Abstract

The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, marking the beginning of realistic novel as a literary genre, tells us a story that the character Robinson’s life experience mainly in an isolated island. Scholars have studied it from a variety of perspectives including colonialism and post-colonialism, image analysis, religion, ecocriticism etc. It’s clear that Defoe's religious view, as an underlying factor, influences deeply on the main character’s drifting and returning of the story. That is to say, Robinson’s drifting as well as returning indicates Christian’s two vital motifs: fall and redemption. So this thesis will focus on Robinson’s drifting and returning out of the religious view. 

Through this study, readers will obtain at least two aspects of inspiration. First, it’s necessary for a reader to catch the author’s original intention on the novel creating especially the one who has the religious background. Second, when a reader tries to analyze a novel out of Christian’s view, he has to seize two crucial and eternal themes: fall and redemption. In addition, it also can be a way for someone who wants to know Christianity to read and analyze some related novels. Comparing some images in Holy Bible with Robinson’s drifting and returning, this thesis finds that drifting and returning of the main character conveys religious meaning. Drifting symbolizes human’s fall and the state after falling, while returning symbolizes human’s being redeemed..

Keywords: the Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, drifting, returning, religious view

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Brief Introduction of Daniel Defoe-1

1.1.1-Defoe's View on Religion and Its Formation-1

1.1.2-Defoe’s Religious View Embodied in the Novel-1

1.2-Significance of This Study-2

1.3-Structure of This Study-2

2. Literature Review-3

2.1 Researches of the Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe-3

2.1.1 Researches of the Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe abroad-3

2.1.2 Domestic Researches of the Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe-3

2.2 Researches of Religious Background of Daniel Defoe in 17th Century-4

3. Robinson’s Drifting-5

3.1 The Definition of “Drifting”-5

3.2 The Understanding of Robinson’s Drifting from Literal Meaning-5

3.3 The Understanding of Robinson’s Drifting from Spiritual Meaning-6

4. Robinson’s Returning-8

4.1 The Definition of “Returning”-8

4.2 The Returning of Robinson’s Belief-8

5. Conclusion-10

References-11