The Evaluation of Crusoe’s Dream and Desire

1. Ahmed 1
Sheikh Saifullah Ahmed
Student Id-141410
English Discipline
Khulna University
Literary Theory-3203
02 April, 2017
The Evaluation of Crusoe’s Dream and Desire
Crusoe is the representative of every human being. As the three aspects of the human
mind such as the id, ego, and superego control human animality, personality, morality, self-
awareness, dream and repressed desire, the two literal dreams which are experienced by
Crusoe are the consequences of thinking about the past memory. Perhaps at that time, his
preconscious mind (ego) works and he laments over his past deeds or thinks about moral and
religious things which force him to experience the dreams and raise his superego and
transform him to a true religious practitioner. His desire to escape from the remote island and
to get back to the civilized human society has played an important role in his two literal
dreams. Unfulfilled desires are fulfilled in a dream. Crusoe has regret for disobedience to his
father. Perhaps that is why his unconscious desire is to beg pardon from his father. Thus, his
desire relates his dream and he dreams an angle perhaps his father’s spirit with a spear who
comes to kill him for not repenting yet to make him recall the disobedience. Another dream is
experienced by another unconscious desire to have human company on the remote island
perhaps he recalls Xury and his company. This causes the second dream in which he saves
Friday from the cannibals.
In this paper (assignment) I have tried to show how Crusoe’s dream and desire are
interrelated analyzing the three aspects of the human mind such as the id, ego, and superego
basing on Sigmund Freud’s (1856-1939) The Interpretation of Dream (1931).
Keywords: Unconscious, Freud, Isolation, Dream, and Desire.

2. Ahmed 2
The first dream which he experiences while he gets high fever having a severe
headache. He feels that he is about to die. He dreams a horrible dream because of being
subconscious by illness. It seems that his thinking about past memories force him to
experience that dream. It can be perceived that during that time there is some sort of fear in
his mind, perhaps fear of death so he thinks about God.
And he dreams a terrible dream in which a man, descending from a cloud, comes
forward, with a long spear in his hand, to kill Crusoe. On waking up from this nightmare,
Crusoe thinks of the advice which has been given by his father to him and which he has
disobeyed.
Now he realizes the need to appeal for help to God and so he utters the following
words: "O Lord! What a miserable creature am I? If I should continue to be sick. I shall
certainly die." Then he cries aloud: "O Lord, come to my help because I am in great distress."
(Robinson Crusoe, 1790). He opens his Bible and the following words catch his eyes: "Call
on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver, and thou shalt glorify me." (Robinson Crusoe,
1790). Crusoe makes it a practice to read a few pages of the Bible every day.
The misdeed of his past life now comes to his mind again and again. He realizes the
need for repentance and so he prays to Jesus Christ to get mercy and grace from Him. It
seems that Crusoe is a puritan man and religion is deeply rooted in his mind, before he sleeps
he thinks much about the God which converts into the dream. For supporting this idea Freud
says, “Nothing, you do, occurs by chance, every action, and every thought is motivated by
our unconscious at some level.” (The Interpretation of Dream, 1931).
The second dream is strange but prophetic. Crusoe dreams a dream in which he
rescues a savage from the control of a group of cannibals who want to eat the savage. On
waking up, Crusoe realizes that his dream is full of significance and it offers to him a useful
suggestion. The suggestion offered by the dream is that he should somehow get hold of a
savage who can be useful to him in his attempt to sail to the mainland.
He thinks of attacking a group of cannibals when they visit his island and killing them
in order to get hold of the prisoner whom they might bring with them for the purpose of
feasting upon his flesh. Of course, once again Crusoe is overcome by his moral principles
which stand in the way of his killing the cannibals who have done no harm to him personally.
But Crusoe's dream proves to be prophetic.

3. Ahmed 3
The second dream takes place under the principles of Freud’s dream of attraction
according to which all the things that are coming in one’s life, he is attracting them, and they
are attracted by those images, which he has kept/saved in his mind, whatever is going in his
mind, indirectly he is attracting those things towards him.
Here Crusoe always thinks to have a companion with help of him he can save himself,
and guide him to go back to home. Eventually, his dream comes true and desire is fulfilled by
having Friday.
Crusoe’s “rambling thoughts” leads him to make the “Original Sin”. His desire is to
make voyages and now on this desolate island, he is the fear of death. He says, “Today we
love what tomorrow we hate, today we seck that tomorrow we shun, today we desire what
tomorrow we fear.” (Robinson Crusoe, 1790).
When he is in remote island his strong desire is to get human company and with the
companion, he wants to flee away from the desolate island and wants to continue his life as a
member of civilized human society. He says, “I, who had all these years been craving for
some human society, and had been isolated from all mankind, was now trembling at the very
thought of a man having visited this Island.” (Robinson Crusoe, 1790).
He also desires for an adventurous, wealthy and better life. So, he does not pay any
heed to his father’s “middle station of life”. But God’s has another plan for Crusoe to teach a
good lesson. Crusoe says, “An immoderate desire to rise faster in life than the nature of the
thing permitted.” (Robinson Crusoe, 1790). The man is nothing but the puppet of God’s hand.
The frequent desires for relaxation, rest, having human company, to escape from the
island, and to beg pardon from father make Crusoe unrest on the desolate island. Freud
believes that unconscious desires are fulfilled in a dream. Perhaps These desires are
responsible for Crusoe’s dreams. I have analyzed dreams in order to understand the aspect of
Crusoe’s desires.

4. Ahmed 4
Works Cited
Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Ed. Michael Shinagel. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
Print.
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretations of Dreams. Trans. and ed. by James Strachey.
New York: Avon, 1965. Print.
Hymer, Stephen. Robinson Crusoe’s Economic Man: A Construction and Deconstruction.
Ed. Ulla Grapard and Gillian Hewitson. New York: Routledge, 2011. PDF File.
Damrosch, Leopold Jr. Robinson Crusoe. Ed. Michael Shinagel. 2nd ed. New York:
Norton, 1994. PDF File.