Literary and artistic analysis of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. "Robinson Crusoe", an artistic analysis of the novel by Daniel Defoe. Twice lies

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INTRODUCTION

"Robinson Crusoe" (Eng. Robinson Crusoe) the hero of the novels of Daniel Defoe. We have known Robinson since childhood. They believe in Robinson, even knowing that it is a fiction, but they succumb, like an obsession, to the incredible authenticity of the story. In Defoe's time, it was enough to go to sea and then talk about it to make yourself listen. But after all, many adventures and travels have disappeared without a trace from the memory of readers, no one except historians now looks into them. Meanwhile, the fascination and persuasiveness of the adventures of Robinson's faith have been preserved, although they were written by people who did not experience any extraordinary adventures. Daniel Defoe hated swimming: he suffered from seasickness, and even in a boat on the river he became ill.

Daniel Defoe was one of those authors of the Enlightenment who, with their work, laid the foundations for many types, genre varieties and forms of the novel of the 19th and 20th centuries. In fact, there are so few books equal to Robinson that it would even be natural to explain the fate of such a book by a miracle or a paradox and, finally, a misunderstanding. Is it not a miracle that many, starting with Swift, have tried to expose Robinson, but they still believe in Robinson's adventures, and this book has been read. Defoe's book has remained a model of public and fascinating reading.

Of course, Robinson has been and is being read in different ways. Children read it as an adventure, but a whole philosophical doctrine was subtracted from the same Robinson. Every time, every age and every nation reads Robinson in its own way, but invariably reads. The book about Robinson, at the same time light and deep, contains the life of an ordinary person, but at the same time something unprecedented.

Someone will see a guide to survival in Robinson's adventures, someone will start arguing with the author whether Robinson should go crazy, like Atkinson from Captain Grant's Children and the Mysterious Island, others will see in him the resilience of the human spirit, etc.

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is a brilliant book. The short concept of genius is the source of the longevity of such books. It is impossible to explain their secret to the end. Only such an omnipotent critic can do such a thing as time, which, by its objective course, reveals the meaning of masterpieces. Robinson's book will always be underread.

The aim of the work is to study and analyze the poetics and features of D. Defoe's novel Life, the extraordinary and amazing adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a sailor from York.

1.1 Summary novel

The full title of the first book sounds like “The Life, Extraordinary and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a sailor from York, who lived for 28 years all alone on a desert island off the coast of America near the mouths of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown out by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew of the ship except him perished, outlining his unexpected release by pirates; written by himself."

In August 1719, Defoe published a sequel, The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, and a year later, Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, but only the first book entered the treasury of world literature, and it is with it that the new genre concept Robinsonade is associated.

This novel is about a man whose dreams have always been turned towards the sea. Robinson's parents did not approve of his dream, but in the end Robinson Crusoe ran away from home and went to sea. On the very first voyage he failed, his ship sank. The surviving members of the crew began to shun Robinson, as his next voyage failed.

Robinson Crusoe was captured by pirates and stayed with them for a long time. Having escaped, he sailed the sea for 12 days. On the way he met natives. Having stumbled upon the ship, the kind captain took it on deck.

Robinson Crusoe stayed in Brazil. Began to own a sugarcane plantation. Robinson became rich and became a powerful man. He told his friends about his adventures. The rich became interested in his story about the natives he met during the escape from the pirates. Since the Negroes at that time were the labor force, but they were very expensive. Having collected the ship, they set off, but according to the ill-fated fate of Robinson Crusoe, they failed. Robinson ended up on the island.

He settled quickly. He had three houses on the island. Two near the shore to see if a ship sails past, and the other house in the center of the island, where grapes and lemons grew.

After staying on the island for 25 years, he noticed human footprints and bones on the northern coast of the island. A little later, on the same bank, he saw smoke from a fire, climbing a hill, Robinson Crusoe saw savages and two prisoners through a telescope. They had already eaten one, and the other was waiting for its fate. But suddenly the prisoner ran towards Crusoe's house, two savages ran after him. This pleased Robinson and he ran to meet them. Robinson Crusoe saved the prisoner, naming him Friday. Friday became Robinson's roommate and worker.

Two years later, a boat with the English flag sailed to their island. There were three prisoners on it, they were pulled out of the boat and left on the shore, while others went to inspect the island. Crusoe and Friday approached the prisoners. Their captain said that his ship had rebelled and the instigators of the rebellion decided to leave the captain, his assistant and passenger on this, as they thought, uninhabited island. Robinson and Friday caught them and tied them up, they surrendered. An hour later, another boat sailed, they were also caught. Robinson Friday and several other prisoners sailed in a boat to the ship. Having successfully captured it, they returned to the island. Since the instigators of the rebellion would have been executed in England, they decided to stay on the island, Robinson showed them his possessions and sailed to England. Crusoe's parents have long since died, but his plantation still remains. His mentors became rich. When they learned that Robinson Crusoe was alive, they were very happy. Crusoe received a significant amount of money in the mail (Robinson did not dare to return to Brazil). Robinson later sold his plantation, becoming rich. He got married and had three children. When his wife died, he wanted to return to the island and see how life was there. Everything flourished on the island. Robinson brought everything he needed there: several women, gunpowder, animals, and more. He learned that the inhabitants of the island fought with the savages, having won and taken them prisoner. In total, Robinson Crusoe spent 28 years on the island.

1.2 Genre issues

The plot of the novel "Robinson Crusoe" is divided into two parts: one describes the events associated with the social life of the hero, stay at home, the second describes the hermit life on the island.

The narration is conducted in the first person, enhancing the effect of plausibility, the author is completely removed from the text. However, although the genre of the novel is close to the descriptive genre of a real incident (marine chronicle), the plot cannot be called purely chronicle. Robinson's numerous reasonings, his relationship with God, repetitions, descriptions of the feelings that possess him, loading the narrative with emotional and symbolic components, expand the scope of the genre definition of the novel.

Not without reason, many genre definitions were applied to the novel "Robinson Crusoe": an educational adventure novel (V. Dibelius); adventure novel (M. Sokolyansky); a novel of education, a treatise on natural education (Jean Jacques Rousseau); spiritual autobiography (M. Sokolyansky, J. Günther); island utopia, allegorical parable, “classical idyll of free enterprise”, “fictional adaptation of Locke's theory of the social contract” (A. Elistratova).

According to M. Bakhtin, the novel "Robinson Crusoe" can be called romanized memoirs, with sufficient "aesthetic structure" and "aesthetic intentionality" (according to L. Ginzburg). As A. Elistratova notes: "Robinson Crusoe" by Defoe, the prototype of an enlightening realistic novel in a still unseparated, undivided form, combines many different literary genres.

All these definitions contain a grain of truth.
So, “the emblem of adventurism, writes M. Sokolyansky, is often the presence of the word “adventure” (adventure) already in the title of the work.” events, but extraordinary events. And the very plot of the novel "Robinson Crusoe" represents an extraordinary event. Defoe made a kind of educational experiment on Robinson Crusoe, throwing him on a desert island. In other words, Defoe temporarily "turned off" him from real social ties, and Practical activities Robinson appeared in the universal form of labor. This element constitutes the fantastic core of the novel and at the same time the secret of its special appeal.

The signs of a spiritual autobiography in the novel are the very form of narration, characteristic of this genre: a memoir diary. Elements of a parenting novel are contained in Robinson's reasoning and his opposition to loneliness.

As K. Atarova writes: “If we consider the novel as a whole, this action-packed work breaks up into a number of episodes characteristic of a fictionalized journey (the so-called imaginaire), popular in the 17th-18th centuries. At the same time, the central place in the novel is occupied by the theme of maturation and the spiritual development of the hero.

A. Elistratova notes that: “Defoe in Robinson Crusoe is already in close proximity to the educational “novel of education”.

The novel can also be read as an allegorical parable about the spiritual fall and rebirth of a person, in other words, as K. Atarova writes, “the story of the wanderings of a lost soul, weighed down by original sin and finding the way to salvation through turning to God.”

“It was not for nothing that Defoe insisted in the 3rd part of the novel on its allegorical meaning,” notes A. Elistratova. The reverent seriousness with which Robinson Crusoe ponders his life experience, desiring to comprehend its hidden meaning, the severe scrupulousness with which he analyzes his spiritual impulses - all this goes back to that democratic puritan literary tradition of the seventeenth century, which was completed in "The Way Pilgrim” by J. Bunyan. Robinson sees the manifestation of divine providence in every incident of his life; prophetic dreams overshadow him ... shipwreck, loneliness, a desert island, an invasion of savages - everything seems to him divine punishments.

Robinson interprets any trifling incident as "God's providence", and an accidental combination of tragic circumstances as a fair punishment and atonement for sins. Even coincidences of dates seem meaningful and symbolic to the hero: "... a sinful life and a solitary life," Crusoe calculates, "began for me on the same day."

According to J. Starr, Robinson acts in a twofold hypostasis both as a sinner and as God's chosen one.

“Merges with such an understanding of the book, notes K. Atarova, and the interpretation of the novel as a variation of the biblical story about the prodigal son: Robinson, who despised his father’s advice, left his father’s house, gradually, having gone through the most severe trials, comes to unity with God, his spiritual father who, as if as a reward for repentance, will ultimately grant him salvation and prosperity.

M. Sokolyansky, citing the opinion of Western researchers on this issue, disputes their interpretation of "Robinson Crusoe" as a modified myth about the prophet Jonah.

“In Western literary criticism, he notes, especially in the latest works, the plot of Robinson Crusoe is often interpreted as a modification of the myth of the prophet Jonah. At the same time, the active vital principle inherent in the hero of Defoe is ignored ... The difference is palpable in a purely plot plane. In the "Book of the Prophet Jonah" the biblical hero appears precisely as a prophet...; Defoe's hero does not act as a predictor at all ... ".

This is not entirely true. Many of Robinson's intuitive insights, as well as his prophetic dreams, may well pass for predictions inspired from above. But further: “The life of Jonah is completely controlled by the Almighty ... Robinson, however much he prays, is active in his activity, and this truly creative activity, initiative, ingenuity does not allow us to perceive it as a modification of the Old Testament Jonah.

The modern researcher E. Meletinsky considers Defoe's novel, with its "installation on everyday realism", "a serious milestone on the path of demythologization of literature" .

Meanwhile, if we are to draw parallels between Defoe's novel and the Bible, then it is more likely to be compared with the book Genesis. Robinson essentially creates his own world, different from the island world, but also different from the bourgeois world he left behind, the world of pure entrepreneurial creation. If the heroes of the previous and subsequent "Robinsonades" fall into ready-made worlds already created before them (real or fantastic, for example, Gulliver), then Robinson Crusoe builds this world step by step like God. The whole book is devoted to a thorough description of the creation of objectivity, its multiplication and material growth. The act of this creation, divided into many separate moments, is so exciting because it is based not only on the history of mankind, but also on the history of the whole world. In Robinson, his god-likeness, declared not in the form of Scripture, but in the form of an everyday diary, is striking. It also contains the rest of the arsenal inherent in Scripture: testaments (numerous advice and instructions from Robinson on various occasions, given as parting words), allegorical parables, obligatory students (Friday), instructive stories, Kabbalistic formulas (coincidence of calendar dates), time breakdown (day the first, etc.), maintaining biblical genealogies (whose place in Robinson's genealogies is occupied by plants, animals, crops, pots, etc.). The Bible in "Robinson Crusoe" seems to be retold at an underestimated, commonplace, third-class level. And just as simple and accessible in presentation, but capacious and complex in interpretation, the Holy Scriptures are just as outwardly and stylistically simple, but at the same time plot and ideologically capacious "Robinson". Defoe himself assured in print that all the misadventures of his Robinson were nothing more than an allegorical reproduction of the dramatic ups and downs in his own life.

