A study of the dominant topics in some typical works of augustan period (1700 1745) = nghiên cứu về những chủ đề nổi bật trong một số tác phẩm điển hình thời kì augustan (1700 1745)

Acknowledgement
This thesis could not be finished without the assistance of my teachers
in foreign language department, my family and friends.
Firstly, I would like to express my deep thanks to my supervisor - M.A
TrÇn Ngäc Tëng, whose lectures of English literature attracted me so much,
led me to the decision of choosing English literature for my thesis, and made
so many valuable comments on each single unit of this thesis.
Secondly, I would like to express my truthful thank to all the teachers of
English at the Foreign Language Departure and the directorial board for
giving the opportunity to do this thesis.
And finally, I want to thank to my beloved family and my friends who
help and encourage me so much during the process of studying this thesis.


table of content
Acknowledgement
Part I: introduction
I. The rationale of choosing the thesis
II. The aims of the thesis
III. The objectives of the thesis
IV. The scope of the thesis
V. The methods of studying
Part II: content
Chapter I: Background of Augustan period
I. The division of English literature periods
II. Some important events in the Augustan period
1. New scientific and philosophical discoveries
2. Industrial and Agricultural Revolution
3. The growth of British Empire
4. Conflicts in society
4.1. Political conflict

4.2. Religious conflict
4.3. Social class division
III. The Enlightenment movement
IV. An overview of the main topics in Augustan prose
Chapter II: The progressive topics expressed in some typical
literary works of Augustan period
I. Praising human being
II. Appreciating women
III. Heightening the importance of education and learning

Chapter III: The negative topics expressed in some typical literary
works of Augustan period
I. Discrimination of man by man
II. Colonialism and Materialism
1. Colonialism
2. Materialism
III. Political and religious conflict
1. Political conflict

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.2. Religious conflict
Part III: conclusion
References

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Part I: introduction

I. The rationale of choosing the thesis

Literature, as well as music, is a vital part of our daily life. It makes the
life more beautiful, guides human being to Genuineness, Honesty and
Aestheticism. Literature enriches people's mind and soul. That is the reason
why I love to enjoy reading literary works when I am sad, tired and hopeless.
When being a secondary school girl, I had chance to get in touch with
foreign literature and found it really interesting. Now, I am a student of
foreign language department and have opportunity to study more about
Western, especially English literature. I find there the sound of life of a
traditional and cultural nation. It burns my desire and leads me to the decision
of choosing English literature to study in this thesis.
Besides, literature is the truthful mirror of social life. Each period in
history of English literature is a vivid picture of people and society. The first
half of the eighteenth century with the growing of British Empire, the
Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment movement is the fertile ground
for the development of literature. I have ever read some of the most interesting
literary works in this phase and realized that most of them, more or less, are
influenced by the Enlightenment's ideas. That is so interesting to me and I'd
love to study about it.
All of above things are the reasons why I choose "A study of the
important topics in some typical works of Augustan period (1700-1745)" for
my graduation thesis.
II. The aims of the thesis
-To understand more about England in the first half of the eighteenth
century, Enlightenment movement and how they influenced on contemporary
literature.
-To study about some important topics expressed in some typical works
of Augustan period and find out the difference between the progressive theory
of Enlightenment and the real life.

III. the objectives of the thesis
- Background of Augustan period.
- The progressive topics expressed in some typical literary works of
Augustan period.

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- The negative topics expressed in some typical literary works of
Augustan period.
IV. the scope of the thesis
In the frame of this thesis, it is beyond our ability to cover all genres
and all works of Augustan period. Thus, we concentrate on some typical
novels and essays: "Robinson Crusoe", "Gulliver's Travels ", "Pamela",
"Clarissa", "The shortest way with the Dissenters" and " Education of
Women".
V. the method of studying
-Collective method
-Analysis, contrastive and synthetic methods

