The Shortest Way with Defoe by Michael B. Prince

Author:Michael B. Prince [Prince, Michael B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Modern, 18th Century
ISBN: 9780813943664
Google: LhaeDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Published: 2020-04-28T00:59:09+00:00

A “Coining of Providences”

Starting with Jonah, we were able to identify Defoe’s tactics on the level of genre—his creation of a style that combines realism and biblical narrative, humble representations of ordinary life with spiritual grandeur and daring. These are not the only generic elements that matter, but they influence how other elements, such as spiritual autobiography and the colonialist adventure story, factor in.128 Taking up Crusoe’s name and heritage, we noted suspicions of radical republican and deistical origins, which Swift, Gildon, and Defoe’s own character, the philosophical Gentlewoman of Serious Reflections, confirm. With the footprint in the sand, we identified a feature of the novel found throughout part 1 (it is a measure of its greatness), less so in part 2 (where there is a falling away from this particular excellence), and seldom in part 3 (which makes no real effort to sustain the fiction)—that feature being the shimmering instability of potent signs.

The deist elements of Robinson Crusoe remain hidden to many serious readers. Scholars treat with all seriousness the fact of Crusoe’s and Friday’s conversions and the sincerity with which the text evokes Providence over and over. It is therefore necessary to take up these two ideas—Providence and conversion—because they are so deeply woven into the story. When Crusoe declares he is “delivered,” first spiritually and then physically and materially, Providence and plot correspond. As Providence plays out in its upward and teleological direction, it requires conversions from bad to good, fallen to redeemed, and these human plots follow the same path. We have seen in the descriptions of Crusoe as a Christ figure and prodigal son that both Providence and conversion cohere in the general allegory. If, however, Robinson Crusoe is allowed its counter-allegorical dimensions, then we would not expect Providence to function like a well-oiled machine or conversions to be quite so happy or necessary.

The labile treatment of perhaps the most important theological concept in the book raises the question of just how serious the author himself is about the claims Providence makes on character, story, and the reader. Was Gildon right to accuse Defoe of a “Coining of Providences,” transforming Providence from serious theological concept to a matter of human convenience?129 Context is important here. Crusoe is not the protagonist we have come to expect from later psychological novels. He sits at the juncture of two competing conceptions of character—that of the cosmopolitan tradition and that of the Christian metaphysical tradition. Character in the cosmopolitan tradition is a vessel for diverse thoughts, amblings, adventures, experiments. Character in the Christian metaphysical tradition strives to reach a destination equal to its fullest being, as Petrarch tries to do on his ascent of Mount Ventoux. Cosmopolitan character does not operate under the requirement of self-consistency; the Christian metaphysical character does. Character in the cosmopolitan tradition is a skeptical construct, like the Leslie figure Defoe impersonates in The Shortest Way. Crusoe is such a construct. He embodies but does not resolve cultural anxieties. He is rough and ready and frighteningly independent.

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