Many details bring the novel closer to the future psychological novel.

“Some researchers, writes M. Sokolyansky, not without reason emphasize the importance of the work of Defoe the novelist for the development of the European (and, above all, English) psychological novel. The author of "Robinson Crusoe", depicting life in the forms of life itself, focused not only on outside world surrounding the hero, but also on the inner world of a thinking religious person. And according to the witty remark of E. Zimmerman, “Defoe in some respects connects Bunyan with Richardson. For Defoe's heroes... the physical world is a faintly distinguishable sign of a more important reality...”.

CHAPTER 2. THE ADVENTURES OF THE NOVEL "ROBINSON CRUSO"

2.1 The novel "Robinson Crusoe" in criticism

Defoe's greatest fame is the novel "Robinson Crusoe". According to researchers of the writer's work, the immediate impetus for writing the novel was an episode from the ship's diary of Captain Woods.

Subsequently, based on the materials of this diary, the well-known journalist Style published an article about the adventures of a Scottish sailor, who, it is believed, was to a certain extent the prototype of Robinson Crusoe.

D. Defoe moved the place of his hero's stay to the Atlantic Ocean basin, and attributed the time of action to about 50 years in the past, thereby capturing the period of his hero's stay on a desert island by 7 times.

Characteristic features of the educational novel "Robinson Crusoe":

Ø Affirmation of the idea that reason and labor are the main driving forces of the progress of mankind;

Ш The credibility of the work provided real story, underlying the plot;

Ш Reliability of the narration was facilitated by the form of the diary;

Ш The introduction of a first-person narrative, on behalf of the hero himself, allowed the author to show the world through the eyes of an ordinary person and at the same time reveal her character, feelings, moral qualities;

III The image of Robinson Crusoe is presented in development;

Ш In the center of attention is not only the exotic of a deserted island and exciting adventures, but how many people, their experiences, feelings, when she was left alone with nature;

Sh Robinson is an efficient and active person, a real son of his time, he is looking for various means of discovering his own abilities and practicality;

Sh Robinson is a new hero. This is not an outstanding or exceptional person, not a historical figure, not mythical image, A a common person endowed with soul and mind. The author sings of activity common man in the transformation of the surrounding reality;

Ш The image of the protagonist is of great educational value;

W Extreme situation becomes a criterion for determining not only the physical strength, but first of all the human qualities of the hero;

Ш The artistic achievement of the novel is the writer's decision to force his hero to analyze not only what is happening in his soul;

Ш Nature gave impetus to the development of the hero's moral qualities. Thanks to her constant influence. Robinson seems to pass through social problems, intrigues and conflicts. He does not need to be hypocritical, greedy, deceitful. Staying in the bosom of nature and in harmony with it brought to life only the best features of nature - sincerity, diligence and the ability to be natural;

Ш The main idea of the work is the glorification of activity, labor energy, intelligence and high moral qualities of a person, which help her to master the world, as well as the affirmation of the great importance of nature for the spiritual development of mankind;

III "Robinson Crusoe" is an example of a realistic novel of the Enlightenment. The plot was driven primarily by interest English society To geographical discoveries and travel;

This topic was not new in the literature of that time. Even before D. Defoe, works appeared that told about the fate of unfortunate travelers abandoned in an uncivilized world. In 1674, a translation of the book by the 12th-century Arab writer Ibn Tufail "On the Adventures of Haji Ben Yokdan" was published in England, who achieved great wisdom while living on the island all alone.

After the appearance of Defoe's novel, literary science was enriched with the new concept of "robinsonade", which means a traditional plot in literature, built on the image of the life and trials of a character who fell into extramural conditions, for certain reasons was deprived human society.

The novel - robinsonade - is a distinctive feature of literature not only of the 18th century, but also of the next stages in the development of world literature. Examples of novels - robinsonade are the following works: "Felsenburg Island" by I. Schnabel, "New Robinson" by I. Campe, "Swiss Robinson" by Wyss, "The Hermit Pacific Ocean» Psi layer, "Mowgli" by Kipling, "Russian Robinson" by S. Turbin.

2.2 artistic analysis of the novel

He hadn't read Robinson Crusoe since childhood, Betteredge said, speaking to himself. "Let's see if Robinson Crusoe will impress him now!"
Wilkie Collins. Moonstone: "Daniel Defoe ... The famous creator of the famous Robinson Crusoe, whose adventures on a desert island every child knows even before he learns to read ... Why, it would seem difficult to imagine a more familiar, "home", accessible writer!

And yet the author of Robinson Crusoe, both as a person and as an artist, is one of the most mysterious literary figures of his era. There are still many dark places in his biography. Start at least from the date of birth, which is not exactly established. The role of Defoe in the behind-the-scenes intrigues and political struggle of his time is not completely clear, and biographers are now discovering more and more new facts.

And yet this is not the main thing. The mystery lies in the secret of its irresistible impact on readers. Essays and notes by great writers, articles and monographs by literary critics are devoted to its resolution. Disputes about this riddle, begun during the life of the author, do not cease to this day. Crystal clear, understandable, it would seem, to any child, the book stubbornly resists analytical disaggregation, does not reveal the secret of its unfading charm. The phenomenon of simplicity is much more difficult to critically comprehend than complexity, encryption, hermeticism.

By the time Defoe created his Robinson, he was already a well-known figure in the literary and political life of London. Behind the writer, just a little short of the seventh decade, there was a life full of vicissitudes and adventures, participation in the Monmouth uprising (1685) and a happy deliverance from the bloody massacre; a variety of commercial activities that twice led Defoe to bankruptcy; business trips across the country and to the continent; participation in the political struggle and magazine controversy of his time; proximity to the court during the reign of William of Orange and imprisonment under Queen Anne; humiliating punishment at the pillory (1703) for malicious satire against the official "high" church and secret relations with the English prime ministers Harley and Godolphin ... Indeed, as Defoe himself later claimed, he spent his life no less stormy than his hero.

In this ebullient life, which has absorbed the activities of an entrepreneur, businessman, politician, journalist and writer, we are most interested in one sphere of literature. But even in this area, the genre scope is very wide: Defoe is the author of more than one hundred works of satirical pamphlets on the topic of the day in prose and verse, biographies of prominent personalities (including criminals), treatises and essays on economics, commerce, politics, theology.

But in a broader sense, Defoe, like his hero on a desert island, started, as they say, “from scratch”. "Life and the strange and wonderful ..." was listed on the title page of the first book, which rightfully opens the history of the English novel of the Enlightenment," writes A. A. Elistratova. One can say more broadly "the history of the European realistic novel." It was Defoe who was the discoverer Fielding's moralistic epics, Richardson's "psychological dramas", Smollett's satirical burlesques, the anatomy of human consciousness in Stern's works have not yet been created. genre of the novel, are marked by obvious immaturity. It is possible that the brilliant discoveries of Defoe himself were of a spontaneous nature. “He least of all thought that his book would become one of the first examples of the future realistic novel of new European literature and that its very shortcomings would turn out to be its virtues: artlessness will become a deep art, edification a historical sign of the time when it was written,” Academician M. P. Alekseev wrote about the author of Robinson Crusoe.

And yet Defoe, again like his hero, relied heavily on the fruits of civilization. Robinson had predecessors both in real life and in literature.

The very passion of the hero for travel is a clear sign of the time, the time when on the world map somewhere it appeared: “Places not yet discovered.” On the map attached to the fourth edition of "Robinson Crusoe" (published in August 1719), the north western borders North America, the northeastern borders of Asia, and the northern and western outlines of Australia, then called New Holland, are only slightly outlined. Interest in the stories of sailors was enormous. Travel books enjoyed the widest reader demand. From a whole stream of authors of travel essays and notes of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. we will name only two names associated with the circumstances of the creation of Robinson, Admiral William Dampier, who published the very popular New Voyage Around the World (1697), Travels and Descriptions (1699) and Journey to New Holland (1703), and Woodes Rogers

In the travel diaries of the Pacific travels of the latter, published in 1712, Defoe could read the story of Alexander Selkirk, the prototype of the famous Robinson.

A Scotsman, a native of the small town of Largo in Fife, Selkirk, as an assistant to Captain Stradling, took part in the water of the Pacific expeditions of William Dampier.

One of the Pacific expeditions of William Dampier. Having quarreled with the captain, he voluntarily remained on the uninhabited island of Massa Tierra in the Juan Fernandez archipelago, off the coast of Chile. Selkirk hoped that some passing ship would pick him up, but he had to wait 4 years and 4 months for this. Only in 1709 was he taken on board the ship "Duchess" under the command of Woods Rogers, who landed on the island to replenish supplies. drinking water. Three years later, Selkirk, together with the expedition of Rogers, returned to England. Both Rogers and Captain Cook, who sailed with Rogers on the ship Duke, told his amazing story in their travel notes, and Richard Steele told an even wider circle of readers about it a little later in the magazine he published The Englishman (1713).

Rogers's story was also published as a separate pamphlet called "The Vicissitudes of Fate, or The Amazing Adventures of Alexander Selkirk, written by himself." This pirated pamphlet is probably the origin of the legend that Defoe used the manuscripts of Selkirk for his novel. Meticulous researchers already in our century discovered other hermits, involuntarily, who spent a long time on the islands; Defoe might also know their stories.

However, most researchers are unanimous that the story of Selkirk and others like it prompted Defoe only the idea of the plot and some external details of the story.

"Robinson" also had purely literary sources, primarily Henry Neuville's novel "Isle of Pines, or the Fourth Island near the unknown Australian mainland, recently discovered by Heinrich Cornelius von Slotten" (1668), which told about the life of the Englishman George Pines with his family on a desert island .

But these are only later assumptions, the result of the latest critical research. And at one time the history of the creation of "Robinson Crusoe" was overgrown with myths and legends: they argued with passion about where the novel was written in Kent or in the London House in Stoke Newington; they reproached the author for plagiarism, for using supposedly existing notes of Alexander Selkirk himself, asserted with confidence that no publisher undertook to publish the book, and even questioned Defoe's authorship. April 25, 1719 I novel was published in the snow in London, in the printing house of William Taylor.

In London, in the printing house of William Taylor. The success of the book was so great that during the same year three more editions were published (according to modern concepts of reprints), not counting the "pirated" editions. Four months later, Defoe released a sequel to the "fashionable" book: "The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe", which tells about the fate of the "Robinson colony" and the hero's travels in China, the Far East and Siberia. In August 1720, Defoe published the third volume: "Serious reflections of Robinson Crusoe ..."

John Bunyan's allegorical novel The Pilgrim's Progress (1678-1684), which tells not about a real journey, but about the wanderings of the soul in search of truth, apparently had a certain impact on Defoe.

But these are only later assumptions, the result of the latest critical research. And at one time the history of the creation of "Robinson Crusoe" was overgrown with myths and legends: they argued with passion about where the novel was written in Kent or in the London House in Stoke Newington; they reproached the author for plagiarism, for using supposedly existing notes of Alexander Selkirk himself, asserted with certainty that no publisher undertook to print the book, and even questioned Defoe's authorship. Taylor.

In London, in the printing house of William Taylor. The success of the book was so great that during the same year three more editions were published (according to modern concepts - reprints of the circulation), not counting the "pirated" editions. Four months later, Defoe released a sequel to the "fashionable" book: "The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe", which tells about the fate of the "Robinson colony" and the hero's travels in China, the Far East and Siberia. In August 1720, Defoe published the third volume: "Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe ..." This is a series of essays on philosophical, social and religious topics.