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Part ii: content
Chapter I: background of Augustan period
There is a close relationship between real life and literature .The
history of literature development is parallel to the development of human
society. Literature appears even earlier than letters or any type of writing and
becomes a vital part of our daily life.
Literature belongs to spiritual aspect but it reflects the society as a

whole and people, from soul to physical life. On the other hand, life supplies
the endless sources for writers. Genuine literary works must root from and
about the real life, aim to make life better and conducts people to
Genuineness, Honesty and Aestheticism. That is why any literary work must
be analyzed in its circumstance of writing.
In this paper, we will study the Augustan period of English literature, so
in the first chapter we will have a glance on the division of English literature
periods, some important background events, the Enlightenment movement and
an overview of the main literary topics in the period of Augustan.
I. Division of English literature periods
As we already know, the long history of English literature is an
uninterrupted process, which is greatly influenced by social history. There are
some ways that have their own rationale to divide English literature into
periods. In our thesis, we approve the following division, which is accepted by
almost scholars, writers and readers and consider it the basic rationale for our
thesis:
1. Anglo-Saxon literature (449-1066)
2. Medieval literature (1066- 1485)
3. Jacobean literature (1603-1625)
4. Caroline literature (1625-1642)
5. Literature in the Commonwealth and Protectorate
6. Restoration literature (1660-1700)
7. Augustan literature (1700-1745)
8. Age of Sensibility
9. Romanticism (1798-1832)
10. Victorian literature (1832-1900)
11. Edwardian literature
12. Georgian literature
13. Modernist literature

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14.Post-modern literature
From Wikipedia Website
In fact, the division is not completely exact but only relative. No one
can give the concrete years of beginning and ending of a literature period. As
an illustration, the Augustan was from the end of 17th to the middle of 18th
century which correlative with the first phase of Enlightenment movement in
literature. Thus, in our thesis, the term "Augustan" or the "blooming phase of
Enlightenment " both refer to the period 1700-1750, which in some other
documents count from 1690 to 1745.
II. Some important events in the Augustan period.
1. New scientific and philosophical discoveries
Philosophy and science are usually the aspects whose new theories and
discoveries lead to the change of society and open a new era in history of
mankind.
The revolution of science is thought to begin when Copernicus gave the
idea that the earth rotated on its axis beneath the unmoving sun. In the
eighteenth century, new discoveries of scientists among whom, the most
dominant one was Isaac Newton, proved that nature had its own law's which
was different from what religion church had taught before. Newton's
"Principia" (1687) and "Optic's" (1704) suggested that:" There were indeed
intelligible laws in nature which could be demonstrated by physics and
mathematics, and, moreover, that the universe exhibited a magnificent
symmetry and a mechanical certainty."(1). This provided a framework of a
system that seemed capable of explaining everything in the universe and it
was also the basic principle of Enlighteners.
In the field of philosophy, thinkers, especially Rousseau and Voltaire in
France, praised the equality, democracy and ability of man. In England, John

Lock, Francis, Bacon, Anthony Ashley Cooper gave the birth for Empiricism.
They explained the way the mind acquired "all materials of Reason and
Knowledge is from Experience ". They also provided an intellectual basis for
easily digested theories of politics, religion and aesthetic and for precepts
pertaining to social happiness.
In short, the philosophers and scientists used nature and universe law
and human being center to observe and explain everything. They celebrated
Reason, ability of man to use his scientific knowledge to discover natural
phenomenon which had been associated to supernatural power before,

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simultaneously opposed to intolerance, restrain, spiritual authority and
disoriented religious belief.
These ideas were gradually acquired and changed the way of thinking
of people. They believed that their ability, not supernatural authority or the
God, could drive their fate. The main character Robinson Crusoe in the namecoincided novel by Daniel Defoe is a typical image of a hero who fights
bravely to overcome harsh destiny. They believed in education and learning
which could help them to understand and control nature, believe in human's
ability to drive their fate and improve society. And it was not only necessary
to man but also woman. We can find in "Robinson Crusoe", "Gulliver's
Travels", "Pamela" and especially, in the essay "The Education of Women" by
Daniel Defoe the spirit of praising learning and education which were thought
could improve society and bring to people a brighter future.

2. Industrial and Agricultural Revolution
Britain is the first place on the world where the Industrial Revolution
took place. This was an important event that made a great influence on
changing the whole country's face. Power was seen as the first field touched

by the Revolution with James Watt's invention of steam engine. Since then,
the application of new inventions and discoveries into many aspects created a
major change in producing method. Machines released people from hard
works in factories and also made a huge jump in industrial development,
especially in coalmine, textile or transportation industries. The
industrialization with its enormous strength made Britain become the
workshop of the world.
Under the effect of the industrial revolution, Britain gained position in
top of the richest countries .At the same time, it was the foremost condition to
carry out an Agricultural revolution. Throughout the country, the "open field"
system was re-divided. Labouredly productivity was raised and more food was
produced.
It was said that Britain had a new face under the two revolutions'
influence. Until the middle of eighteen century, Britain was still an
agricultural country with most of population lived in villages or small towns
and earned their living working on land. Nearly seventy percents of population

