P-203 Assignment

Allegory in Robinson Crusoe

Name-Daya Vaghani

Paper- The Postcolonial Studies

Roll no-06

Enrollment no-3069206420200017

Email id- dayavaghani2969@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-III)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

Introduction

The question may arise in our mind that what is allegory?

An allegory is a narrative piece of art in which the authors use their characters, setting and plot to entertain by delivering moral lessons. Allegories were popular in England from the sixteenth century onward Robinson Crusoe is regarded as one of the finest allegories. Defoe must have been inspired by the allegories of Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, Milton’s Paradise Lost. But the real inspiration behind Robinson Crusoe is undoubtedly Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress, another class allegory.

In both the novels, The Pilgrim’s Progress and Robinson Crusoe life has been treated as a voyage of human soul. Life in both these novels is a probation. In the Pilgrim’s Progress a pilgrim, who is the human soul, makes his progress towards the House Beautiful. Likewise Robinson makes his voyage on sea, the Bhav Sagar, which must lead him towards his destination – the spiritual salvation.

G. H. Mair, while praising Robinson Crusoe and exalting it above The Pilgrim’s Progress writes :

“The Pilgrim’s Progress is begun as an allegory, and so continues for a little space till the story takes hold of the author….But the autobiographical form of fiction in its highest art is the creation of Defoe.”

👉Autobiographical Allegory

Generally the allegorical novels are the autobiographical by nature. Dickens in David Copperfield, Great Expectations writes about his own miserable life, as a childhood. Defoe writes his own life in Robinson Crusoe. Defoe had led a miserable struggling life. In the course of activities he was imprisoned and was even pilloried. And while he was in jail his wife and children starved. We can relate his imprisonment with Robinson’s imprisonment on the solitary island. The starvation of his family is expressed in the following lines :

“I had a dreadful deliverance. For I was wet, had no cloths to shift me, nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me, neither did I see any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger.” (Robinson Crusoe)

Life has been treated as a voyage. That is why Robinson must suffer from wander-thirst. Defoe sees in the life of Robinson his spiritual development and salvation. He had often, like Francis Bacon, played sometimes acting for both the Whigs and the Tories simultaneously.

Robinson commits the disobedience to his father and God. He also commits the sin of pride, sin of rising faster in life than the nature of things allows, and the sin of running away from the island of imprisonment. Defoe had suffered punishment, tortures and humiliation. This we can read in the life of Robinson. He is also punished with slavery, with imprisonment and fear on the island. He is made to fear the footprint, the dream in which a man descends from the cloud to kill him with a spear and the Cannibals who feast on human flesh. Above all he is tormented by loneliness on the desolate island. He longs for the company of a human being. When he sees a shipwreck he is dejected not to find a single man alive :

“O that there had been one or two, or but one soul saved out of this ship.” (Robinson Crusoe)

👉Life as a Voyage

Life has been treated as a voyage. That is why Robinson must suffer from wander-thirst. Defoe sees in the life of Robinson his spiritual development and salvation. He had often, like Francis Bacon, played false, sometimes acting for both the Whigs and the Tories simultaneously. He must have repented for his dishonesty and wickedness to be forgiven. This we can read in the life of Robinson Crusoe. Robinson commits the sin of disobedience to his father and God. He also commits the sin of pride, sin of rising faster in life than the nature of things allows, and the sin of running away from the island of imprisonment. Defoe had suffered punishment, tortures, and humiliation. This we can read in the life of Robinson. Robinson is punished with slavery, with imprisonment and fear on the island. He is made to fear the footprint, the dream in which a man descends from the cloud to kill him with a spear and the Cannibals who feast on human flesh. Above all, he is tormented by loneliness on the desolate island. He longs for the company of a human being. When he sees a shipwreck he is dejected not to find a single man alive: “O that there had been one or two, or but one soul saved out of this ship.

He finds only a drowned dead boy. The spiritual salvation of Defoe has been imagined in that of Robinson. Robinson repents for his wicked sin he committed against his father and God. He prays to God to allow him to repent. He prays that his penitential tears, he sheds for Him, may be accepted. When he finds God magnanimously and mercifully spreading his table in the wilderness he feels that his tears have been accepted. He is now a restored penitent. He thanks God so making him an instrument for saving the soul of a cannibal, Friday. Crusoe thanks God to send him to the desolate island which becomes the place of his redemption. He, who had pined to be cast on the island of despair, rejoices that he was brought to this place. The place of dreadful afflictions becomes the place of ecstasy. He feels that God has dealt with him bountifully, and He has still mercy in store for him. He can no longer feel indignant because he feels that his punishment is less in comparison to his sin. Crusoe enjoys mercies which he had not deserved and expected. He feels that only the providential wonders have brought him his daily bread. He now reconciles himself to the afflictions bestowed on him and thanks to God for showering blessings on him. Robinson, like the Bishop of Canterbury in Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, mixes his will in the will of God. He gets reconciled to God. His soul is saved and he has received the spiritual salvation he sought for. Thus Robinson Crusoe can be called the spiritual allegory.