Now "Robinson" has migrated to the category of children's books, "the work that heralded a new era in the development of mankind has now become primarily a book for children's reading." But we must remember that initially the novel was intended for a wider and not at all children's circle of readers. Despite its apparent simplicity, this book is surprisingly multifaceted. Some of its aspects are not suspected by modern lovers of English literature.

defoe novel genre criticism

CONCLUSION

The novel by the English writer Daniel Defoe "The Life, Extraordinary and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe ..." is rightfully one of the most widely read works of world literature. Interest in him does not dry out both on the part of readers and on the part of researchers of the English novel of the Proseshenya era, who highly appreciate the writer's contribution to the development of the national traditions of the genre and all Western European fiction. D. Defoe was one of those authors of the enlighteners who, with their work, laid the foundations for many types, genre varieties and forms of the novel of the 19th - 20th centuries. The secret of the unprecedented success of the novel about the adventures of Robinson Crusoe lies, of course, in the choice of topic: a clear sign of the time when there were still empty spaces under the type inscription on the map; "Undiscovered Lands".

Its amusingness lies in the adventurous, poetic nature of the main storyline of the novel. “Robinson Crusoe on his island is alone without help for himself, however, food and self-preservation even achieves some well-being, this is a subject ... that can be made entertaining in a thousand ways ... ," wrote J.J. Rousseau in the pedagogical treatise "Emil, or about the awakening."

Defoe, using the example of Robinson Crusoe, proves the enduring value of labor in social development and the creation of the material and spiritual base of society.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Atarova K.N. Secrets of Simplicity // Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. M., 1990

2. Bakhtin M.M. Questions of literature and aesthetics. M., 1975

3. Ginzburg L.Ya. On the psychology of prose. L., 1971

4. Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. M.: "Fiction", 1992

5. Elistratova A.A. English novel of the Enlightenment. M.: "Nauka", 1966. 472 p.

6. Meletinsky E.M. Poetics of myth. M., 1976.

7. Sokolyansky M.G. Western European novel of the Enlightenment: Problems of typology. Kyiv; Odessa, 1983.

8. . Shalata O. "Robinson Crusoe" by Defoe in light biblical subjects // Word I hour. 1997. No. 5. S. 53

9. Shishmarevaa M. M. Defoe D. Robinson Crusoe // transl. from English: SP Leksika, 1992

10. Papsuev V.V. Daniel Defoe novelist. On the problem of the genesis of the novel of modern times in English literature of the 18th century. M., 1983

11. Urnov D.M. Robinson and Gulliver M.: Science, 1973

12. Urnov D.M. Defoe. Moscow: Nauka, 1978

13. . Shevel A.V. Lexical and structural compositional features text of an English novel of the early 18th century. (Based on the works of D. Defoe.) Lvov, 1987

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Making a novel

Reviews of the book "Robinson Crusoe" are collected in this article. They allow you to find out what this novel was about, which today is considered by many to be the first in the literature of the Enlightenment.

By the time this novel was written, Daniel Defoe already had several hundred works under his belt. Many of them were never recognized because the author often used pseudonyms.

The basis of the work

In reviews of the book "Robinson Crusoe" it is often mentioned that the work is based on a real story that Captain Woods Rogers told a British journalist. Defoe most likely read it in the newspapers.

Rogers talked about how the sailors were abandoned on a desert island in Atlantic Ocean his assistant Selkirk, who had an extremely violent and unbalanced character. He quarreled with the captain and crew, for which he was dropped off, provided with a gun, a supply of gunpowder and tobacco, and a Bible. He spent almost four and a half years alone. When they found him, he was dressed in goatskins and looked extremely wild.

From long years alone, he completely forgot how to talk, and all the way to the house he hid crackers in different places on the ship. It took a long time, but they still managed to return him to the state of a civilized person.

Main character Defoe is very different from his prototype. The author, of course, greatly embellished the situation by sending Robinson to a desert island for 28 years. Moreover, during this time he did not at all lose his human appearance, 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 vivid example of 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 you read a novel?

Today it is worth recognizing that this novel is mainly read in adolescence. For young people, this is primarily a fascinating adventure story. But do not forget that the book raises important literary and cultural problems.

In the book, the hero has to solve many moral issues. Therefore, it is useful that it is teenagers who read the novel. At the very beginning of their lives, they receive a high-quality "vaccination" against meanness and cynicism, they learn from the hero Defoe 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 protagonist. From an avid traveler who saw enrichment as the main thing in his life, he turns into a person who strongly doubted 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 on which he sailed crashed nearby, it can be reached without much difficulty. The main character stocks up on everything he might need on the island. Supplies, weapons, gunpowder, tools. On one of his trips to the ship, Robinson discovers a keg full of gold, and argues that he would easily trade it for matches or other useful things.

Characteristics of the hero

Describing 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 the bourgeois ideology. By the end of the novel, he turns into a person who considers creative and creative abilities to be the main thing in his life.

Talking about the youth of the protagonist, the author notes that from his youth Robinson dreamed of the sea, like many boys of his generation. The fact is that England at that time was one of the leading maritime 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 enrich himself. He does not seek to enter the ship as a sailor and learn all the intricacies of maritime affairs. Instead, he travels as a passenger, striving 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 how he entered the history of art. 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 for disobeying 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 corresponded at that time with the mood that existed among the Puritan moralists. They argued that labor is a worthy occupation that should not be ashamed or shunned. This is exactly what the novel "Robinson Crusoe" teaches.

Progression of the main character

The reader can follow the progress in the development of the protagonist. Once on a desert island, he is faced with the fact that he knows practically nothing. Only over time, overcoming many failures, masters how to grow bread, take care of pets, weave baskets and build a secure home. He does all this by 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 by the absence of extremes. He is a hero who belongs entirely to the real world.

He can by no means be called a dreamer or dreamer, like Don Quixote Cervantes. This is a prudent person who knows the value of money and labor. He is like a fish in water in practical management. However, he is quite selfish. But this feature is clear to most readers, it is aimed at the bourgeois ideal - personal enrichment.

Why have readers liked this character so much for several centuries? This is the main secret of the educational experiment that Defoe put on the pages of his novel. For the author's contemporaries, the interest of the described situation, first of all, consisted in the exclusivity of the position in which the protagonist found himself.

The main features of this novel are plausibility and its maximum persuasiveness. Daniel Defoe manages to achieve the illusion of authenticity with the help of a large number of small details that, as it seems, simply cannot be invented.

Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" was a truly innovative work of its time. Not only its genre feature, realistic tendencies, natural manner of narration and pronounced social generalization make it such. The main thing that Defoe achieved is the creation of a novel of a new type, what we now mean when we talk about this literary concept. English lovers probably know that there are two words in the language - "romance" and "novel". So, the first term refers to the novel that existed until the 18th century, a literary text that includes various fantastic elements - witches, fairy-tale transformations, witchcraft, treasures, etc. The novel of the new time - "novel" - implies exactly the opposite: the naturalness of what is happening, attention to the details of everyday life, orientation towards reliability. The latter succeeded the writer as well as possible. Readers really believed in the veracity of everything written, and especially fierce fans even wrote letters to Robinson Crusoe, to which Defoe himself answered with pleasure, not wanting to remove the veil from the eyes of inspired fans.

The book tells about the life of Robinson Crusoe, starting at the age of eighteen. It was then that he leaves his parental home and goes on an adventure. Even before reaching a desert island, he experiences many misfortunes: he twice falls into a storm, is captured and endures the position of a slave for two years, and after fate seems to have shown its favor to the traveler, endowed him with moderate prosperity and profitable business, the hero rushes into a new adventure. And this time, he already remains alone on a desert island, life on which constitutes the main and most important part of the story.

History of creation

It is believed that Defoe borrowed the idea of creating a novel from a real incident with one sailor - Alexander Selkirk. The source of this story most likely came from one of two sources: either Woods Rogers' Sailing Around the World, or an essay by Richard Steele in The Englishman. And this is what happened: a quarrel broke out between the sailor Alexander Selkirk and the captain of the ship, as a result of which the first was landed on a desert island. He was given the necessary supply of provisions and weapons for the first time and landed on the island of Juan Fernandez (Juan Fernandez), where he lived alone for more than four years, until he was noticed by a passing ship and brought to the bosom of civilization. During this time, the sailor completely lost the skills of human life and communication; it took him time to adapt to the past conditions of life. Defoe changed a lot in the history of Robinson Crusoe: his lost island moved from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, the hero's life on the island increased from four to twenty-eight years, while he did not run wild, but on the contrary was able to organize his civilized life in the conditions of virgin wilderness. Robinson considered himself its mayor, established strict laws and regulations, learned to hunt, fish, farm, weave baskets, bake bread, make cheese and even make pottery.

From the novel, it becomes clear that the ideological world of the work was also influenced by the philosophy of John Locke: all the foundations of the colony created by Robinson look like an arrangement of the philosopher's ideas about government. Interestingly, in the writings of Locke, the theme of the island, which is out of any connection with the rest of the world, was already used. In addition, it is precisely the maxims of this thinker that most likely imposed the author’s beliefs about important role labor in a person's life, about its influence on the history of the development of society, because only hard and hard work helped the hero create a semblance of civilization in the wild and preserve civilization himself.

Life of Robinson Crusoe

Robinson is one of three sons in the family. The elder brother of the protagonist died in the war in Flanders, the middle one went missing, so the parents were triple worried about the future of the younger. However, he was not given any education; from childhood, he was mainly occupied with dreams of sea adventures. His father persuaded him to live measuredly, to observe the "golden mean", to have a reliable honest income. However, the offspring could not get out of his head childhood fantasies, a passion for adventure, and at the age of eighteen, against the will of his parents, he went on a ship to London. Thus began his journey.

On the very first day, there was a storm at sea, which pretty much frightened the young adventurer and made him think about the insecurity of the journey he had taken and about returning home. However, after the end of the storm and the usual booze, doubts subsided, and the hero decided to go further. This event became a harbinger of all his future misadventures.

Robinson, even as an adult, never missed an opportunity to embark on a new adventure. So, having settled down well in Brazil, having his own very profitable plantation, making friends and good neighbors, having just reached that very “golden mean” that his father once told him about, he agrees to a new business: to sail to the coast of Guinea and secretly purchase slaves there to increase the plantations. He and the team, only 17 people, set off on a fateful date for the hero - the first of September. Sometime on the first of September, he also sailed on a ship from home, after which he suffered many disasters: two storms, capture by a Turkish corsair, two years of slavery and a difficult escape. Now a more serious test awaited him. The ship again fell into a storm and crashed, his entire crew died, and Robinson was alone on a desert island.

Philosophy in the novel

The philosophical thesis on which the novel is built is that man is a rational social animal. Therefore, the life of Robinson on the island is built according to the laws of civilization. The hero has a clear daily routine: it all began with reading the Holy Scriptures, then hunting, sorting and cooking the killed game. In the remaining time, he made various household items, built something or rested.

By the way, it was the Bible, taken by him from the sunken ship along with other essentials, that helped him gradually come to terms with his bitter fate of a lonely life on a desert island, and then even admit that he was still that lucky, because all his comrades died, and he life was given. And for twenty-eight years in isolation, he not only acquired, as it turned out, the much-needed skills of hunting, farming, various crafts, but also underwent serious internal changes, embarked on the path of spiritual development, came to God and religion. However, his religiosity is practical (in one of the episodes, he distributes everything that happened in two columns - “good” and “evil”; in the “good” column there was one point more, which convinced Robinson that God is good, He gave him more than he took) - a phenomenon in the 18th century.

