Student Question
Compare the moral allegory in "Robinson Crusoe" and "Rasselas".
Quick answer:
"Robinson Crusoe" follows a moral allegory akin to the Biblical Prodigal Son, where the protagonist leaves home, faces adversity, realizes his mistakes, and seeks redemption. In contrast, "Rasselas" by Samuel Johnson presents a more complex moral allegory, with interpretations ranging from choosing eternal values over worldly life to escaping life's inherent sorrows. Critics are divided on its message, seeing it either as ending in despair or as a commentary on the futility of seeking ultimate happiness.
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is written in moral allegory tradition called
a pilgrim allegory. The pattern of such a moral allegory is that the son,
representative of the Prodigal son in the Biblical parable, leaves home,
usually in a rupture of unhappiness or discontent; travels into misadventures;
realizes the error of his choices; seeks to make his life right with God and
then with his father; and returns home to accept the fate he ran from. This is
the pattern that Robinson Crusoe follows.
Samuel Johnson's work Rasselas contains either a gloomy or a tragic moral about
either choosing the eternal over life or about relief from the pains and
difficulties of a tragic life. There has been much scholarly debate about what
exactly Johnson did in Rasselas, but its appeal and importance continues today
and is, in fact, growing. Some critics say that Johnson's moral ends in despair
because life is abandoned while eternity is sought. Other critics says his
moral ends as a tragic situation where the pains of life must be escaped; that
their quest for abindant happiness was mistaken. Some critics call Rasselas a
pseudo-oriental novel and note it is a genre that had a very brief life in
Johnson's era before being overwhelmed by the quest for greater and greater
realism in the novel genre.
Get Ahead with eNotes
Start your 48-hour free trial to access everything you need to rise to the top of the class. Enjoy expert answers and study guides ad-free and take your learning to the next level.
Already a member? Log in here.