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inhabited in big towns and cities in the end of the century. A large number of
factories were built, a lot of towns and large cities developed rapidly, such as
Birmingham, London, and Leeds, so on.
However, this means that the land for farming was restricted .The
farmers lost their land, became unemployed. Some of them went to cities to
get a job as workers with low salary; some were sold to America or India to
work as slavers. Most of them had a poor life. This situation led to another
important issue of society which was class division and the growing of
working and bourgeois .The poor farmers and workers were liable to a distress
.It was one of the root of social evils.

In addition, pragmatics and capitalism's idea of praising money
devalued human beings' mortality and virtue. Marriage even became an
economic exchange.
The picture of the complicated society in this time was reflected
truthfully in the literature works. "The New Atalantis" by Mary de la Manley
and "The Moll Flanders" by Daniel Defoe described a society with political
crisis, homosexuality, rape, social evils, etc. Some other works, such as
"Gulliver Travel" and "A modest proposal" by Jonathan Swift showed
devaluation of human being in front of the attraction of money and other
authorities. Even in "Robinson Crusoe" which many positive ideas of
Enlightenment were expressed materialism and capitalism ideas could be
found.
3. The growth of British Empire
The colonial expansion was thought to begin in the second half of the
fifteenth century when Christopher Columbus found out the America. England
started its progress to find colonies one century later than Spain, Portugal and
France, but its achievement was enormous. Then, the new epoch in which the
man's ambition of discovering and invasion of new land, in order to serve the
aim of ruling people and exploit treasure there, really started. Simultaneously,
it was the turning point of a miserable epoch: the age of colonialism's
expansion.
Britain, like other powerful countries in Europe in the eighteenth
century, under the effect of Industrial revolution, manufactured a huge amount
of production and goods, which needed a large market to consume. Moreover,
there was a demand for raw material for factories in metropolis. This led to
the growing of British Empire. The occupation of land was the first step that

8

prepared for the invasion of market and economic interference later. In fact,
profit from colonies was so fat that many countries threw themselves into the
war for land and market.
The spread of colonialism was the cause of colonies' misery. The
exploitation and oppression of colonialists was a contradiction to the ideas of
Enlightenment movement, which said the relationship between person and
person were brotherhood, everyone was equal regardless of their color,
nationality, and social classes. This meant that all of unfairness such as
oppression in which the slavery was the highest regime should be denied.
Consequently, many literary works in this period paid attention on the
themes of equality, brotherhood among human beings, projection of
colonialism and slavery, unfairness and discrimination. Alpha Ben in her
"Oroonoco" raised the voice against trade of slavers and power of colonialism.
And in "Robinson Crusoe ", although it was not so clear as others, the author
show his attitude cleverly to the problem of capitalism and colonialism which
will be considered in more detail in the later part.
4. Conflicts in society
After the monarchy Restoration in the seventeenth century, British were
afraid of any violent event like that to make their life chaotic. However, this
was the time of some deeply contradictions and unsettling in society.
4.1. Political conflict
In 1660, when the son of Charles I was restored the throne to be the
King Charles II, England became a Monarchy Constituent nation. Queen
Anne, King George I and George II sat the crown in sequence in eighteenth
century. The monarch ruled the country, but in fact most of real power held by
parliament. Conflict happened between the monarch and parliament for some
reasons. In reality, the King's power was lessened and he was forced not to
decide important national problems without parliament permission. Another
reason that partly caused the political conflict was religion, which would be
stated clearer in the next part.

Political conflict also happened between parliament's parties: the Whig
and the Tory. There was a little difference between them in this period. Tories
mostly included great landowners whose privilege was gradually declined
with the growing of bourgeois and capitalism while those whose property was
mercantile and financial were likely to form the Whigs.

