The relationship between Robinson Crusoe and Friday in Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe is the best novel of Daniel Defoe. This novel is considered a milestone in the history of English literature. It is one of the first few novels of English literature. The noble does not have too many characters. It tells the story of Robinson Crusoe who lives alone in an island for a long time. The other character that attracts readers’ attention in the novel was Friday. The relationship between Friday and Robinson Crusoe is one of the key aspects of the novel hence making it very important. 

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Robinson Crusoe lived in England. He belonged to a lower race. Friday was brought by his enemies on that island. They would have killed him and ate his flesh. Robinson Crusoe saved Friday from those people. After that, Friday became Crusoe’s loyal servant. Throughout the novel, the master-slave or master-servant relation was dominant. 

Like his contemporaries, Daniel Defoe believed that the Europeans were the superior race. The non-white people do not have the capability to rule themselves. It is the duty of the European to turn these people into slave and civilize them. 

In this novel, we see that Robinson Crusoe civilizes Friday. He tells him that he cannot eat human flesh. Because of Crusoe’s education, Friday converts to Christianity. In the end, we see Friday desperately tries to become a European instead of following his own religion. In this manner, Crusoe turns Friday into a true European servant. However, European society never accepted him as one of their own. 

Robinson Crusoe considered himself as superior. He ordered Friday to address him as master. From the day they met till the end of the novel Friday addressed him as “Master.” Not by any other name. 

In the beginning of the novel, we can see that Robinson Crusoe disobeyed his father and goes out for a voyage at the sea. That voyage destroyed his life. Friday was like a son to Crusoe. On the contrary, Robinson Crusoe was like a father to him. However, Crusoe’s ideal about European supremacy never changed. He always considered himself better than Friday. He could never become a true father but remained Friday’s master all his life. In the end, Crusoe becomes lonely. However, Crusoe was never cruel to Friday. He was very gentle with him and tried to win his heart and mind through his gentleness. 

Robinson Crusoe was written at a time when the English did not see much success in establishing their colonies around the world. However, they competed with other European nations such as Portugal and Spain to establish colonies in Asia and America. Crusoe gives us a glimpse of how the colonies of the English would be in the coming years. 

Storm in Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe Crusoe’s father wanted him to study law, but his mind was filled with “rambling thoughts” of going to the sea. His parents strongly opposed his idea. His father advised him not to set out on sea life for adventure or for riches. He said that if Crusoe did not pay heed to his advice he would soon find himself a most miserable fellow ever born. Crusoe resolved to follow his father’s advice and was calm for few days. But before long, he was again overcome by a desire to leave home and go to the sea. He stayed no more than a year when he made up his mind to quit.

One day Crusoe went to the seaport of Hull casually without any purpose. There he happened to meet one of his acquaintances who was going to London by his father’s ship. This friend offered him a free passage to London in the same ship. Inspired by his friend, Crusoe boarded the ship bound for London on the 1^st September 1651. No sooner had the ship sailed out of the harbor than a strong wind began to blow. For the first time, Crusoe faced the storm on the sea and so he felt indescribably sick both in body and mind which reminded him of his father’s warning. Immediately he took a vow that he would go directly home to his father and mother and never would think of venturing on a ship.

On the sixth day of Crusoe’s first voyage to London, the ship entered the waters of the Yarmouth harbor. The ship was compelled to drop anchor as the wind was against the purpose. The ship stayed there for seven or eight days waiting for a favorable wind. But on the eight day, in the morning, the wind developed into a storm. Soon the storm turned into a terrific tempest. The waves were raising mountain high and they broke upon the ship every three or four minutes. The ship was being so badly shaken that the sailors began to cry in fear. At midnight it was discovered that the ship had sprung a leak, and that the water in the hold of the ship was already four feet high. All the sailors were called to the pump. Everybody worked their best to save the ship from sinking. The severity of the exertion was so high that Crusoe fell into a swoon. As he recovered consciousness he found that the captain ordered his men to fire ship’s guns as a signal of distress seeking help. In response to the signal, a passing ship lowered one of its boats. As there was no hope of survival for the ship, all the sailors managed to get into the boat. A little later they found their ship sinking into the sea. Somehow Robinson Crusoe and his fellow sailors managed safely to land the shore near Winterton.

After two years of slavery, he succeeds to escape from his master and goes to Brazil where he establishes himself as a plantation owner. However, he was not satisfied with settled life. He finds that he leads the same life which his father has recommended to him. Once again he is overcome by a desire to wander abroad. It was an evil hour on the 1^st September 1659 when Crusoe boarded the ship in the company of other merchants. Incidentally it was the same unlucky date on which Crusoe launched into his first voyage from the port of Hull.

For twelve days Crusoe and his companions sailed fairly without any hazard. But when they crossed Ecuador, a violent storm began to blow driving their ship in a direction which they could not determine. For the next ten or twelve days they found themselves helpless in the face of the storm. In that distress one of their men died of a high fever, and one man and a boy-servant were washed overboard. On the twelfth day the weather improved somewhat, but on the next day the second storm came and the ship was carried away westward driving them out of the way of human commerce.

The ship had become leaky and very soon it struck against a sand bank and got stuck there. Then the sailors lowered a boat into the sea in order to get to the shore. Soon the boat was overwhelmed by a mountain like wave. The wave was so strong and furious that all men were washed away from the boat and perished in the sea with the exception of Crusoe who was carried ashore. Crusoe soon learns he is the only survivor of the expedition.

He was cast ashore on a deserted island for twenty-eight years. It helped him to be transformed from an unsure, immature, and disobedient son to a religious, experienced man with a strong faith in God and strong set of morals and values. He experienced a religious transformation. He was transformed from reckless and rush to steady. Crusoe realizes his fault and as a result he is forgiven by God. He is rescued by an English ship after a twenty-eight-year isolation on a desert island.