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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Robinson Crusoe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Christianity and Divine Providence
Society, Individuality, and Isolation
Advice, Mistakes, and Hindsight
Contentment vs. Desire and Ambition
Strangers, Savages, and the Unknown
Summary
Analysis
In order to preserve ammunition, Robinson made traps to try to capture goats, so that he wouldn't have to shoot them. He captured several young goats and brought them to his home to tame them, hoping to breed goats at his home. He constructed a large enclosure for them, and soon had a tame flock of goats to supply him with meat and milk, from which he made butter and cheese.
Robinson continues to build a comfortable life by himself on the island, taming his own flock of goats for food.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
Robinson exclaims, "how mercifully can our Creator treat his creatures," and says he dined like a king, accompanied by Poll, his dog, and two cats. Wanting to get his canoe back somehow, Robinson set out by foot to go to the hill where he had stopped while sailing around the island.
Robinson is happy with his life on the island and thankful to God for how his life has turned out. His pets are makeshift companions in his solitude.
Themes
Literary Devices
Quiz
Test Yourself
Robinson notes that he had a ridiculous appearance, with all of his ill-fitting clothes made of goatskin and a long mustache. But there was no one there to see him, so it didn't matter. When he got to the hill, he saw that the ocean was calm, without any dangerous currents. Still, he was too scared of being driven out to sea to try to sail his canoe back around to his home.
Robinson is amused to think of how he would appear to other people. Separated from society on his island, his appearance does not matter as it might in society.
Themes
Literary Devices
Quiz
Test Yourself
Robinson describes the two "plantations" he had on the island. He had his main dwelling, fortified with a wall, that adjoined the rock cliff into which he had hollowed a large cavern with several rooms, and his "country house," a fenced-off dwelling with a tent in the forest. In addition, he had his enclosure with goats and his small fields of barley and rice.
Robinson has now established a pleasant, comfortable existence on his island, with two "plantations" perhaps not so different from his profitable plantation in Brazil. The pleasantness of his life, and his contentment with his solitary life, approaching a kind of paradise on the island, serves to make the revelations of the next chapter—that he is not alone on the island—even more shocking.
Themes
Quiz
Test Yourself
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