9


The problem of politic drew considerable attention of writers. In
"Gulliver Travel", Jonathan Swift indirectly claimed the heads of the country,
the unsuitable policies, the court and the parties' quarrel. Other works in
which political issue was touched were "The New Atalantic" by Mary de la
Manley, in works of Edmund Burke like:" Speech on America Taxation ",
"Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol", etc.
4.2. Religious conflict
This direct conflict caused social division even more serious than the
political one. The opposition was between the Church of England, which was
preceded by the monarch and both Protestants, and Roman Catholics. The
Protestants and who did not belong to the Church of England or did not accept
the Monarch as the head of the Church were called Dissenters or
Nonconformists. There were resent laws such as Corporation Act and the Test
Act which banned them and Roman Catholics from becoming MPs or having
a government job .In royal family, nobody that did not belong to the Church
of England could get the thrown.
Religion had such an important effect on society that many authors
considered it as a plentiful ground for their writing. John Banyan wrote "The
pilgrim's progress"; Jonathan Swift: "A tale of Tub"; Daniel Defoe: "The
shortest way with dissenters ", so on. They exploited the theme of belief, faith
in religion but also criticized the forces that took its advantage for bad aims.

4.3. The social class division
Like all others countries, wealth divided people into different classes.
Specially, the Industrial revolution's influence made Britain class division
more deeply .It took place among people who had a lot of interests than
others, who had a little and who had nothing. But in this time, the criteria of
the division were not only the wealth but also the working and living
conditions. There was the growing of working class because more and more
people moved to work in factories, which included a considerable number of
farmers who lost their land because of industrialization progress. The
perception of class division was going to intense. There were seven groups in
society:
-The great who live excessively hereditary nobility
-The rich who lived very plentifully, great and owners dominating the
country life

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-The middle sort who lived well: professions, church bishops, lawyers,
doctors, and teachers.
- The working traders who worked hard but felled no want, no need or
demand
-The country people, farmers, etc who fared indifferently
-The poor that fared hard
-The miserable that really pinched and suffered
The social class conflict led to the Glorious Revolution, which took
place between the old aristocracy and the new bourgeoisie.
All of these were reflected in literature as a negative side, one of the
discrimination and injustice in society. Enlighteners raised their voice to reject
them and thought that their duty was to omit them to create a fair society and

brought a happy life to everyone. These dimensions were expressed in
"Pamela", "Robinson Crusoe" and "Gulliver Travel".
III. The Enlightenment movement
The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement, which began in the
late of seventeenth century in England and then spread to the continent. The
movement lasted until the birth of Romanticism in the end of the eighteenth
century. England was considered the cradle of Enlightenment but the most
excellent representatives were from France, such as Rousseau and Voltaire.
Although they were only in theory but the Enlightenment's ideas were
appreciated and marked an important advance in human civilization.
The Enlightenment's thoughts reflected the expectation, want and hope
of the people about a peace and civilized society in which they had a happy
and convenient life.
The most important point in Enlighteners' ideas was that: Reason was
the principle tool for human to think and to act correctly. Furthermore, it was
the most effective and firmest rationale for mankind to discover the world,
universe and to assert human's ability. The scientific discoveries of Newton
and scientists before him and the great application of them into practice were
the most persuasive evident for that idea. Moreover, they gave the prominence
to education and learning which were thought the best way to civilize human
society.
The Enlighteners praised human being and their ability that expressed
most clearly their humanism. In the Dark Age, human's ability was negated by
the Church's preaching and the authority's imposing that their fate was already

11


planned by God and that they could do nothing to change it. In contrary,
Enlighteners believed in man's ability and good nature that could be brought

perfection through education. According to them, social evils rooted from
human's ignorance but not belonged to his or her nature.
The elevated humanism of Enlightenment also affirmed the equality
between man and woman, the friendship and brotherhood among people
regardless of their race, religion and nationality. Simultaneously, they rejected
the forces that duped and trampled on human such as supernatural and
miraculous elements, harsh feudal ideas, discrimination and colonialism's
oppression.
Enlightenment experienced a long period which was not always plain
and flat but up and down in different phases from its date of birth to the end.
Some persons divided the movement into three phases, but others observed it
in two main phases. We here approve the second idea.
The first phase was counted from the movement's beginning in the late
17th to the middle of 18th century. This was the blooming Shase when
Enlightenment developed to it highest point in its duration. England in the
first half of 18th century had just overcome a number of chaos including Civil
War, Restoration and rebels, which made a horrible memory in people's mind.
At that time, Enlightenment occurred with a lot of progressive ideas
immediately met the hope and long of almost people. Thus, the ideas received
the great approval and marked its blooming development.
The leading principles of Enlightenment centered round the following
ideas:
1. Reason is a principle tool for all humans to think and to act correctly
1. Man is good by nature. And man's good nature can be brought to
perfection through education.
3. All men and women are born equal in respect of their rationality and
should thus be given the right to equality before law.
4. Belief, religions customs are to be questioned and accepted on the
basic of reason only, not on the basic of authority, sacred texts or tradition.
5. Supernatural and miraculous elements are discarded as the whole

universe in conceived as a rational system accessible to human reason.
6. Man to man is brother to brother, regardless of nationality or country
of residence.

