Student Question
Part of Robinson Crusoe's desire to go to sea has to do with his status as the third son. Crusoe says that since he was not trained for any trade, it was only natural for him to have "rambling thoughts." He wanted to see the world, and escape what his father called "the middle state," or the "upper station of low life" which he was born into as the son of a prosperous tradesman. In fact, in the first chapter, Crusoe tells of an extended conversation he had with his father about going to sea, and how his father strongly advised against it, warning that if Crusoe did so, he would live a life of misery, but if he stayed, his father would do everything he could to make Crusoe's life easy and pleasant.
Crusoe was not so easily put off from his dream, however. He stays at home...
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for a year, trying to figure out how to get to sea. One day, in a way completely consistent with the impetuosity of youth, he is invited, on the spur of the moment, to accompany a friend on a short voyage to London, free of charge. Crusoe leaps at the chance, and leaves without a word of explanation to his parents, who would "hear of it as they might." This is the start of his seafaring career.
Why did Robinson Crusoe decide to leave home?
In the opening chapter of the novel, the eponymous narrator tells us that, from an early age, he began to "be filled ... with rambling thoughts." In other words, he had thoughts about journeying beyond the place where he was born. He also says that as a young man, he "would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea." The implication here is that Crusoe's desire for travel and adventure was insatiable and that he had to leave his home in order to at least try to satiate that desire.
Crusoe also tells us, in the opening chapter, that his desire for travel and adventure set him up "against the will [and] ... the commands of [his] father." He recalls how his father would speak to him, at great length, about the dangers of travel and the "burning lust of ambition for great things." Crusoe professes that he was "sincerely affected" by his father's words. Nonetheless, at the first opportunity, he disobeyed his father, ignored his father's advice, and left home for London. This, of course, indicates how strong and "burning" Crusoe's desire was.
Crusoe narrates this story retrospectively, and thus, with the benefit of hindsight, he is aware that his decision to leave his home was an ill-fated one. In hindsight, he speculates that perhaps it wasn't just his own desire that made him leave home. He speculates that perhaps fate, or, as he puts it himself, "something fatal in the propensity of nature," had a role to play too. Whether Crusoe believes this, however, or is simply trying to make himself feel less responsible for and therefore better about his decision to leave home, is open to debate.