👉Spiritual Allegory

The spiritual salvation of Defoe has been imagined in that of Robinson. Robinson prays to God to allow him to repent. He prays that his penitential tears, he sheds for Him, may be accepted. When he finds God magnanimously and mercifully spreading his table in the wilderness he feels that his tears have been accepted. He is now a restored penitent. He thanks God so making him an instrument for saving the soul of a cannibal, Friday. He thanks God to send him to the desolate island which becomes the place of his redemption. The place of dreadful afflictions becomes the place of ecstasy. He is fed as Elijah was fed by the ravens. He, like the Bishop of Canterbury in Eliot’s Murder in The Cathedral, mixes his will in the will of God.

Man has come to this world alone and he will depart one day from her comes empty-handed and goes empty-handed. Life is only an illusion. No one has any belonging to others. Life is Maya, a mirage. It slips from under our hands like sand. Ecstasy eludes here like horizon. True ecstasy can only be sought in the union with the Almighty. The island, the solitary island symbolises this loneliness, and our constant effort salvation.

👉Allegory of Isolation

This island also is an allegory of alienation. Apart from isolation man feels alienated. A person feels himself to be lone even amidst the crowd. We feel alienated because we find no one to share our ideas and feelings. Moreover, we feel lonely when we fall upon the thorns of life and bleed. Rarely does then anyone come to comfort us, to balm o sorrows. We feel that when we laugh the world laughs with us, but when we weep, we weep alone. The weeping of Robinson, the lonely weeping on the lonely, desolate island cannot be heard by anyone.

👉Allegory : Material Advancement

Defoe was a materialist. He was, like Bacon, practical and, like Locke, empiric. He indulged in fraud and dishonesty. He believed in amassing wealth. Robinson is another Defoe. Ian Watt calls him an economic individualist and Karl Marx in his Das Kapital regards him as a capitalist.

Robinson embarks on voyages not only for adventure but also for trade. He earns a lot of money in his first voyage to Guinea. He possesses, like Marlowe, an infinite immoderate passion for rising fast in life. On the island he brings from the stranded ship a lot of money which cannot buy even a pair of shoes. He bides his time for deliverance from almost the life imprisonment on the desolate only for collecting his material things. He goes mad and dizzy and almost like dying when he finds his wealth all around him.

Allegory of Colonialized

The Britishers founded colonies in almost half the world, including India. Robinson regards himself as the king of the island. Later when he revisits his island he claims half of the island as his personal property. Robinson Crusoe can be read on this line

Conclusion

To conclude we can say that an allegory implies double layer of meaning – literal and inherent with symbolic interpretation. It's very important part of literature.It is just like the innumerable waves formed when a stone is thrown into the water. Robinson Crusoe can be read on many levels.As we have seen earlier it can be read as an autobiographical story, as an adventurous story, as a picaresque novel, as a religious pilgrimage, as a parable of the Prodigal Son, as a moral treatise, as a conquest over Nature, as material advancement, as colonial expansion and as so many other things. Therefore Robinson Crusoe is a superb allegory.

References

• Parker, George. “THE ALLEGORY OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.” History, vol. 10, no. 37, Wiley, 1925, pp. 11–25, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24399567.

• Muzahid, Billah. “ROBINSON CRUSOE AS A RELIGIOUS ALLEGORY.” Academia, 2010,www.academia.edu/32563832/ROBINSON_CRUSOE_AS_A_RELIGIOUS_ALLEGORY.

• “ALLEGORY IN DEFOE’S ‘ROBINSON CRUSOE.’” Artlark, 2015, artlark.org/2021/04/25/allegory-in-defoes-robinson-crusoe.

P-107 Assignment

Religious Significance in Waiting for Godot

Name-Daya Vaghani

Paper-The Twentieth Century Literature: From World War II

 to The End of The Century

Roll no-07

Enrollment no-3069206420200017

Email id- dayavaghani2969@gmail.com

Batch-2020-22 (MA Sem-2)

Submitted to- S. B. Gardi Department of English,

                Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

 

Introduction:

 

Samuel Beckett is a famous Irish dramatist and novelist. “Waiting for Godot” is his master piece. The play is one of the classic works of theatre of absurd. It is multilayered drama which has many interpretations.The play seems absurd but with a deep religious meaning. Though the play commonly interpreted within the context of the theatre of absurd, existentialist literature, it is also Christian allegory and also interpreted with religious interpretations.

The play has very strong evidences of theory of existentialism, but still, it can be related with many other religious interpretations. Like, Christian myth of two thieves, waiting for second coming of Jesus Christ, Hindu philosophy and its ‘Avatar’ and other interpretations.

Theme of the Uncertainty of Salvation

The theme of the two thieves on the cross, the theme of the uncertainty of the hope of salvation and the chance bestowal of divine grace, does indeed pervade the whole play. Vladimir states it right at the beginnings, when he says: 

“One of the thieves was saved. It’s a reasonable percentage.” 