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However, the distance from the theory to the real life was very far and
not always the theory could come true. At that time when the historical
condition had a lot of advantages for old feudalism and growing capitalism,
the Enlighteners' duty was hardly practiced. People steadily expressed their
disappointment when their long and hope collapsed. In the second half of
18th, the movement started to go down and the birth of Romanticism marked
its ending.
Enlightenment, any way, had a great influence on the Augustan
literature. Its ideas became the main topics and the spirit of this period literary
works which we will study some typical ones in later parts. Because of this,
the Augustan is also called the Enlightenment period in English literature
history.
IV. An overview of the main topics in Augustan prose
Being the direct product of life, literature performs its function of
recreating, reflecting and improving social life. All of the topics of Augustan
literature period contributed a colorful picture of England in the first half of
18th century.
In this period, traveling and discovering new land and isolate area
became the common trend of mankind. A large number of journeys, voyages
of European's ships to other continents were carried out and the result of them
was the growing of colloquialism in practice as well as in literature. What is
more, the appearing of a great deal of books of travel and traveling was one of
the favorite topics of readers.

The political and religious conflicts that actually happened and made
chaos in people's life were also a rich ground for writers, especially the sharp
satirical pen of Johnathan Swift or essayist like Defoe.
Under the progressive effect of Enlightenment, human in common
meaning and women's value were heightened. This was a new advance, which
was not paid attention in the previous literature phases. Along with
appreciating man's ability, education and learning was extremely highlighted
in this period.
Beside that, the bad and evil still existed in social life. Human's misery
did not end. Social evils, materialism, sexual issue, oppressing between man
and man, discrimination of sexes, races, religions and social classes were the
satirized objects and the important topics of Augustan literature.

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Totally, these topics drew the immensity and variety of life. In the small
frame of this thesis, it is overhead for us to cover all of these themes. The
several ones studied here, in our paper, were the important topics, which are
divided into two areas, and attracted us a lot.
In our real life, there are always two sides, which are opposite to each
other and co-existed: the good and the bad, the negative and the positive, the
progressive and the backward. Consequently, these contrastive factors are
reflected in literature. To make them more clearly, we will divide these topics
into two areas: the progressive topics including appreciating women, praising
human and heightening education and learning and the negative topics
including race discrimination, political and religious conflicts and colonialism
and materialism.
Separating the Augustan literature themes into two opposite areas, we
aims to make clear the difference between the beautiful ideas of

Enlightenment and the real social statement which were so much influenced
by other background events such as Industrial revolution, the growing of
British Empire co-existing with the colonialism, so on. Then, we want to have
a total view of the contemporary society, which was truthfully recreated in
literature and the close relationship between life and literature.

Chapter II: The progressive topics in some typical
literary works of Augustan period

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Enlightenment was a progressive intellectual movement whose
principles were for humane development. These thoughts were crystallized in
the contemporary literature through which writers' humanism and advance
were profoundly expressed. In this chapter, we will focus on the progressive
ideas expressed through some typical works, which were satire or realism,
reflected the most clearly the Enlightenment‘s principle and theories, and
more important, the real life of society in which mankind was always good as
nature. They were the positive ideas of human being; in other words, they paid
attention on good side of people and society which included: Praising human
being expressed in "Robinson Crusoe" and "Gulliver's Travels", Appreciating
women expressed in "Pamela" and "Clarissa", and Heightening education and
learning expressed in "Robinson Crusoe", "The Education of Women".
Human being and their ability was a prominent theme in this period.
Some outstanding points of view of Enlighteners about human were conveyed
in “Robinson Crusoe” and “Gulliver’s Travels”. Those were praising human
being, enthusiasms for work, skill and spirit, good nature, goodwill, friendship
and peace love.
1. Praising human being

