Order and disorder in Robinson Crusoe

Résumé du document

“Necessity is the mother of inventions” could undoubtedly be regarded as one of Daniel Defoe (1660 – 1731)'s favourite proverb, and indeed, he employed the maxim in his History of Trade, writing: “Necessity which is the Mother, and Convenience which is the Handmaid of Invention, first Directed Mankind from these Originals, to Contrive Supplies and Support of Life”. Actually, this common motto operates rather well on Robinson Crusoe, the eponymous main character and narrator of The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates -which is the full title of the masterpiece. Published as a fictional chronicle in 1719, the book met with such a huge success that its author quickly went on writing two lesser-known sequels to it, The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and The Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe, neither of which attracted as much consideration as the original. The genuine story of Alexander Selkirk, popularized through diverse narratives during the eighteenth century, is usually held to represent the major source for Robinson Crusoe.

Extraits

[...] Indeed, Crusoe is undergoing the archetypal crises of life, and in this respect, the establishment of both physical and psychic orders is one of the predominant myths in Robinson Crusoe. The hero manages to cope with the perils and the enchantments, both around him and within his own self. On the island, he learns to progress from spiritual ignorance towards mental integration. Crusoe has survived his shipwreck, has overcome his first fears of savages and wild animals, has saved precious items from the hulk of the boat and has begun his system of fortification and his process of taming goats. [...]

[...] However, the ideas of order and disorder in Robinson Crusoe merit more than a mere topical study. What we will try to draw is a careful examination of the progression of the connection between the two notions of order and disorder in Robinson Crusoe. Which elements can originally be depicted as ordered or disordered in Robinson Crusoe? To what extent can the reader draw sharp oppositions between those notions in some parts of the book? Which varieties of contrasts are presented throughout the unfolding of the plot? [...]

[...] “Disorder” often suggests confusion, trouble, disturbance or dysfunction. However -and we will come back to this point later on in our analysis-, those definitions may underline the positive position of order and the negative connotation of disorder only. If truth be told, we may add that order can be oppressive -when one moves from the legitimacy of order towards its enforcement, in politics for instance-, and in the same way, disorder is sometimes to be seen as convivial, and even as the creator of order itself. [...]

[...] Indeed, in the everlasting struggle between order and disorder, the footprint acts as a disruption of Crusoe's little empire: it is the very sign of intruders on what he calls his island. The dramatic intensity is at its paroxysm, for we have just been given a detailed account of an ostensibly disciplined island. The amount of civilization Crusoe has so far managed to bring about is now shown to be a smokescreen, a mere illusion, and then, Crusoe needs to reorganize his threatened stability. [...]

[...] Indeed, we can hit on another inference as regards the interaction between stability and upheaval: in their struggle, it seems that we can draw an assimilation of the two in many respects. We will highlight this new perspective in our last part. So far in our examination, we have concentrated on emphasize two noticeable aspects of the interaction between order and disorder in Robinson Crusoe. We have seen that they can either be utterly opposed and eclipsed by the other, or unremittingly struggle, in order to complete their settlement. [...]