Religious Undertones in Robinson Crusoe
- Robinson Crusoe is an adventure novel focusing on Crusoe’s journey as he gets stuck on a deserted island.
- The novel follows the same pattern of the story of Original Sin in Christian Theology i.e. Sin, Punishment, Guilt and Repentance.
- The novel implies the governance of God and everything that happens with an individual in this world serves as a guide for him/her.
Robinson Crusoe is an English adventure novel written by Daniel Defoe. It was first published in London in 1719. The book contributed to establishing a realistic genre of fictional works in English literature. Many readers believe the story is inspired by the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish buccaneer who spent five years alone on an island.
The novel focuses on the protagonist, Robinson Crusoe, who decides to leave the comfort of his home in England to travel by sea. While he travels by sea, his ship encounters a storm. Unfortunately, he becomes the only survivor of the wrecked boat and reaches an uninhabited island, where he spends 28 years of his life.
Robinson Crusoe’s experiences can be compared to those of Adam and Eve, keeping in mind the idea of Original Sin. In Christian theology, Original Sin is the story of the fall of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because they disobeyed God. When God created Adam, He made him live in a perfect and blissful place. He told Adam to keep the animals, cultivate the garden, and eat the garden’s fruit, except for one thing:
“Not to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.”
Later, God created Adam’s wife, Eve. Both Adam and Eve lived devoutly until one day when Serpent led Eve into temptation. He tempted Eve by saying,
“Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
After hearing the Serpent’s words, Eve ate the forbidden fruit and gave Adam some of it. After eating it, their eyes opened, and they realized that they were naked. When Adam and Eve disobeyed Him, He expelled them from the Garden of Eden. As a result, both of them lost their Paradise. Their life on Earth was filled with hardships, and it was not like the life they knew.
The novel Robinson Crusoe and the story of Original Sin follow the same pattern, i.e., sin, guilt, and repentance. At the novel’s beginning, Crusoe expresses his wish to go out to the sea. However, his father wanted him to be a lawyer. He wanted his son to stay in England to pursue a secure, modest, and peaceful life. Crusoe’s father advised him to stay in the middle of two extremes, i.e., rich and poor. He explained that the sea journey is something for the rich and poor. However, Crusoe did not heed his father’s advice and left on a sea journey. Before leaving, he consulted neither his father nor his mother and even ignored asking for the blessing of God. In the novel, his father acts as a figure of God. Just like God warned them not to eat the forbidden fruit, the same way Crusoe’s father warned him about life on the sea. Adam in
Paradise ignored God’s command about the forbidden fruit. In the same way, Crusoe ignored his father’s advice, which shows that he is Adam in the story. Sinning disobedience provoked disaster in Crusoe’s life.
Adam, Eve, and Crusoe had a chance to live a peaceful life, but Adam and Eve’s pursuit of wisdom and Crusoe’s pursuit of adventure led them to disobedience. As a result, they were severely punished. Adam and Eve’s punishment was expulsion from Paradise, and Crusoe’s punishment was to get stuck on a deserted island, all alone. Adam, Eve, and Crusoe faced hardships in their lives they had never seen before. Robinson had to face food shortages, wild animals, and even cannibals to survive on the island. He was also punished for becoming an immoral slave trader. When he begins to search for natives, the ship is hit by a storm, but he manages to survive it. After the first storm, the ship’s Captain asserts that they should return to safety in Brazil, but Crusoe refuses. Again, Crusoe disobeys the ship’s Captain and as a result, the ship soon encounters another storm, which kills all the men on it except him. With great effort, Crusoe swims to an island, where he begins to live a lonely and isolated life.
After disobeying God, Adam and Eve felt guilty for their disobedience. In the novel, Crusoe also regrets disobeying his father. Crusoe himself relates his sinning against his father as sinning against God. Crusoe says,
“My ORIGINAL SIN, my subsequent mistakes of the same kind had been the means of my coming into this miserable condition.”
Robinson Crusoe’s Original Sin is the reason for all his miseries on the island. The author of this novel is also trying to show the process of cause and effect. Crusoe disobeys and hence he is severely punished for it.
After feeling guilty for disobeying God, Adam and Eve began to repent. Crusoe also begins to reflect on himself and his actions after seeing the dream of a man with a spear who threatens to kill him because he seeks no repentance. After the dream, Crusoe gets scared and looks back on his life. He begins to call disobedience toward his father “wicked.” He also felt bad because he had never been grateful for good things in his life. To seek repentance, he began to read the Bible and started seeing Divine Providence (governance of God and everything that happens with an individual serves as a guide for him/her) in everything. He began to see his isolation on the island as a blessing in disguise because he felt a close connection with God.
Robinson Crusoe is not only an adventure story; it is also a religious novel. Daniel Defoe is trying to show the love of God for humans. He brings a sinner to repentance by putting hardships in his/her life. The story also portrays that a person only begins to reflect on his/her life when he/she is stuck in the most terrible situation.
The author has a passion for exploring various literary genres and storytelling techniques. Initially drawn to comics, films, and animation, her academic journey has enriched her love for books, broadening her appreciation for diverse forms of storytelling.