Human being is not a new concept but it does not stay the same through
different periods. Since the ancient time, man was considered to be the
product of a super-powerful creator who decided each person’s fate. This
disoriented idea was even more approved in the middle age through the
Church’s preaching .It made people believed that their happiness or suffering
was already planned by God and they could do nothing to change it. Their life
on the earth was provisional and the life after death was permanent and solely
by believing in God could bring them a happy life on the heaven. People was
imposed by such ideas explained why they were under the ruling and
oppressing of the feudal government for so long time.
Moving to Renaissance time, the idea of humanists about human’s
right, ability and their consciousness of their suffering was started to be grow
to a deeper level. They began to talk about human’s fate and how they could
do to change it, but firstly, about whether they could have enough ability to
change or not. They saw that their agony was not by any supernatural hand
but it rooted from the earthly life. Shakespeare was seen to be one of the
greatest humanists of this phase. By constructing the characters such as

15


Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo or Juliet who were condemned the author’s deep
humanism. They were different in social position, age, sex but they are similar
to each other at the point that all of them had to burden the suffering caused
by feudal antiquated idea.
Shakespeare, through which expressed his objective idea to feudal
power that trampled on and ground down human being. However, it was not
strong enough to create a movement such as Enlightenment.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Enlightenment, an intellectual
movement, seemed to be an enormous wave sweeping throughout the

continent, brought a new point of view which completely opposite to what
belonged to the Dark Age. They worshipped science and education, which
helped them to explain everything in nature and life. That is why this is called
the Age of Reason. And human being, the creature owning the most
intelligent mind on the earth must be the master and the center of life.
Human beings became the central image in literary works. They were
the representatives of brave men who were fond of traveling and adventures,
the symbol of will, skill and spirit, of fighting spirit to overcome difficulties
and to control their fate. Human image were fully described. Dominant in
works were typical characters that gave readers a total view of the
contemporary society.
Robinson Crusoe was one of the most typical images of human being
of Augustan literature. He represented for the will, optimistic, enthusiasms for
work and intelligence of human being in this period. These were the extolled
good points of Robinson.
It was said that in the first phase of the rise of novel, “Robinson
Crusoe” (1719), was the most attractive one, which had a strong influence on
later writers including the big figure Balzac. Daniel Defoe was seen the father
of a new type: legend and fantastic theory, which attracted a lot of imitators.
After “Robinson Crusoe”, a large number of stories about adventure were
born. It was more or less related to the trend of traveling and discovering new
land in society. However, the foremost reason was not laid in its narrative
form but its content and the main character.
He was born in a good family in which his father always wanted him to
have a happy and peaceful life. But this was not similar to his thought. His
passion was to cruise and he, finally, found the way to make his dream come

16

true. This was also the trend or demand of people to discover the universe, the
world and the isolated areas that man had not arrived. Man always wanted to
conquer the nature to prove that he was the strongest and the most intelligent
creature. Unfortunately, his ship had an accident during his voyage and he
was drifted into an isolated island while his companions were all died. Since
then, he started his adventurous life that lasted twenty-eight years, two months
and nineteen days there.
The first quality needed mentioning of Robinson was his intelligence
expressed in the cooperation between his creation and experience. He was
well educated in an upper class family. And all of that valuable knowledge
was actually helpful to keep him alive on such a violent circumstance. In the
first period of time living on the island, without any companion of mankind,
with such a condition of living like what in the ancient time when human
being could earn living by picking and hunting. The sole thing, which made
Crusoe different from his ancestors, was that he had lived in a contemporary
civilized society in which man owned an intelligent mind, which was full of
experience. An evident of his intellective mind was the criteria of the place he
chose to build house. Since the thirteenth day of standing on the island Crusoe
had thought of making a “house” .He chose types of house which was a in a
deep cave or a hut which should meet the demands of good conditions such
as: being near fresh water source, avoiding blazing sun on this land, defending
himself from enemies and seeing the ships sailing so that he could have
chance to escape from this place. Finally, he decided to have both. Thanks to
his cleverness, he could be alive and return to England after more than twentyeight years.
Another of his quality that helped him to keep alive was his enthusiasm
for work. He knew that to be existed on this desolate island he should have
something to eat, clothes to dress and a “house” to stay instead of a temporary
living in caves and sleeping on tree. He himself managed to earn living, food,
tools, hard liquor, gunpowder, wooden barrel and a lot of other useful things
that needed for his life. Beside the food he got from the broken ship, he also

hunted wild goals with the guns, which had belonged to the late captain and
picked fruits in forests, dried up to store. Later, when the existed food was
nearly to become exhausted, he thought of raising goal and growing oats to
have a long-term source of food. We could find that Robinson was a person of
precaution and assiduity. He labored with tirelessness.

