This presentation is a part of my acadamic presentation of The Neo-Classical Literature, Department of M.A English M. K. Bhavanagar University and it is submitted to prof. dr. Dilip Barad sir.

2. Presented by : Nagla Drashti P.
Class: M.A
Semester: 1
Paper No: 2
Paper Name: The Neo-Classical literature
Batch Year: 2016-2018
Email id: nagladrashti38@gmail.com
Submitted to: Smt.S.B Gardi Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji
Bhavnagar University

3.  Daniel Defoe was an English writer
 He was also English novelist, pamphleteer and
journalist, author of Robinson Crusoe and Moll
Flanders
 He gained fame from his work Robinson Crusoe
written in 1719
 The story has been perceived to be based on the life of
Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish cast away, who lived for
four years on a Pacific Island, which was renamed as
Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966

4.  Many people have pointed out that Robinson Crusoe’s
experiences on the island seems to be a reflection of
the growth of civilization and society
 Considering the prominent role religion played in the
novel, it would be worthwhile to examine progression
of religious and politcal thought in Crusoe’s “society”

5.  This evolution of religious and political
thought affirms two ideas:
1. In the personal realm, it affirms religious
individualism- the idea that one can and
should find his God independently from any
human authority or intermediary.
2. In the public realm, the novel affirms that
religious toleration, especially on the part of
those in power, is that appropriate way to
resolve those conflicts that are inherent in the
transition of religion from th private to the
public.

6. Robinson Crusoe’s Evolution of Political Religion on The
Island

7.  Crusoe discovers both of these ideas and
eventually succeeds in implementing both
of them. He “finds God” without the
guidance of anyone, and he ultimately
becomes a tolerant ruler of the island with
respect to religion.
 Crusoe was very rebellion against his father
and the “middle station” that put him in a
position to find God on his own, something
that may not have happen if he had obeyed
and merely accepted the “hand-me-down”
religion and life style of his father

8.  His attempt to Christianize Friday, Crusoe
becomes convinced that the individual only needs
himself, the Bible, and divine revelation to discover
God’s truth
 Crusoe does not hold the Cannibals morally
accountable for their actions, but kills them
anyway simply because their actions are repulsive
to him. Crusoe makes no religious demands to the
other men on “his” island
 Crusoe has reached the final stage in the evolution
of the political religion, by finding a resolution
between the personal and the public religion;
essentially, there is no public religion on his island