Among the enlighteners, who was Defoe, deism was widespread - a rational religion based on the arguments of reason. It is not surprising that his hero, without suspecting it, embodies the philosophy of enlightenment. So, in his colony, Robinson gives equal rights to the Spaniards and the British, professes religious tolerance: he considers himself a Protestant, Friday, according to the novel, is a newly converted Christian, the Spaniard is a Catholic, and Friday's father is a pagan, besides also a cannibal. And they all have to live together, but no conflicts on religious grounds not happening. The heroes have a common goal - to get off the island - and for this they work, not paying attention to confessional differences. Labor becomes the center of everything, it is the meaning of human life.

It is interesting that the story of Robinson Crusoe has a parable beginning - one of the favorite motifs of English novelists. "The Parable of the Prodigal Son" is the basis of the work. In it, as you know, the hero returned home, repented of his sins before his father and was forgiven. Defoe changed the meaning of the parable: Robinson, like the "prodigal son" who left his father's house, emerged victorious - his work and experience ensured a successful outcome.

The image of the main character

The image of Robinson can not be called either positive or negative. It is natural and therefore very realistic. Youthful recklessness, pushing him to more and more adventures, as the hero himself says at the end of the novel, remained with him in adulthood, he did not stop his sea travels. This recklessness is completely contrary to the practical mind of a man, who is accustomed to think through every little thing in detail on the island, to foresee every danger. So, one day he is deeply struck by the only thing that he could not foresee - the possibility of an earthquake. When it happened, he realized that a collapse during an earthquake could easily fill up his dwelling and Robinson himself, who was in it. This discovery made him seriously frightened and moved the house to another, safe place as quickly as possible.

His practicality is manifested mainly in the ability to earn a living. On the island, this is his persistent trips for supplies to the sunken ship, the manufacture of household items, adaptation to everything that the island could give him. Outside the island, it is his profitable plantation in Brazil, the ability to get money, which he always kept a strict account of. Even during a sortie on a sunken ship, despite the fact that he understood the absolute uselessness of money there, on the island, he nevertheless took it with him.

His positive qualities include thriftiness, prudence, foresight, resourcefulness, patience (it was extremely difficult to do something for the economy on the island and it took a lot of time), diligence. Of the negative, perhaps recklessness and impulsiveness, to some extent indifference (for example, to his parents or to the people who remained on the island, which he does not particularly remember when the opportunity to leave it arises). However, all this can be presented in another way: practicality may seem redundant, and if you add the hero's attention to the money side of the issue, then it can be called mercantile; recklessness, and indifference in this case, can speak of the romantic nature of Robinson. There is no unambiguity in the character and behavior of the hero, but this makes him realistic and partly explains why many readers believed that this was a real person.

Friday image

In addition to Robinson, the image of his servant Friday is interesting. He is a savage and a cannibal by birth, saved by Robinson from certain death (he, by the way, was also supposed to be eaten by his fellow tribesmen). For this, the savage promised to faithfully serve his savior. Unlike the protagonist, he never saw a civilized society and before meeting with a non-believer he lived according to the laws of nature, according to the laws of his tribe. He is a "natural" person, and by his example the author showed how civilization affects the individual. According to the writer, it is she who is natural.

Friday improves in a very short time: he learns English pretty quickly, stops following the customs of his fellow cannibals, learns to shoot a gun, becomes a Christian, and so on. At the same time, he has excellent qualities: he is faithful, kind, inquisitive, quick-witted, reasonable, not devoid of simple human feelings, such as love for his father.

Genre

On the one hand, the novel "Robinson Crusoe" belongs to the literature of travel, so popular in England at that time. On the other hand, there is a clearly parable beginning or tradition of an allegorical story, where the spiritual development of a person is traced throughout the narrative, and a deep moral meaning is revealed on the example of simple, everyday details. Defoe's work is often called a philosophical story. The sources for the creation of this book are very diverse, and the novel itself, both in content and in form, was a deeply innovative work. One thing can be said with certainty - such original literature had many admirers, admirers, and, accordingly, imitators. Similar works they began to single out “Robinsonade” as a special genre, rightly named after the conqueror of a desert island.

What does the book teach?

First of all, of course, the ability to work. Robinson lived on a desert island for twenty-eight years, but he did not become a savage, did not lose the signs of a civilized person, and all this thanks to work. It is conscious creative activity that distinguishes a person from a savage, thanks to which the hero kept afloat and with dignity passed all the tests.

In addition, undoubtedly, the example of Robinson shows how important it is to have patience, how necessary it is to learn new things and comprehend what has never been touched before. And the development of new skills and abilities gives rise to prudence and common sense in a person, which was so useful to the hero on a desert island.

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"Composition of Defoe's novel
"Robinson Crusoe""

http://www.roman-chuk.narod.ru/1/Defoe.htm

1. Introduction

In the scientific literature, numerous books, monographs, articles, essays, etc. are devoted to Defoe's work. However, with all the abundance of works published about Defoe, there was no consensus on the features of the structure of the novel, its allegorical meaning, the degree of allegorism, and stylistic design. Most of the works were devoted to the problems of the novel, the characteristics of the system of its images and the analysis of the philosophical and social basis.

Meanwhile, the novel is of considerable interest in terms of the structural and verbal design of the material as a transitional form from the narrative structure of classicism to the sentimental novel and the novel of romanticism with its open, free form-building structure.

Defoe's novel stands at the junction of many genres, naturally incorporating their features and forming a similar synthesis new form which is of particular interest. A. Elistratova noted that in "Robinson Crusoe" "there was something that later turned out to be beyond the scope of literature" . And it is. Critics still argue about Defoe's novel. For, as K. Atarova rightly notes, “the novel can be read in very different ways. masterful liar."

The significance of the novel is also given by the fact that for the first time Defoe chose the most ordinary hero, endowed with a master's streak of conquering life. Such a hero appeared in literature for the first time, just as everyday work was first described.

An extensive bibliography is devoted to Defoe's work. However, the novel "Robinson Crusoe" itself was more interesting to researchers from the point of view of problems (in particular, the social orientation of the labor anthem sung by Defoe, allegorical parallels, the reality of the main image, the degree of reliability, philosophical and religious richness, etc.) than from the point of view of organization of the narrative structure itself.

In Russian literary criticism, among the serious works on Defoe, the following should be singled out:

1) the book of Anikst A. A. "Daniel Defoe: Essay on life and work" (1957)

2) the book of Nersesova M. A. "Daniel Defoe" (1960)

3) A. Elistratova's book "The English Novel of the Age of Enlightenment" (1966), in which Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" is studied mainly in terms of its problematics and characterization of the main image;

4) Sokolyansky M. G.'s book "The Western European Novel of the Enlightenment: Problems of Typology" (1983), in which Defoe's novel is analyzed in comparative characteristics with other works Sokolyansky M. G. considers the issue of genre specifics of the novel, giving preference to the adventurous side, analyzes the allegorical meaning of the novel and images, and also devotes several pages to the analysis of the correlation between memoir and diary forms of narration;

5) the article by M. and D. Urnov "A Modern Writer" in the book "Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. The Story of Colonel Jack" (1988), which traces the essence of the so-called "insensitivity" of Defoe's style, which lies in the position of an impartial chronicler chosen by the writer;

6) the chapter on Defoe Elistratova A. A. in the "History of World Literature, v. 5 / Edited by Turaev S. V." (1988), which shows the continuity of the novel with previous English literature, defines its features and differences (both in the ideological interpretation of philosophical and religious ideas, and artistic methods), the specifics of the main image, the philosophical basis and primary sources, and also touches upon the problem of internal drama and charm inherent in the novel; this article by A. Elistratova indicates the place of Defoe's novel in the system of the enlightenment novel, its role in the development of the realistic method and the peculiarities of the novel's realism;

7) Urnov D.'s book "Defoe" (1990), devoted to the biographical data of the writer, one chapter in this book is devoted to the novel "Robinson Crusoe", two pages are devoted to the actual literary analysis of which (namely, the phenomenon of simplicity of style);

8) article Atarova K. N. "Secrets of Simplicity" in the book. "D. Defoe. Robinson Crusoe" (1990), in which Atarova K. N. explores the issue of the genre of the novel, the essence of its simplicity, allegorical parallels, verification techniques, the psychological aspect of the novel, the problems of images and their primary sources;

9) an article in the book. Mirimsky I. "Articles about the classics" (1966), which examines in detail the plot, plot, composition, images, manner of narration, and other aspects;

10) D. M. Urnov’s book “Robinson and Gulliver: The Fate of Two Literary Heroes” (1973), the title of which speaks for itself;

11) an article by Shalaty O. “Robinson Crusoe” by Defoe in the biblical theme (1997).

However, the authors of the listed works and books paid very little attention both to Defoe's own artistic method and style, and to the specifics of his narrative structure in various aspects (from the general formative layout of the material to particular details regarding the disclosure of the psychology of the image and its hidden meaning, internal dialogism, etc.). d.).

In foreign literary criticism, Defoe's novel was most often analyzed on the subject of his:

Allegorical (J. Starr, Carl Frederick, E. Zimmerman);

Documentary, in which English critics saw a lack of Defoe's narrative style (as, for example, C. Dickens, D. Nigel);

the credibility of what is depicted. The latter has been challenged by critics such as Watt, West, and others;

Problems of the novel and the system of its images;

Social interpretation of the ideas of the novel and its images.

A detailed analysis of the narrative structure of the work is devoted to the book by E. Zimmerman (1975), which analyzes the relationship between the diary and memoir parts of the book, their meaning, verification techniques, and other aspects. Leo Brady (1973) explores the relationship between monologue and dialogue in the novel. The question of the genetic connection between Defoe's novel and "spiritual autobiography" is covered in the books: J. Starr (1965), J. Gunter (1966), M. G. Sokolyansky (1983) and others.

II. Analytical part

1. Sources of "Robinson Crusoe" (1719]

The sources that served as the plot basis of the novel can be divided into factual and literary. The first includes the flow of authors of travel essays and notes of the late 17th-early 18th centuries, among which K. Atarova singles out two:

1) Admiral William Dampier, who published books:

"New trip around the world", 1697; "Travel and Description", 1699; "Journey to New Holland", 1703;

2) Woods Rogers, who wrote travel diaries of Pacific travels, which describe the story of Alexander Selkirk (1712), as well as the brochure "The Vicissitudes of Fate, or the Amazing Adventures of A. Selkirk, written by himself."

A. Elistratova also singles out Francis Drake, Walter Roley cheese and Richard Gakluyt.

Among the possible purely literary sources, later researchers distinguished:

1) the novel by Henry Neuville "Isle of Pines, or the Fourth Island near the unknown Australian mainland, recently discovered by Heinrich Cornelius von Slotten", 1668;

2) a novel by an Arab writer of the 12th century. Ibn Tufayl's "The Living Son of the Waking One", published at Oxford in Latin in 1671, and then reprinted three times in English until 1711.

3) the novel by Aphra Ben "Orunoko, or the Royal Slave", 1688, which influenced the image of Friday;

4) John Bunyan's allegorical novel The Pilgrim's Progress (1678);

5) allegorical stories and parables dating back to the Puritan democratic literature of the 17th century, where, in the words of A. Elistratova, "the spiritual development of a person was conveyed with the help of extremely simple, everyday specific details, full of hidden, deeply significant moral sense" .

Defoe's book, appearing among other very numerous travel literature that swept England at that time: genuine and fictional accounts of circumnavigations, memoirs, diaries, travel notes of merchants and sailors - immediately took the leading position in it, consolidating many of its achievements and literary techniques. And therefore, as A. Chameev rightly notes, “no matter how diverse and numerous the sources of Robinson Crusoe are, both in form and content, the novel was a deeply innovative phenomenon. created an original work of art that organically combined an adventurous beginning with an imaginary documentary, the traditions of the memoir genre with the features of a philosophical parable.