17


Robinson's an extraordinary skill and spirit and creative exposed in
overcoming troubles and difficulties. He had sharp eyes of observation. Wild
goals were very fast and keen so it was very hard to shoot. But later he found
that their eyes were always kept toward and down, so the only ways to avoid
their attention was standing in high place. There was no candle on the island;
he used killed goals’ fat to light. Their skin hide was sewn up to make clothes
and hats. Afraid of forgetting to count time, he put a square pillar and carved
on it to remember the time he lived on this island. This method helped us
know exactly total time was twenty-eight years, two months and nineteen
days. But, his clever expressed most clearly in building his house and proofing
against enemies. Those things cost him nearly almost the time living on the
island.
Everything he done had already calculated carefully to get the best
result. His “bastion” was a long-term project of only him. To finish it, he had
consumed a huge amount of his strength and time because of lacking
tools .He had to use wooden hoe and shovel to dig into the ground to enlarge
his “house”. Only finishing the fence took him nearly one year. Each wooden
pillar cost him two days to cut in forest, transport and put it up. But it seemed
that nature did not usually support him and sometimes gave him trials.
Earthquake, landslide, storm made troubles to him, not only once. However,
they could not defeat Robinson but gave him more experience and will to

fight against fate and get acquainted with harsh life there. Later, his enemies
were not only nature but also others including human beings who were more
clever and dangerous. Many times facing with aborigines, bright mind, agility
and courage helped him to escape from death, such as when he rescued Friday
or when Robinson disguised to be Island Landlord to cheat pirates to get the
opportunity to leave the island.
Extraordinary will and optimistic could be considered the most
remarkable virtue of Robinson. A lot of person gave the question that whether
Robinson could overcome such difficulties or not if he had not enough will
and optimistic to fight against the harsh circumstance. Robinson drew up his
evil and good that he experienced like this: “I am cast upon a horrible desolate
island, void of all hope of recovery. But I am alive, and not drowned as all my
ships company were. I am singled out and separated, as it were, from the
entire, to be miserable. But I am singled out, to, from all the ship’s crew, to be
spared from death; and he that miraculously saved me from death, can deliver

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me from this condition. I am divided from mankind, a solitary; one banished
from human society. But I am not starved, and perishing on a barren place,
affording no sustenance. I have no clothes to cover me. But I am in hot
climate where if I had clothes, I could hardly wear them. I am without any
defense, or means to resist any violence of man or beast. But I am cast on an
island where I can see no wild beasts to hurt me, as I saw on the coast of
Africa; and what if I had been shipwrecked there? I have no soul to speak to,
or relieve me. But God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to the shore,
that I have gotten out so many necessary things as will either supply my
wants, or enable me to supply myself, even as long as I live"(4). That was the
clearest evident of Robinson. And this was the base for him to keep him

alive.
The novel “Serious reflections during the life and surprising adventures
of Robinson Crusoe” was translated into many languages and its main
character, Robinson Crusoe was admired by hundreds thousand readers. He
was an actual hero who could win fate and proved that human kind with he
will and mind was ability to do anything. The image of Robinson standing
valiantly on the island was a beautiful image that asserted that human being
was the strongest. It also affirmed people’s ability and aroused their passion to
conquer nature and defeated the idea of fate.
Johnathan Swift's “Gulliver travels” was another successful book of
travel after "Robinson Crusoe". Though, it was a work of satire, many
contemporary sensitive problems such as politic, religion, war, so on, were
touched and criticized, we still found in his works a deep humane value. To
him, human being was still worthy to be praised.
Gulliver was a lovely character, a clever, brave, patriotic young man
who enjoyed traveling and had a goodwill and great peace love.
The world in ‘Gulliver Travels” was not the real world in which the
author lived. But, his characters, either human being or the product of
imagination, had such very humane ideas and thought. The main character,
Gulliver, started his journey which then became an unusual adventure when
he was seventeen. He was drifted into a very strange world, saw many unusual
and interesting things as well as fell into a lot of dangers that sometimes
threatened his life. Thanks to his bravery and clever, he was able to overcome
those troubles and returned to his actual world.

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