Defoe’s Satire

While studying at Leiden University, a part in the curriculum comprised satirical literature in the British eighteenth century. Contrary to today, this served as a recurring theme in that era. This article wants to discuss how Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe served as one of the inspirations of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.

The English Eighteenth Century: The Age of Ridicule and Reason

What do you think about when you think about the British eighteenth century? What jumps to mind? I was baffled at first to hear that mockery was one of the driving tools. Despite the age’s great minds (such as Sir Isaac Newton), authors felt it necessary to mock one another’s works in forms of publishing satire. But why was this the case? And what did move and stimulate these satires to occur?

When thinking about satirical literature, book publishing becomes the first subject to talk about. In contradiction to the earlier centuries, authors and books enjoyed a significant rise during the eighteenth century in England. One of the main reasons was that there came a sudden increase in how books were perceived as worthwhile investments, and that the production material of paper was more available then before.¹ Consequently, where there is a market, there are more authors.

These authors quarrelled about each other’s fiction, where one of the main techniques was to satirise them. The author and their fiction was not the only target, as their audience also became involved in the satirical event of the other. Paddy Bullard said that ‘the momentary malignity of humanity assumes that everyone—author, victim, and audience—is implicated in the satirical event… Fiction provides a frame in which implicated audience, victim, and satirist can be individualized without involving the author directly’.² I want to discuss the following satire of the century: Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726).

Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe

When we think about English literary satire, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) shall take a prominent first place in this. Many literary critics perceive Gullliver’s Travels as a work of art. For example, the Guardian enlisted and ranked the satire at third place in the 100-best English novels of all-time.³ Yet, despite all this praise, the work was a hilarious take on the once popular travelogue.

Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) was widely regarded as a national literary treasure trove. Many contemporary people even believed that Robinson Crusoe depicted the events of a real historical figure, as the preface of the travelogue describes the novel as ‘allegorical’ and ‘historical’.⁴ This description has resulted in many to believe that Robinson Crusoe was a real historical figure. Some would even reckon him as a national hero for this; someone who fought for the British Empire and its colonial expansion. In a way, this is nothing surprising, when we examine how Robinson Crusoe is portrayed in the novel. He is an English sailor who strands upon an uninhabited island, which does not prove to be quite so deserted, after he passes his days there. He keeps a journal to himself recording the days, and he finally meets and captures a native islander, who he transforms into his student of western culture. The name of this boy is Friday.

Not so ethical

When we hear such a story now, there is a great chance that you are instantly reminded about the European conquest for colonialism throughout the rest of the world. If you do, you are not the only one who remarks this. Martin Green proclaimed that Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe must be recognised as the stereotypical colonial novel of the British eighteenth century.⁵ Yet, despite its unethical story, Robinson Crusoe was a widely regarded novel in its time. It was even so popular that it became one of the most pirated literary works. Defoe mentioned that his novel ‘has been Twelve Times printed by other hands… 80000 of the Small Ones have been sold in the Streets for 2d. or at a Penny’.⁶

Robinson Crusoe is regarded as a novel that carries a lot of ethical problems. If it would be published in today’s society, people would have corrected Daniel Defoe’s takes on western globalisation. Robinson Crusoe finds culprits in racism and European dominance. Friday is often painted as an individual who does not bring a lot of sophisticated talk and narration to the story. It is because of the European interference that Friday learns to be ‘civilised’. Daniel Defoe clearly demonstrates here a master-slave relationship between Robinson Crusoe and Friday. This makes it not surprising that the work is unethical.

Gulliver’s Travels!

The age of satire did not spare Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels provides us with such a satire. Swift was not too clandestine about his satire on Defoe’s work. In 1721, he wrote to his friend, Charles Ford, the following: ‘I am now writing a History of my Travells, which will be a large Volume, and gives Account of Countryes hitherto unknown’.⁷ Like Robinson Crusoe, Swift’s Gulliver records his adventures in a personal diary. More specifically, Gulliver’s intentions are quite clear to record his travels, just as Robinson Crusoe does his. Is this a coincidence? Swift additionally wrote to Charles Ford that his work is aimed at to ‘go on slowly for want of Health and Humor’.⁸

Swift’s irony towards Defoe lies within the ‘Humor’ aspect. He appears quite aware that his work should not be taken seriously, which is quite in contradiction towards Defoe. The latter honestly claimed that his work is historical and, therefore, insinuating that his work should be reckoned as an important piece of history. One could wonder what type of history, but it is quite clear that Defoe wanted to offer his audience a piece of English colonial heroics. Given the novel’s success, the audience feasted delightfully on its content. Swift took his liberty to mock and satirise Defoe’s important writing logs with giving it ‘Humor’ instead. This is not to say that Defoe was the sole or central influence of Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, but it seems fair to say that

Verdict

This article wanted to explore the satirical dynamic between Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. The eighteenth-century England was known as the age of ridicule and reason. After introducing Daniel Defoe’s work, it became quickly clear that it served as a great inspiration for satire. This mainly resulted from its popularity and ‘seriousness’. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels responded quite splendidly as its satire.

1. Raven, James, in Publishing Business in Eighteenth-Century England, (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2014), pp. 33–51. ↩︎
2. Bullard, Paddy, ‘Describing Eighteenth-Century British Satire’, in The Oxford Handbook of Eighteenth-Century Satire, edited by Paddy Bullard, (Oxford University Press, 2019), p. 17. ↩︎
3. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/17/the-100-best-novels-written-in-english-the-full-list. ↩︎
4. Defoe, Daniel, ‘Serious Reflections during the Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe’, in The Novels of Daniel Defoe, Vol. 3, edited by W.R. Owens and P.N. Furbank, (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2008), pp. 51–2. ↩︎
5. Green, Martin Burgess, in Dreams of Adventure, Deeds of Empire, (New York: Basic Books, 1979), p. 5. ↩︎
6. Furbank, P.N. and Owens, W.R., in A Critical Bibliography of Daniel Defoe, (London: Pickering & Chatto, 1998), pp. 3–6. ↩︎
7. Swift, Jonathan, ‘Letter to Charles Ford, 15 April 1721’, in The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, D.D., vol. 2, edited by David Woolley, (Peter Lang, 1999), p. 372. ↩︎
8. ibid, p. 372. ↩︎