2. Problems of genre affiliation of the novel

The plot of the novel "Robinson Crusoe" (1719) is divided into two parts: one describes the events associated with the hero's social existence, stay at home, the second describes the hermit life on the island.

Not without reason, many genre definitions were applied to the novel "Robinson Crusoe": an educational adventure novel (V. Dibelius); adventure novel (M. Sokolyansky); a novel of education, a treatise on natural education (Jean Jacques Rousseau); spiritual autobiography (M. Sokolyansky, J. Günther); island utopia, allegorical parable, "classic idyll of free enterprise", "fictional arrangement of Locke's theory of the social contract" (A. Elistratova).

According to M. Bakhtin, the novel "Robinson Crusoe" can be called romanized memoirs, with sufficient "aesthetic structure" and "aesthetic intentionality" (according to L. Ginzburg -).

As A. Elistratova notes: Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe", the prototype of an enlightening realistic novel in a still unseparated, undivided form, combines many different literary genres ".

All these definitions contain a grain of truth.

So, "the emblem of adventurousness," writes M. Sokolyansky, "often is the presence of the word "adventure" (adventure) already in the title of the work" . The title of the novel just stands: "Life and amazing adventures ...". Further, an adventure is a kind of event, but an extraordinary event. And the very plot of the novel "Robinson Crusoe" is an extraordinary event. Over Robinson Crusoe Defoe made a kind of educational experiment, throwing him on a desert island. In other words, Defoe temporarily "turned off" him from real social relations, and Robinson's practical activity appeared in the universal form of labor. This element constitutes the fantastic core of the novel and at the same time the secret of its special appeal.

The signs of spiritual autobiography in the novel are the very form of narration, characteristic of this genre: memoir-diary. Elements of a parenting novel are contained in Robinson's reasoning and his opposition to loneliness.

As K. Atarova writes: "If we consider the novel as a whole, this action-packed work breaks up into a number of episodes characteristic of a fictionalized journey (the so-called imaginaire"), popular in the 17th-18th centuries. At the same time, the central place in the novel is occupied by the theme of maturation and the spiritual development of the hero.

A. Elistratova notes that: "Defoe in "Robinson Crusoe" is already in close proximity to the educational "novel of education".

The novel can also be read as an allegorical parable about the spiritual fall and rebirth of a person - in other words, as K. Atarova writes, "the story of the wanderings of a lost soul, weighed down by original sin and finding the way to salvation through turning to God."

“It was not for nothing that Defoe insisted in the third part of the novel on its allegorical meaning,” notes A. Elistratova. “The reverent seriousness with which Robinson Crusoe ponders his life experience, wanting to comprehend its hidden meaning, the severe motives - all this goes back to that seventeenth-century democratic Puritan literary tradition, which was completed in J. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Robinson sees the manifestation of divine providence in every incident of his life; he is overshadowed by prophetic dreams ... shipwreck, loneliness, a deserted island, an invasion of savages - everything seems to him divine punishments.

"... a sinful life and a solitary life," Crusoe calculates, "began for me on the same day," September 30).

According to J. Starr, Robinson acts in a twofold hypostasis - both as a sinner and as God's chosen one.

“Merges with such a comprehension of the book,” K. Atarova notes, “and the interpretation of the novel as a variation of the biblical story about the prodigal son: Robinson, who despised his father’s advice, left his father’s house, gradually, having gone through the most severe trials, comes to unity with God, his spiritual father, who, as if as a reward for repentance, will ultimately grant him salvation and prosperity.

M. Sokolyansky, citing the opinion of Western researchers on this issue, disputes their interpretation of "Robinson Crusoe" as a modified myth about the prophet Jonah.

“In Western literary criticism,” he notes, “especially in the latest works, the plot of Robinson Crusoe is often interpreted as a modification of the myth of the prophet Jonah. At the same time, the active life principle inherent in the hero Defoe is ignored ... The difference is palpable in a purely plot plan. In the book of the prophet Jonah "the biblical hero appears precisely as a prophet ...; Defoe's hero does not act as a predictor at all ...".

This is not entirely true. Many of Robinson's intuitive insights, as well as his prophetic dreams, may well pass for predictions inspired from above. But next:

"The life of Jonah is completely controlled by the Almighty ... Robinson, no matter how much he prays, is active in his activities, and this truly creative activity, initiative, ingenuity in no way allows him to be perceived as a modification of the Old Testament Jonah" .

The modern researcher E. Meletinsky considers Defoe's novel with its "setting on everyday realism" "a serious milestone on the path of demythologization of literature" .

The act of this creation, divided into many separate moments, is so exciting because it is based not only on the history of mankind, but also on the history of the whole world. In Robinson, his god-likeness, declared not in the form of Scripture, but in the form of an everyday diary, is striking. It also contains the rest of the arsenal inherent in Scripture: testaments (numerous advice and instructions from Robinson on various occasions, given as parting words), allegorical parables, obligatory students (Friday), instructive stories, Kabbalistic formulas (coincidence of calendar dates), time breakdown (day the first, etc.), maintaining biblical genealogies (whose place in Robinson's genealogies is occupied by plants, animals, crops, pots, etc.). The Bible in "Robinson Crusoe" seems to be retold at an underestimated, commonplace, third-class level. And just as simple and accessible in presentation, but succinct and complex in interpretation of Holy Scripture, so outwardly and stylistically simple, but at the same time plot and ideologically capacious "Robinson".

Defoe himself assured in print that all the misadventures of his Robinson were nothing more than an allegorical reproduction of the dramatic ups and downs in his own life.

Many details bring the novel closer to the future psychological novel.

“Some researchers,” writes M. Sokolyansky, “not without reason emphasize the importance of the work of Defoe the novelist for the development of the European (and primarily English) psychological novel. The author of Robinson Crusoe, depicting life in the forms of life itself, focused not only on external world surrounding the hero, but also on the inner world of a thinking religious person. And according to the witty remark of E. Zimmerman, "Defoe in some respects connects Bunyan with Richardson. For Defoe's heroes ... the physical world is a faintly distinguishable sign of a more important reality ...".

3. Composition of the plot

The narrative structure of Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" is made in the form of a self-narration, designed as a combination of memoirs and a diary. The points of view of the character and the author are identical, or rather, the point of view of the character is the only one, since the author is completely abstracted from the text. In spatio-temporal terms, the narrative combines chronicle and retrospective aspects.

The main goal of the author was the most successful verification, that is, giving his works maximum reliability. Therefore, even in the "editor's preface" itself, Defoe argued that "this narrative is only a strict statement of facts, there is not a shadow of fiction in it."

“Defoe,” as M. and D. Urnovs write, “was in that country and at that time and in front of that audience where fiction was not recognized in principle. Therefore, starting with readers, the same game as Cervantes ... Defoe did not dare to announce it directly.

One of the main features of Defoe's narrative style is precisely reliability, plausibility. In this he was not original. Interest in fact, not in fiction, manifested a characteristic trend of the era in which Defoe lived. Closing within the framework of the authentic was a defining characteristic of adventurous and psychological novels.

“Even in Robinson Crusoe,” as M. Sokolyansky emphasized, “where the role of hyperbolization is very large, everything extraordinary is dressed in clothes of authenticity and possibility.” There is nothing supernatural in it. Fantasy itself is "made up to look like reality, and the incredible is depicted with realistic authenticity."

"To invent more reliably than the truth" - such was Defoe's principle, formulated in his own way the law of creative typification.

"The author of Robinson Crusoe," M. and D. Urnov notes, "was a master of plausible fiction. He knew how to observe what in later times they began to call" the logic of action "- the persuasiveness of the characters' behavior in fictional or assumed circumstances."

The entire narrative in the novel "Robinson Crusoe" is conducted in the first person, through the eyes of the hero himself, through his inner world. The author has been completely removed from the novel. This technique not only increases the illusion of credibility, giving the novel the appearance of resemblance to an eyewitness document, but also serves as a purely psychological means of self-disclosure of the character.

If Cervantes, whom Defoe was guided by, builds his "Don Quixote" in the form of a game with the reader, in which the misfortunes of the unfortunate knight are described through the eyes of an outside researcher who learned about them from the book of another researcher, who, in turn, heard about them from. .. etc., then Defoe builds the game according to other rules: the rules of realism. He does not refer to anyone, does not quote anyone, the eyewitness describes everything that happened himself.

It is this type of narration that allows and justifies the appearance in the text of many slips and errors. The eyewitness is not able to keep everything in memory and observe the logic of following in everything. The unpolished plot in this case serves as another proof of the truth of what is being described.

“The very monotony and efficiency of these enumerations,” writes K. Atarova, “creates the illusion of authenticity - it seems, why is it so boring to invent? However, the detail of dry and stingy descriptions has its own charm, its own poetry and its own artistic novelty.”

Even numerous errors in the detailed description do not violate the plausibility. For example:

"Undressing, I entered the water ...", and, having boarded the ship, "... stuffed my pockets with breadcrumbs and ate them on the go";

or when the diary form itself is inconsistent, and the narrator often enters into the diary information that he could learn about only later. For example, in an entry dated June 27, he writes:

"Even later, when, after due reflection, I realized my position ...", etc.

The plot scheme of "Robinson Crusoe" is usually retold in two aspects: as a purely event series and as an interpretation of a system of images. Defoe made a kind of educational experiment on his hero, throwing him onto a desert island and thus temporarily "turning off" from real social ties. This element constitutes the fantastic core of the novel, being at the same time the reason for its special appeal. A real accident that happened to the sailor Selkirk, who lived on the island of Juan Ferdinand for four years, receives an unusual interpretation in Defoe's novel, acquiring various details and eventually transforming into a grandiose myth. Taking such an atypical rare plot for a work of art, the conditionality of which stems from the mere fact of an experiment that aims to study human behavior in extreme conditions, Defoe manages to extraordinarily typify it by introducing the concept of "robinsonade" as such. As I. Mirimsky writes: "The reader, captured by the pathos of the hero's amateur performance, the captivating simplicity of the language, the plausibility of fiction, forgets about the boundaries of the possible and the impossible. A deliberate untruth is felt as a real fact." Robinsonade, this case of cases, becomes the subject of great artistic generalization. The feeling of extraordinary plausibility does not disappear even against the background of "unnatural development of character in terms of this plot."

The core of the plot is the life of Robinson on a desert island. This core of the narrative is bordered on both sides by a description of Robinson's life before entering the island and, similarly, upon returning to his native environment. This storyline acts as a kind of locomotive, throwing Robinson onto the island and then, after a quarter of a century, extracting him from there. However, it carries a certain load in terms of characterization of the hero. It should be noted that the plot, eventful saturation of the small pre-island part is much higher than the main narrative core, in which the function of eventfulness partially passes into the internal aspect - experiences, reflections, reflections of the hero. A similar transition of the event load is noted by Robinson himself:

"I do not remember that I had in all that Time one Thought that so much as tended either to looking upwards towards God, or inwards towards a Reflection upon my own Ways: But a certain Stupidity of Soul, without Desire of Good, or Conscience of Evil, had entirely overwhelm "d me"

(“I don’t remember that during all this time my thought at least once soared to God, or that at least once I would look back at myself, think about my behavior. Some kind of moral dullness came over me: the desire for good and the consciousness of evil were equal to me alien").

There are many random episodes throughout the novel, however, as I. Mirimsky notes, "an accidental plot not only does not shake the unity of the thematic design, but, on the contrary, organically coincides with it, thereby expanding the horizons of a typical generalization to the utmost" .

According to the scheme proposed by V. Shklovsky, the plot of "Robinson Crusoe" belongs to a mixed type of chronicle-concentric plot.

