervises.

Crusoe refers to the Spaniards “to whom I imparted my thought on that affair, to oversee direct their work” without giving it a second though Crusoe takes in Friday as his servant of an inferior rank, and assuming not only his own superiority  but white European superiority when they encourage and save the Spaniard.

                   Throughout the course of Robinson Crusoe, Crusoe becomes something of a teacher to Friday , as he conveys Friday from a religion invite in the worship of a god named Benamuckee, the Christianity. Friday came from  different background  so he probably didn't have the same values the white Europeans had. Even when converted to Christianity, crusoe still calls him a Savage due to their racial and  differences.

Crusoe in the process of searching for what he wants repeatedly leaves others ,beginning with his family of origin and concluding with the family he creates. Crusoe also uses a labour of others by exploiting them, such as Brazilian plantation, for immense profits without his personal labour. Crusoe was selfish and self-centered, not even thinking of any family for anyone else, just taking off for himself. The necessity of repentance is seen throughout the  ending this novel. Crusoe’s experiences not only show an adventure, but also a tale demonstrating the right and wrong ways to live one's life. Crusoe being his teacher might have become like him even though Crusoe mentioned Friday was a better Christian. Crusoe treated Friday as a servant or slave  to an extreme viewpoint. Crusoe begins to look friday and , in the course of rudimentary conversations with him ,learns that the cannibals periodically visit the island. Crusoe finds out that Friday is aware of mainland Spaniards who will many men. Crusoe attempts to educate Friday in religious matter and finds that his servant easily understand the notion of God, to whom Friday draws similarities with his own deity Benamuckee. Friday has no more difficulty understanding the devil, not grasping why god does not rid the world of these  evil being permanently, Crusoe has trouble answering this question. Crusoe admits that he lacks the religious knowledge necessary for instructing Friday  in all the aspects of God and Devil.

Friday reports that the cannibals have saved the men from the shipwreck discovered by Crusoe before Friday’s  liberation and  that those men are living safely  among the natives now. When Friday expresses a yearning to return to his country, Crusoe fears losing him and when Crusoe considers trying to join the shipwreck survivors, Friday becomes upset and begs Crusoe not to leave him. Together, the two build a boat in which they plan to sail to Friday’s land in November or December.

“My Island was now peopled and I thought myself very rich in subjects….. how like a king I looked.”

Before Crusoe and Friday have a chance for their voyage to the cannibals land, before they went the cannibals  visit Crusoe’s Island. Twenty-one natives come in three canoes to carry out another cannibalistic attack on three prisoners. Crusoe finds that since Friday belongs to an enemy nation, the situation can be constructed as a state of war in which killing is permissible approaching  the shore, Crusoe observes that one of the Prisoners is a European. Crusoe and Friday fall upon the cannibals and quickly overcome them with their superior weapons, allowing only four to escape. Friday is overjoyed to find that another of the prisoners is his own father.Crusoe and Friday carry them back to Crusoe’s dwelling, reflects   contentedly on the peopling of his kingdom with loyal subjects.  The affectionate loyal bond between Crusoe  and  Friday is a remarkable feature of these early novel. Indeed  it is  striking that this tender friendship is depicted in an age when Europeans were engaged in the large scale devastation of a non-white populations across the globe. Even to represent a native American with the individual characterization that Defoe gives Friday, much less as an  individual with admirable traits, was an unprecedented move in English literature. But, in accordance with the Eurocentric attitude of the time, Defoe ensures that Friday is not Crusoe’s equal in the novel.  He is clearly a servant and inferior in rank, and power and respect. Nevertheless, when Crusoe describes his own “singular satisfaction in fellow himself,” and says, “I begin really to love the creature” his emotional attachment seems sincere, even if we object to Crusoe’s treatment of Friday  as a creature rather than a human being. As the bond between Crusoe in Friday becomes stronger, the similarities between the two men’s cultures and gain more importance than their difference. Crusoe openly refers to himself as a national leader of military forces. when he refers to his two new guests on the island as his “subjects”, we sense how deeply ingrained his imagined National role as king  of the island has become.

Friday’s  subjugation to Crusoe reflects colonial race, relations, especially in Crusoe’s  unquestioning belief that he is helping Friday by making him servant. Crusoe has turned his story of one man’s survival into a political tale replete with its own ideas about Imperialism.

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