Robinson Crusoe : Key info
Robinson Crusoe is a notable literary work by Daniel Defoe. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, and various study materials of Robinson Crusoe.
Key info
- Author: Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
- Type Of Work: Novel
- Genre: Adventure story; novel of isolation
- Language: English
- Written Time: 1719
- Written place: London, England
- Date Of First Publication: 1719
- Publisher: William Taylor
- Narrator: Robinson Crusoe is both the narrator and main character of the tale.
- Point Of View: Crusoe narrates in both the first and third person.
- Tense: Past
- Time Setting: From 1659 to 1694
- Place setting: York, England; then London; then Sallee, North Africa; then Brazil; then a deserted island off Trinidad; then England; then Lisbon; then overland from Spain toward England; then England; and finally the island again
- Protagonist: Robinson Crusoe
- Themes: The ambivalence of mastery; the necessity of repentance; the importance of self-awareness
- Motifs: Counting and measuring; eating; ordeals at sea
- Symbols: The footprint; the cross; Crusoe’s bower
Character List of Robinson Crusoe
- Robinson Crusoe: Protagonist and Narrator
- Friday: Servant of Robinson Crusoe. 26 years old.
- The Portuguese captain; The sea captain who picks up Crusoe and the slave boy Xury from their boat after they escape from their Moorish captors and float down the African coast.
- The Spaniard: One of the men from the Spanish ship that is wrecked off Crusoe’s island.
- Xury: A nonwhite (Arab or Black) slave boy only briefly introduced during the period of Crusoe’s enslavement in Sallee.
The widow: the widow keeps Crusoe’s 200 pounds safe in England throughout all his thirty-five years of journeying.