The composition of Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" combines the composition of direct time and the principle of naturalness. The linearity of the narrative does not carry a strict predetermined development of the action, characteristic of classic literature, but is subject to the subjective perception of time by the hero. Describing in detail some days and even hours of his stay on the island, in other places he easily skips over several years, mentioning them in two lines:

"Thus in two years time I had a thick Grove"

("Two years later there was already a young grove in front of my dwelling");

"The twenty-seventh year of my captivity has come");

"I entertain"d such an Abhorrence of the Savage Wretches, that I have been speaking of, and of the wretched inhuman Custom of their devouring and eating one another up, that I continu"d pensive, and sad, and kept close within my own Circle for almost two years after this"

("The horror and disgust inspired in me by these wild monsters and their inhuman habit of devouring each other plunged me into a gloomy mood, and for about two years I sat in that part of the island where my lands were located ...").

The principle of naturalness allows the hero to often return to what has already been said or to run much ahead, introducing numerous repetitions and advances into the text, with which Defoe, as it were, additionally certifies the authenticity of the hero’s memories, like any memories prone to jumps, returns, repetitions and the very violation of the sequence of the story, inaccuracies, mistakes and alogisms made in the text that create a natural and extremely reliable fabric of the narrative.

In the pre-island part of the narrative, there are features of the composition of reverse time, retrospection, and narration from the end. In the island part, the linearity of the narrative is broken: by diary inserts; Robinson's reasoning and reminiscences; his appeals to God; repetition and repeated empathy about the events that have happened (for example, about the imprint of a trace that he saw; the feeling of fear experienced by the hero about the savages; the return of thoughts to the methods of salvation, to the actions and buildings he committed, etc.).

The dividing line between the inner and outer event rows is often the phrase:

"But to go on" ("But I return to my story"). A similar phrase separates the diary from reasoning: "But 1 return to my Journal" ("But I return to the diary").

One can disagree with the opinion of Y. Kagarlitsky, who believes that "Defoe's novels are devoid of a developed plot and are built around the hero's biography, as a list of his successes and failures."

The genre of memoirs presupposes the apparent underdevelopment of the plot, which, thus, contributes to the strengthening of the illusion of plausibility. Even more such an illusion has a diary.

However, Defoe's novel cannot be called plot undeveloped. On the contrary, each of his guns shoots, and it describes exactly what the hero needs and nothing more. There are no descriptions, landscape, portrait characteristics in the novel. Robinson notices only what is suitable for use, cutting off any other information. And Defoe never for a moment forgets what his hero is like. The genre of memoirs, assuming the apparent lack of development of the plot, contributes to the strengthening of the illusion of plausibility. Even more such an illusion has a diary.

Only occasionally does Robinson apply an aesthetic assessment, and even then it turns into utilitarianism:

"On the Bank of this Brook I found many pleasant Savana"s, or Meadows; plain, smooth, and cover "d with Grass; and on the rising Parts of them next to the higher Grounds, where the Water, as it might be supposed, never overflow"d I found a great deal of Tobacco, green, and growing to great and very strong Stalk; there were divers other Plants which I had no Notion of, or Understanding about , and might perhaps have Vertues of their own, which I could find out"

(“Along its banks stretched beautiful savannahs, or meadows, even, smooth, covered with grass, and further, where the lowland gradually turned into a hill ... I found an abundance of tobacco with tall and thick stems. There were other plants, which I had never seen before; it is quite possible that, if I knew their properties, I could benefit from them for myself ").

Conciseness, combined with accounting thoroughness, reflecting the same practical mindset of the hero, testifies to such a close penetration into the psychology of the hero, fusion with him, that as a subject of research it escapes attention. Robinson is so understandable and visible to us, so transparent that it seems that there is nothing to think about. But it is clear to us thanks to Defoe. But how clearly Robinson (directly in reasoning) and Defoe (through a sequence of events) substantiates the allegorical-metaphysical interpretation of events! Even the appearance of Friday fits into the biblical allegory. "And the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a helper like him" [Gen. 2:20]. And now fate creates an assistant for Robinson. On the fifth day, God created life and a living soul. The native appears to Robinson precisely on Friday.

The compositional structure itself, in its open, torn form, in contrast to the structure of classicism, closed into a strict framework of rules and plot lines, is closer to the structure of a sentimental novel and a romantic novel with its attention to exceptional circumstances. The novel, in a certain sense, represents a synthesis of various narrative structures and artistic devices: the adventure novel, the sentimental novel, the utopian novel, the life story novel, the chronicle novel, memoirs, parables, the philosophical novel, etc.

The dual plot of the novel also has dual components.

1) Pre-island adventure story.

The exposition of the plot occupies the first two paragraphs, in which the hero tells about his origin, name, location and occupation. All biographies began in this way. This is followed by a short plot, which tells about the hero's desire to leave his father's house, the reasons for this passion, a dispute with his father, and, finally, an escape from the house on a ship. As he confesses,

"that there seem"d to be something fatal in Propension of Nature tending directly to the Life of Misery which was to befal me"

("There was something fatal in this natural attraction, which pushed me to the misadventures that befell me").

From this moment, the adventurous laws of the formation of the narrative structure come into force, the adventure is initially based on love for the sea, which gives impetus to events. The development of the action is devoted to the description of the various wanderings of the hero and the twists and turns in which he finds himself. The culmination is a storm and a denouement - a shipwreck and Robinson's hit on the island. And all this - on 40 pages of text compressed by chronological frames.

The main conflict in this part of the plot is presented in the form of a disagreement between Robinson and his father and a sense of guilt before the latter. This conflict is expressed in the form of the theme of evil fate that haunts Robinson. The leitmotif of the pre-island part is his words that

"it is a secret over-ruling Decree that hurries us on to be the Instruments of our own Destruction"

("some secret decree of omnipotent fate prompts us to be the instrument of our own destruction"),

repeatedly and almost verbatim repeated by the hero in various places. This theme, which breaks the linearity of the adventurous narrative of the first part and introduces into it the memoir beginning of subsequent memories (a device of syntactic tautology), is a connecting allegorical thread between the first (sinful) and second (repentant) parts of the novel. To this theme, only in its reverse image, Robinson incessantly returns to the island, which appears to him in the form of God's punishment.

This conflict is resolved by "God's punishment" - shipwreck and loneliness.

2) Island part.

The plot of the island plot can be started from different points of reference: the entire first adventurous plot can be considered as it; the last trip taken by Robinson for slaves or directly hitting the island. For the development of the action of this plot, however, only the last detail is important. In the end, it doesn't matter which way the hero gets to the island, the main thing is that he ended up on it. The development of action is at first built on the basis of the scheme of development of the stages of human society. Robinson gets used to the island, then masters it, then begins to change, his activity becomes more and more complicated, the production of things increases.

Events unfold around Robinson's labor activity, on the listing of his "works and days" and are in the nature of listing his main achievements: tailoring, dwellings, sowing seeds, harvesting, building a goat pen, creating tools, burning pots, etc. The adventurous beginning gives way to a descriptive beginning. The series of events can be traced in two forms: external actions and incidents - and inner experiences which include dreams.

Regarding the plot role of dreams in the narrative, I. Mirimsky writes: "... limited by the self-narrative form in compositional techniques, Defoe all the more often and with full right refers to the dreams and premonitions of his hero. They organically enter the hero's worldview and are used in the novel as a means to support on known altitude readers' attention. So, if the first threatening dream for the first time turns Robinson to face God, then the second performs three functions: confirms the existence higher power, in hazy outlines, warns the reader about the Friday rescue episode and adds another argument to justify the massacre of the natives. The function of a prologue is also performed by the third dream of Robinson, prompting him to visit his island again in his declining years. In total, there are five dreams in the novel, and there are several times more premonitions ("inner voice", as Robinson calls them). They do not create a plot gradation, but, preluding to events, enliven the course of the narrative.

In this part of the story, Robinson goes through all the stages of the development of human society: from a hunter, a farmer, a cattle breeder to a slave owner and an entrepreneur. True, all these stages are under the vigilant control of the businessman-bourgeois (hence the endless calculations, estimates, strategies, figures).

Starting with a landing on the island, the plot gradually becomes more and more dramatized, acquiring more and more dynamic events, various twists and turns, and actions. Events and facts increasingly dominate Robinson's feelings. Extensive in the beginning, the hero's experiences become akin to thinking about actions and developing strategies. According to I. Mirimsky: “Defoe leads his hero in the plane of increasing action, in the movement of events he unties the knot of the main idea. epic style.Selected from the chaotic life, they basically meet the following three requirements:

1) are locally typical in themselves;

2) they represent a rather complex type of contraverse so that overcoming it reveals an energetic character, and

3) intriguingly entertaining.

Events are arranged according to the principle of a simple chronological sequence, strung like a skewer on the core of the story. It is easy to see that as the inner intensity of the theme of "Robinson" weakens, the facts gradually lose their first two qualities; they are left with one role: entertaining ... Separating themselves from the leading idea of the work and from its image, adventures become an end in itself ".

The series of events is divided into a number of episodes, representing an open structure: three, five, ten other episodes can be added to these events, which will not destroy the main thread of the narration at all. The adventurous beginning in this list is created by unexpected chance finds: a handful of seeds, supplies from a sunken ship, a Bible. The build-up of an adventurous plan begins with the discovery of a footprint by Robinson and further intensifies due to the danger that has appeared in the face of cannibals. The human factor is added to natural surprises. Accordingly, the pace of events accelerates. If earlier the score went on for years, and Robinson easily skipped several years in his description, now the time between events is compressed. From the discovery of a footprint to finding the remains of a cannibal feast, only two years pass, before the appearance of Friday - a year and a half and until the complete release of Robinson - three years.

Increasing the eventfulness and drama of the narrative gradually leads to a climax: a meeting with pirate ship. It should be noted that although Robinson's meeting with pirates and the war with them can be considered to be the culmination, in fact there are several local climaxes in the plot: each victory of Robinson over nature, the creation of a new thing can be considered as a climax in his activity. As the plot unfolds, it is as if the culminating aspect builds up simultaneously with the increase in the degree of being Robinson and the build-up of the human environment: from new things and buildings, to gaining Friday, savages, pirates, and, finally, the whole society. The story about the results of returning to it acts as a happy denouement.

The appearance of Friday brings some calm to the course of events and the emotional intensity of the narrative, which was based on an enduring sense of fear:

("fear drove out of my chest all hope in God, all my hope in him..."),

and the plot unfolds in the direction of the descriptive side of the relationship between the master Robinson and the slave Friday.

According to I. Mirimsky, "Friday, to whom Defoe owes the solution to the problem of the reasonable exploitation of slaves, becomes a serious obstacle to the further development of the narrative." He accompanies Robinson everywhere, and therefore it is impossible to pass him over in silence. In the second part of "Robinson" Defoe will get out of this difficulty by sending Friday to his death at the hands of his fellow savages. After meeting and describing the development of relations between the master and the slave, the escalation of events again occurs due to external circumstances. They are given impetus by the landing of pirates on the island, with whom Robinson goes to war. The reward for this is his return home.

In parallel with the ecstasy of his labors, Robinson experiences certain doubts about the fidelity of his behavior, he turns to God, and sees his hermitage as a way of repenting for his sins, and above all for sin before his father.

