DANIEL DEFOE - An eventful life

An eventful life

Daniel Defoe was born in 1660 into a family of Protestant sect which refused the authority of the Church of England.

His father wanted a religious career for him, but he began working an apprentice.

Defoe suffered two bankruptcies. He started to write in Whig papers; like journalist his greatest achievement was The Review.

He became famous, but in the reign of Queen Anne he was arrested, tried and imprisoned.

Then he denied his Whigs ideals, and when was sixty began to write novel which were very successful. In 1719 he published hid first novel, Robinson Crusoe, in the 1722 he published Moll Flanders, his last novel was Roxana.

So he could afford a comfortable standard of life, but he dead in 1731.

Structure of the novel

Defoe's long narrative are autobiographices pretend to be true stories through the autobiographical details and memories provided by the protagonist. The structure of the novel is characterized by series of episodes and adventures  held togheter by the unifying presence of a single 343c21d hero. The lack of coherent plot is due to the fact that Defor neither planned nor revised his work. Defoe's method of retrospective first- person narration, and the autor's point of view mainly coincides whit the main characters.

Characterisation

The character usually appear in physically or socially isolation. Defoe is regarded like father of English novel because he used a narrative technique was original and became the basis for the development of the realistic novel.

The plot

Robinson Crusoe was born in New York in 1632, at the age of nineteen he leave his home and decided to travel around the world. His first voyage was in Guinea, and then he back to England. In his second voyage he was captured by Moorish pirates but he managed to escape and is rescue of Portuguese ship and brought to Brazil. The third voyage was in Africa and he is shipwrecked on a desert island where he will remain for 28 years. He writes a diary. After 20 years of solitude he find a human footprint, there was cannibal in the island. So Robinson decides to attack them, but they escape. Robinson met one of them and called him Friday. He teaches English and reading the Bible. So together attack a cannibal and imprisoned two of them, one is Friday's father. The novel ends with Robinson that return to England and discovered that he was rich.

The new middle class hero

The new hero belong to the middle class.

The island

The island is the ideal place to prove his qualities, to demonstrate that he deserved to be saved by God's providence. On the Island Robinson organized a sort of primitive empire.

The individual and society

The society that Robinson created on the island is not an alternative to English one, but it can be read as an exaltation of 18^th century of England and its ideal of mobility, material productiveness and individualism.

The style

Defoe concentrates his description on the primary qualities of object, especially solidity, extension and number and on the secondary ones like color, texture and flavors. The language is simple and he used the first person narration.

Richardson and the epistolary vogue

Samuel Richardson was born in Derbyshire in 1689 of a Puritan family. In 1706 he was apprenticed to a printer. When he was fifty he write a volume of model letter to be used on various occasion. While working on this volume he had a idea of using the technique of epistolary to tell a story. So he started writing Pamela, or the virtue rewarded, Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison. He was married two times and had twelve son. He died in 1761.

The moralising aim

All is novel are set in a realistic domestic middle class and are the dramatic representation of ethics preached like commons sense, good manners and modesty. Reflect the puritan's middle class scheme of reward for virtue, and punishment for sins. He avoided his novel on a single action, not in episody.

Characterisation

In contrast to Defoe's novels, there is a sense of individual development within the story: characters are far from being static to their gradual development. The heroines are youth and charm, considerable self will and knowledge, together with Cristian piety: they defend virtue, profess and venerate truth.

Narrative technique

Richardson uses the first person narrative technique through personal letters and journal. It has much in common with the dramatic technique. The action is made up by a series of scenes with no general summaries. The reader is invited to believe that the letters are as they read them as they were in the very act of composition.

The plot

The plot is simple and it is a collection of letters written by Pamela to her parents. In this letter she record her various mood and feeling as she resist her late mistress's son's attempt to seduce her. She gains from him a proposal of marriage and so she becoming rich and obtaining the social position high. The novel is not based on a long chain of events, but around a interrelation between the two main character.

Character

Pamela is a round character and is pratical, passionate, but she is intolerant of injustice both to herself and the her servants. Mr B is the son of her mistress, and it is a round character. He tries to seduce Pamela, but she resist. At the end discover that Mr B. was really feel in love of Pamela.

Style and popularity

Pamela is a series of familiar letters, there isn't any comment, but in the novel there are comments on the sexual and social inequality of the position of women.

The comic - epic vision of life

Fielding was born in 1707 in aristocratic family. He study law at the university, but he started writing comedies in which he satirized the degradation of society and morals. When his play were censored he leave the theatre and took up a career as magister. He was not sentimental man, but he was generous. Then almost for accident he started to write novel, like "Shamela" and "The history of the adventures of Joseph Andrews". He implies that by the rules of society, goodness is of no consequence to greatness. In he published Tom Jones, the best novel. He died in 1745 in Portugal.

Characters

The character belong to all classes and had to behave consistently from beginning to end.

Moral aim

There are neither wholly good nor wholly bad characters and that man is naturally inclined to goodness.

Narrative technique

He used the third person. The narrator is obtrusive and intervenes in the narration with warnings, ironic comments and moral reflection. The tone used is conversational and ironic.

The plot

Tom is a founding and has been adopted by Mr Allworthy. The nephew of this, Bitfil, was fall in love with Sofia, a daughter of rich neighbor, but her father opposed. Tom, too, was fall in love with Sofia. Bitfil was jealous of Tom so ruins his reputation of benefactor and then Tom is thrown out to the house and he has various adventures. At the end the villainy of Bitfil was discovered and Mr Allworthy decided that Tom will marry Sofia. The novel is made up of six volumes with three book to a volume.

A moral essay

This novel can be considered a long moral essay because the narrator interview with numerous warning about the natural goodness of men. Fielding used the third person and the narrator is omniscient and obtrusive.

Character

Bilfil and tom are in contrast. Bilfil is a hypocrite, meanwhile Tom is a generous and honest man. Other character are men of all profession that are ignorant and unskilled; the woman are most negative because they have one interest: the money.

Style

Each of book begins with short chapter in which the narrator comments on his own novel and on general aspect of aesthetic and the craft of fiction. The story are realistic in style ironic, witty, direct, linear and concrete.