Later he enlarges on the subject. One of the two thieves is supposed to have been saved and the other damned, says Vladimir. But he asks why only one of the four Evangelists speaks of a thief being saved. Of the other three Evangelists, two do not mention any thieves at all, and the third says that both of them, abused Christ. In other words, there is a fifty-fifty chance of salvation but, as only one out of four witnesses (the Evangelists) reports it, the chances are considerably reduced. As Vladimir points out, it is a curious fact that everybody seems to believe that one witness: “It is the only version they know.” Estragon, whose attitude has been one of scepticism throughout, merely comments “People are bloody ignorant apes.”

The Chance Remarks Made By the Two Thieves

It is the shape of the idea that fascinated Beckett. Out of all the evildoers, out of all the millions and millions of criminals that have been, executed in the course of history, only two had the chance of salvation in so unique a manner. One happened to make a hostile remark; he was damned. The other happened to contradict that hostile remark; and he was saved. How easily could the roles have been reversed! These, after all, were not well-considered judgments, but chance exclamations uttered at a moment of supreme suffering and stress. As Pozzo says about Lucky:

 “Remark that I might easily have been in his shoes and he in mine. If chance had not willed it otherwise. To each one his due.”

Godot’s Unpredictability in Bestowing Grace

Godot himself is unpredictable in bestowing kindness and punishment. The boy who is his messenger looks after the goats, and Godot treats him well. But the boy’s brother, who looks after the sheep, is beaten by Godot.

 “And why doesn’t he beat you?” asks Vladimir. “I don’t know, sir,” the boy replies. The parallel to Cain and Abel is evident: there too the Lord’s grace fell on one rather than on the other without any rational explanation. Here Godot also acts contrary to Jesus Christ at the Last Judgment: “And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” But if Godot’s kindness is bestowed as a matter of pure chance, his coming is not a source of pure joy; it can also mean damnation. When in Act II Estragon believes Godot to be approaching, his first thought is that he is accursed. And as Vladimir triumphantly exclaims “It’s Godot! At last! Let’s go and meet him,” Estragon runs away, shouting: “I’m in hell.”

Two Divisions of Mankind

The chance bestowal of grace, which human beings cannot comprehend, divides mankind into those who will be saved and those who will be damned. When in Act II, Pozzo and Lucky return, and the two tramps try to identify them, Estragon calls out: “Abel! Abel!” Pozzo immediately responds. But when Estragon calls out: “Cain! Cain!” Pozzo responds again. “He’s all humanity,” concludes Estragon.

Pozzo’s Effort to Attain Salvation

There is even a suggestion that Pozzo’s activity is concerned with his frantic attempt to draw that fifty-fifty chance of salvation upon himself. In Act I, Pozzo is on his way to sell Lucky at the fair. The French version of the play, however, specifies that it is the Market of the Holy Saviour to which he is taking Lucky. Is Pozzo trying to sell Lucky to redeem himself? Is he trying to divert the fifty-fifty chance of redemption from Lucky to Pozzo? He certainly complains that Lucky is causing him great pain, that he is killing him with his mere presence—perhaps because his mere presence reminds Pozzo that it might be Lucky who will be redeemed. When Lucky gives his famous demonstration of his thinking, the thin thread of sense that underlies the opening lines seems to be concerned with the accidental nature of salvation: “Given the existence of a personal God outside time without extension who from the heights of divine apathia, divine athambia, divine aphasia, loves us dearly with some exception for reasons unknown and suffers with those who are plunged in torment….” Here we have a description of a personal God, with his divine apathy, his speechlessness (“aphasia”), and his lack of the capacity for terror or amazement (“athambia”), in other words, a God who does not communicate with us, cannt feel for us, and condemns us for reasons unknown.

Pozzo’s Failure

When Pozzo and Lucky reappear the next day, Pozzo blind and Lucky dumb, no more is heard of the fair. Pozzo has failed to sell Lucky; his blindness in thinking that he could thus influence the action of grace has been made evident in concrete physical form.

A Religious or Christian Play

Waiting for Godot then seems to be concerned with the hope of salvation through the workings of grace. And this view supports the belief that it is a Christian or a religious play. Vladimir’s and Estragon’s “waiting” might be explained as signifying their steadfast faith and hope, while Vladimir’s kindness to his friend, and the two tramps’ mutual interdependence might be seen as symbols of Christian charity.

Conclusion:

It is strongly believed that the play has ideas of existentialism. But event to support existentialism, writer shows religious ideas. And he also tries to deconstruct it. Consciously or unconsciously, writer presents many Christian myths and Biblical images.

As biography suggests, Beckett knows about all the Christian philosophical, spiritual ideas from childhood. So, the play has many Christian values like repentance, craving for  salvation, faith in God, fear of God and hope for to be saved, and ‘coming of Mr. Godot’. Even Vladimir’s character is full with Christian values like he feeds and helps Estragon as true friend, he wants to help Pozzo and has desire to be saved.