The conflict on which the plot rests is divided into two aspects: external and internal. The following series act as external conflicts: Robinson and Nature, Robinson and savages, Robinson and pirates. As internal, in the words of I. Mirimsky, "the contradiction between the pathos of practical action and the limitations of the moral code, between the fearlessness of the conquistador and the philistinism of the shopkeeper, between the lust for power and indifference to society, between rational coldness and creative passion" . The soul of a money-grubber-tramp, pushing the hero to new adventures, fights in Robinson with the soul of a "limited, cowardly, prudent petty bourgeois-puritan", keeping him from the "follies" of an adventurous life. Appeals to God, preaching of moderation and abstinence, calls to repentance, present in the hero's retreats, contradict his subsequent actions and motives. Throughout the island part of the story there is a dialogue between Robinson and himself, an eternal argument between reason and passion, in which no one is the winner: the resulting struggle between Robinson and himself is zero. Upon returning home, Robinson is the same as at the beginning. In this sense, it can be said that the internal conflict in the novel did not receive its logical resolution, but was simply removed with the return of the hero. Many researchers pointed out this unnatural development of character, the static character of Robinson: C. Dickens, I. Mirimsky, M. Urnov, A. Elistratova, etc.), seeing the reasons for such static character in various factors: from the hero’s loyalty to himself (D. Urnov,), from the consequence of the “reintegration” of the hero in bourgeois society (A. Elistratova, to the deliberate idealization of a given hero (I. Mirimsky, or even Defoe’s obvious shortcoming and miscalculation (C. Dickens,) .

According to I. Mirimsky, "Defoe's desire to give in the person of Robinson in full sense a positive hero of his class, a hero in whom a positive characteristic would be combined with a deep typicality of a realistic generalization, led him to the need to use lies and idealization as artistic means justifications for the darkest sides of capitalist society ... to resort to cothurnas of poetic deceit ... ".

In addition to the external series of events, the plot also has an internal latent development, which makes it possible to trace various allegorical interpretations and parallels. In the allegorical understanding of the plot, Defoe himself in the 3rd part of the novel, J. Starr, K. Frederick, E. Zimmerman, and from domestic researchers - K. Atarova, M. Sokolyansky, A. Elistratova considered. The plot of K. Atarova was seen as an ordinary retelling of an allegorical parable about the spiritual fall and rebirth of a person. According to J. Starr, the plot of the novel was a variation of the biblical story about the prodigal son. K. Frederick interprets the plot of "Robinson Crusoe" as a modification of the myth of the prophet Jonah. This version is disputed by M. Sokolyansky, offering his own - about the wanderings of a lost soul, which also corresponded to the form of narration chosen by Defoe in the form of a diary and memoirs, which was widespread in the "spiritual autobiographies" of the Puritans of that time.

In terms of plot, the allegorical nature of the novel is manifested in prophetic dreams Robinson; in the constant dispute of the mind with faith in God's mercy or punishment; in Kabbalism expressed through the coincidence of calendar dates and an abundance of digital calculations, the direct edification of the hero. The symbolism of the plot can be traced in the very activity of Robinson, demonstrating the stages of the development of civilization (the history of mankind), in the conventionality and symbolism of the event itself - life on the island, in the most detailed descriptions of the creation of objects and the creation of their world on the island, appealing to the descriptiveness of the Holy Scriptures (history of the world), in the covenants given by Robinson (various instructions and advice on various occasions), characteristic of the biblical prophets, in his instructive stories, Kabbalistic formulas, encrypted in accounting records, calculations and dates, in the exact fixation of all the details and elements of the new world being created and growing, appealing to biblical genealogies: what kind of crop, how many pots, goats, what items, etc.

The listed plot branches increase the plot capacity of Robinson Crusoe, which has a retrospective depth.

4. The structure of the novel

Defoe used the self-narrative form as his main compositional technique. This technique was characteristic of memoirs and diary literature, which received special distribution during the time of Defoe. Defoe also gives his novel the appearance of a memoir written by an eyewitness, with elements of a diary inserted into them. To give the novel the illusion of greater authenticity, Defoe actively uses the introduction of "documentary" evidence of the story into the narrative - inventories, registers, estimates, etc., as well as the use of the most detailed detail. The missing main division of the work by Defoe in the external aspect is replaced by breaking it down into a diary and memoirs, as well as inserting inventories and registers.

In his novel, Defoe combined two narrative techniques characteristic of travel literature, travel notes and reports, that is, literature of fact instead of literature of fiction: this is a diary and memoirs. In his diary, Robinson states the facts, and in his memoirs he evaluates them. These two forms of narration are not separated from each other, the diary often contains a memoir beginning, long arguments, and the transition from it to memoirs is clearly not indicated in any way, and there is factuality in the memoirs (when listing, descriptions, etc.).

The memoir form itself is not homogeneous. In the initial part of the novel, the structure of the narrative is sustained in a manner characteristic of the genre of biography. The year, place of birth of the hero, his name, family, training, years of life are precisely indicated. We are fully acquainted with the biography of the hero, which does not differ from other biographies. When creating his first novel, Defoe was guided by the work of Shakespeare and Cervantes' Don Quixote, sometimes directly imitating the latter (compare the beginnings of the two novels, made in the same style and according to the same plan].

The ratio of the diary and memoir parts of the novel is analyzed in detail in many works of researchers: M. Sokolyansky, E. Zimmerman, J. Starr, D. Nigel and others.

When analyzing these parts, it should be remembered that both the memoirs and the diary are not genuine documents, but only a literary device, a factual imitation, the aesthetic nature of which is betrayed by many details: first of all, frequent appeals to the reader:

"I carefully sav" d the Ears of this Corn you may be sure in their Season"

("The reader can imagine how carefully I gathered the ears when they were ripe");

"In the relating what is already past of my Story, this will be the more easily believ"d"

("for those who have already listened to this part of my story, it is not difficult to believe ...");

"tho" in it will be told all these Particulars over again"

("the events described in it are largely already known to the reader"),

"It would make the Reader pity me, or rather laugh at me"

(“I can imagine how the reader would feel sorry for me (and maybe even laugh at me) ...”), etc.

Further: the gradual and implicit transition of the diary into memoirs, the exit from which and the return to the diary occurs artificially: with the phrase "But I return to the diary" or "But I return to the story." Finally, multiple repetitions and running ahead.

Many descriptions are given by Robinson twice - in memoir form and in diary form, and the memoir description precedes the diary one, which creates a kind of effect of the hero's bifurcation: into the one who lives on the island and the one who describes this life. For example, digging a cave is described twice - in memoirs and in a diary; the construction of the fence - in memoirs and in a diary; the days from landing on the island on September 30, 1659 to the emergence of seeds are described twice - in memoirs and in a diary.

This is reminiscent of a kind of game with the reader, in which the original goal of making the story as believable as possible is imperceptibly violated in many places by various inconsistencies, and the reader, magically fascinated by the text, automatically skips them, in the worst case, attributing them to the negligence of the narrator as integral components of a believable story, and which cannot be, precisely because of the reliable reflection by an ordinary eyewitness, absolutely accurate.

Speaking about the diary nature of "Robinson Crusoe", we must not forget that we have before us an artistic hoax, a fictional diary. Just like the memoir form is fictional. A number of researchers, ignoring this, make the mistake of referring the novel to the documentary genre. For example, Dennis Nigel argues that "Robinson Crusoe" is "a journalistic work, essentially what we would call a 'documentary book', or a crude, raw presentation of simple facts...".

When analyzing the architectonics of the work, the volumetric disproportion of the various components of the plot is visible. So, in the pre-island adventurous part, the exposition of the novel (direct) takes only two paragraphs, the plot - 3 pages, the development of the action - 30 pages and the denouement - 1 page. In the island part, the denouement takes 1 page, the development of the action - 200 pages and the denouement - 25 pages

This plot combines the features of surprise, adventurousness and deeply motivated thoroughness. It is written in the form of an adventure novel, with a condensed list of events, and is limited by strict chronological boundaries.

The development of the action is written in a memoir-diary form. To give the plot a special authenticity, vitality, Defoe uses various compositional techniques: simplicity of style, detailed enumerations, deliberate flaws in the narrative, repetitions (in memoirs and diary), etc. However, Defoe's goal is not only to achieve maximum likelihood, but to depict a person outside of public relations, a working man, a pure bourgeois, a free entrepreneur. As I. Mirimsky writes:

"Robinson's life on a desert island, his combat with nature and people forms, as it were, a thematic knot in which both narrative plans are tied. It is easy to see that it was on this main episode in the biography of the hero that Defoe turned all the power of his imagination, forcing the boring prosaism of bourgeois businesslike , flavored with generous portions of moral instructions, sound like a powerful symphony of the struggle of man with the elements of nature. The display of Robinson's victorious offensive in some places almost reaches the heights of heroism and grandeur of the ancient epic. Intense inhibition of action, complicated contraverse, elements of intrigue, in a word, all means that do not contradict the self-narrative form, are mobilized for the ultimate utilization of the plot" .

5. Game aspect

It can be said that Robinson contains a certain "code" of a positive person for Defoe, and therefore it does not matter whether he acts badly in this or that case or good. The secret of this code lies in the innocence with which Robinson reports the most incredible or not very attractive things in an equally even voice, the impassive tone of an ordinary-looking person, whose originality is precisely manifested in the absence of any kind of proclamations, concealments and tricks. At the same time, he does not forget to attach a register measure to the event. In Robinson's passion for inventory, not only a merchant or scientific vein is manifested, as has been repeatedly emphasized by various researchers, and this is not just a tribute to a habit that has lost all meaning on the island - Robinson's passion is akin to a game. Like a child who puts his favorite toy in every place, Robinson plays with registers, inventories and calculations, but he plays seriously. In this childishness of Robinson, confirmed by his sincere narration, lies the secret of his charm, the very positive code that “writes off” any sin to him.

"It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this Life I now led was, with all its miserable Circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable Life I led all the past Part of my Days; and now I chang" d both my Sorrows and my Joys; my very Desires alter"d, my Affections chang"d their Gusts, land my Delights were perfectly new, from what they were at my first Coming, or indeed for the two Years past" .

("Now, at last, I clearly felt how much my present life, with all its sufferings and hardships, is happier than that shameful, sinful, disgusting life that I led before. Everything in me has changed: now I understood grief and joy in a completely different way; not those desires I had, the passions lost their sharpness; that which, at the moment of my arrival here and even during these two years, gave me pleasure, now did not exist for me ").

Robinson will change repeatedly, moving from faith to disbelief, from despair to optimism, but this is more of an imitation of change, pseudo-change, because in the end Robinson remains the same as he was before he got to the island: a merchant and an owner. His spiritual leaps, transitions are just a kind of game: with Providence, with himself, with the reader. And just as any game, no matter how seriously in it, until the complete transformation, the child does not play, after leaving it does not leave a trace in him, so the island games do not affect Robinson's mental warehouse in any way. The static character in which Defoe's hero was reproached by various researchers (C. Dickens -, D. Urnov -, Watt - and others) draws its source from the game aspect, thanks to which Robinson, in fact, was able to survive. If he had not created his own games, he would have met the fate of his prototype, who had gone crazy on the island. Even all of Robinson's work activity resembles a game of human history. After all, he could stop at something and just exist, hoping for the arrival of the ship - no, he just reproduces history, imitating its development. In this aspect, the realism of Defoe, not noticed by researchers, is manifested in such a fantastic and unusual-looking plot. The game, providing an amazing static character of the hero, was also a kind of cover for him from madness.

In terms of composition, the playful moment of the novel is expressed in the alternation of memoirs with a diary (memory game), in moralizing reasoning that does not affect the actions of the hero in any way (Robinson does not argue, he just plays with himself, with his mind, and finally with God), in numerous registries-puzzles, reminiscent of a game of tic-tac-toe (the score itself, remember, is kept up to 3- children's numbers; actually, there is nothing to knock out the balance, but Robinson knocks out, because the game of balance is important for him), finally , in his flirting with Providence and refuting the latter with some found argument, fact (a game of clues):

"I went, directed by Heaven no doubt; for in this Chest I found a Cure, both for Soul and Body, I open "d the Chest, and found what I look" d for, viz. the Tobacco; and as the few Books, I had sav"d, lay there too, I took out one of the Bibles which I mention"d before"

(“I got up and went to my pantry for tobacco. Undoubtedly, Providence guided my actions, for, opening the chest, I found in it a medicine not only for the body, but also for the soul: firstly, the tobacco that I was looking for, firstly the second - the Bible").

"... tho" I ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unforseen Providence, as if it had been miraculous; for it was really the Work of Providence as to me, that should order or appoint, that 10 or 12 Grains of Corn should remain unspoil"d, (when the Rats had destroy"d all the rest,) as if it had been dropt from Heaven; as also, that I should throw it out in that particular Place, where it being in the Shade of a high Rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it anywhere else, at that Time, it had been burnt up and destroy"d"

(“Meanwhile, what happened to me was almost as unforeseen as a miracle, and, in any case, deserved no less gratitude. In fact: wasn’t the finger of Providence visible in the fact that out of many thousands of barley grains spoiled by rats, 10 or 12 grains survived and, therefore, it was all the same that they fell to me from the sky? throw them a little further away and they would be burned by the sun").

“Throughout the entire island robinsonade,” A. Elistratova comments on these flirtations, “the same situation varies many times in different ways: it seems to Robinson that in front of him is “a miracle, an act of direct interference in his life either by heavenly providence, or whether satanic forces. "But, on reflection, he comes to the conclusion that everything that struck him so much is due to the most natural, earthly reasons. The internal struggle between puritanical superstition and rationalistic sanity has been going on throughout the Robinsonade with varying success."

In terms of plot, the game aspect manifests itself, starting with the escape of Robinson from home. It lies primarily in his very passion for adventure, escape, hunting; in the episode of the sale to the captain of the boy Xuri, about whom it is said so easily that we do not have time to be indignant, and, in fact, there is nothing to be indignant about: for Robinson this is just an element of the game, and the paradox is that we ourselves begin to perceive his actions within the normal, actions permitted by some unspoken rules, thereby excluding him from the very aspect of condemnation and taking everything for granted; Robinson connects to his game and the people he meets, and readers, and God himself.

Just admitting that

"my Fear banish"d all my religious Hope; all that former Confidence in God"

("Fear drove all hope in God out of my chest")

Robinson immediately, after a paragraph, concludes that, having recovered from the first shock,

"I consider" d that this was the Station of Life the infinitely wise and good Providence of God had determin "d for me, that as I could not foresee what the Ends of Divine Wisdom might be in all this, so I was not to dispute his Sovereignty, who, as I was his Creature, had an undoubted Right by Creation to govern and dispose of me absolutely as he thought fit; and who, as I was a Creature who had offended him, had likewise a judicial Right to condemn me to what Punishment he thought fit; and that it was my Part to submit to bear his Indignation, because I had sinn"d against him"

("I realized that my fate was predetermined by the all-wise and all-good Providence; and since it is not given to me to foresee the goals of Divine wisdom, I do not dare to rebel against God's providence: after all, I am God's creation and my Creator has an undeniable right to deal with me according to his own discretion; and as soon as I offended him, he has the right to choose me a worthy punishment; but I must obey, for I have sinned against him ").

And between these opposite conclusions, he exclaims:

"How strange a Checker Work of Providence is the Life of Man! and by what secret differing Springs are the Affections hurry" about as differing Circumstance present To Day we love what to Morrow we hate; to Day we seek what to Morrow we shun; to Day we desire what to Morrow we fear; nay even tremble at the Apprehensions of; this was exemplify "d in me at this Time in the most lively Manner imaginable; for I whose only Affliction was, that I seem"d banished from human Society, that I was alone, circumscrib"d by the boundless Ocean, cut off from Mankind, and condemn"d to what I call"d silent Life"

(“What a plaything of fate is human life! And how strangely the secret springs that control our instincts change with the change of circumstances! Today we love what tomorrow we will hate; today we are looking for what tomorrow we will avoid. what we crave today, I was then good example this kind of contradiction).

Robinson's dreams also have a game function, presenting a kind of detective riddle that will be recognized during the investigation: for example, the image of a fiery terrible herald from a black cloud with a spear in his hand (the first dream).

"I thought, that I was sitting on the Ground on the Outside of my Wall, where I sat when the Storm blew after the Earthquake, and that I saw a Man descend from a great black Cloud, in a bright Flame of Fire, and light upon the Ground: He was all over as bright as a Flame, so that I could but just bear to look towards him; his Countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful, impossible for Words to describe; when he stepp "d upon the Ground with his Feet, I thought the Earth trembl "d, just as it had done before in the Earthquake, and all the Air look" d, to my Apprehension, as if it had been fill "d with Flashes of Fire.

He was no sooner landed upon the Earth, but he moved forward towards me, with a long Spear or Weapon in his Hand, to kill me; and when he came to a rising Ground, at some Distance, he spoke to me, or I heard a Voice so terrible, that it is impossible to express the Terror of it; all that I can say, I understood, was this, Seeing all these Things have not brought thee to Repentance, nom thou shalt die: At which Words, I thought he lifted up the Spear that was in his Hand, to kill me" .

("I dreamed that I was sitting on the ground behind the fence, in the very place where I sat after the earthquake, when the hurricane broke out, and suddenly I saw that from above, from a large black cloud, all engulfed in flames, a man was descending. From him came so bright light that you could barely look at him. There are no words to describe how terrible his face was.

When his feet touched the ground, it seemed to me that the ground trembled, and all the air, to my horror, lit up like countless flashes of lightning. As soon as he stepped on the ground, the stranger moved towards me with a long spear in his hand, as if with the intention of killing me. A little before reaching me, he climbed a hillock, and I heard a voice, inexplicably menacing and terrible. Of all that the stranger said, I understood only one thing: "Despite everything sent down to you, you did not repent: so die!" And I saw how, after these words, he raised his spear to kill me).

These dreams are, as it were, a story within a story and are reminiscent of medieval "visions" in form. Robinson is trying to find an allegorical explanation for them, similar to a revelation that directs to God. However, this is not his path, he endlessly strays from this direction even on the island itself, and upon returning home he does not remember it at all. Robinson's religiosity is very relative and temporary. Under external puritanical piety lives a healthy, spontaneously materialistic perception of the world, and sometimes even a mocking attitude towards religion. Robinson's practicality continually overturns his religiosity. However, it's not just about practicality. The prudent bourgeois could not have aroused so much sympathy. Robinson lacks generosity and courage. He rushes into the sea to a sinking ship, survives a storm several times, risks his life to save people unknown to him - Friday, his father, the captain of the ship. Yes, and as a host he is kind.

Robinson's positive code includes his optimism. No matter what troubles befall him, no matter what despair he falls into, in the end, spiritual strength and readiness for work take over. As Z. Grazhdanskaya notes, "in this pathos of labor, in this hymn to man - the guarantee of the immortality of Defoe's book" .

In other words, the positive code of Robinson is precisely his utopianism, unnaturalness in relation to the real possibilities of a person, to some extent his superhumanity, which allowed him not only to save himself, but also to accomplish a feat, recreating the history of mankind on an island scale.

“The moral feat of Robinson described by Defoe,” concludes A. Elistratova, “who retained his spiritual human appearance and even learned a lot during his island life, is completely improbable - he could go wild or even go crazy. However, behind the outward improbability of the island robinsonade, the highest truth of enlightenment humanism ... the feat of Robinson proved the strength of the human spirit and will to live and convinced of the inexhaustible possibilities of human labor, ingenuity and perseverance in the fight against adversity and obstacles ".

Conclusion

The composition of the novel "Robinson Crusoe" is an open structure of the chronicle-concentric type, shaping the plot of the work in a self-narrative diary-memoir form. This is mainly a composition of direct time, but with a certain amount of retrospection, especially in the island part. A feature of the novel is also a change in compositional techniques and forms of composition: from a biography, an adventure novel, memoirs, a diary to a fictional style. The components of the structure of the work, interspersed in the text and increasing its entertaining, are also: various inventories, registers, calculations; elements of the play; a story within a story; retreats; prayers and edifications.

According to the genre, the novel about Robinson belongs to travel novels. However, the hero's journey ends very early and is replaced by a monotonous life on a desert island. As Z. Grazhdanskaya writes, "The novel can be called an adventure, but for 25 years of life on the island with Robinson there are almost no adventures ... The main content of the novel, which won the hearts of readers, was a story about the struggle with nature, about the creation of normal conditions for its existence. From this point of view, the novel was a unique work, although it caused many imitations.

In terms of genre, the novel contains features of various genres: an adventure novel, a novel of education, an allegorical parable, a spiritual autobiography, a psychological novel, and a utopian novel. According to A. Elistratova:

Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe", the prototype of an enlightening realistic novel in its still unseparated, undivided form, combines many different literary genres ". M. Bakhtin called the novel "Robinson Crusoe" romanized memoirs with sufficient "aesthetic structure".

Of the compositional techniques used by Defoe in the novel "Robinson Crusoe", it should be noted such as: memoirs, diary, biography, adventurous element, register tables, dramaturgy component, story within a story (dreams), retrospection (memories), philosophical and religious reflections , sermons and moral instructions, dialogue. All methods gradually served one goal: the creation of a plausible epic of labor and a plausible positive image of the "pure" and free bourgeois. Even Robinson's relationship with Friday looks in the narrative not as a relationship between master and slave, owner and exploited, but as a relationship of close ideal friends: Robinson does not so much exploit Friday as educates him as the father of a child, carefully and gently, and Friday obeys him with delight and desire. They rather seem to play the relationship of master and slave than they are. The game element is sufficiently developed in the novel, the whole novel can be defined as a grandiose utopia, a bewitching game of survival and imitation of the relations inherent in civilization, as an imitation of the entire historical path of human development, done by one person in thirty years of loneliness. It was impossible to think of a better and more authentic hymn to this path and to the free entrepreneur. Robinson never gives himself a positive assessment. On the contrary, his self-assessments are very critical: he often experiences fear, which he is not afraid to admit, stigmatizes his past life, is inconsistent, but he is full of optimism, which manifests itself in deeds, actions, and activity. This deed, deed, activity is the justifying criterion, the positive code of the entrepreneur, which was Robinson.

Literature

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Publication year— 1719

Genre- novel

Subject- Man's struggle with nature.

Full title— “The life, extraordinary and amazing adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a sailor from York, who lived for 28 years all alone on a desert island off the coast of America near the mouths of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew ship, besides him, perished, outlining his unexpected release by pirates; written by himself"

2. Labor Theme. It was labor that helped Robinson survive and remain human.Robinson Crusoe does not lose heart. He always occupies himself with something, works, ennobles his life. Realizing his loneliness, the hero begins to look for something, to strive for something, to do something. Doesn't sit idly by.

3. The theme of love of life, optimism, hope for salvation. Robinson Crusoe had two basic building blocks: Faith and Action. Robinson Crusoe believes and hopes for his salvation, he does not lose optimism, he fights for his life.

4. The theme of friendship.

In the life of the protagonist, an assistant and friend Friday appears on the island.With the advent of Friday, his life takes on new meaning. Robinson Crusoe becomes Friday's friend and mentor. He teaches Friday how to communicate English language, properly cook food, eat, work, ennoble the home, land, teaches various skills: reading, writing, shooting a gun. This helps Robinson to get distracted, he has no time to be bored. With the advent of Friday, the main character has an increased chance of salvation. They build a boat together.

Literary and artistic analysis of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. "Robinson Crusoe", an artistic analysis of the novel by Daniel Defoe. Twice lies - or effective PR

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