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Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Life's Middle Station:
The idea of life's "middle station" is a motif throughout the novel. In his entreaties in Chapter 1, Robinson's father asserts that the middle station is the best station to have in life. He expresses a profound wish for his son to be content with becoming and remaining the middle man. However, the young and unfilial Robinson yearns more for adventure than stability.
He told me, I might judge of the happiness of this state, by this one thing, viz. That this was the state of life which all other people envied, that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequences of being born to great things, and wish’d they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this as the just standard of true felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty or riches.
Robinson's father employs a carefully constructed combination of ethos, logos, and pathos to bolster his argument. Although he does not succeed in swaying his son, he does convince the reader that the middle station is what one, or at least Robinson, had better strive for. The father's authority, reason, and emotion leave an impression early in the narrative, such that it becomes unlikely for the reader to forget the middle station. When Robinson evokes his father's words later in his narration, the middle station becomes consolidated as an important motif.
Robinson thinks back to his father's speech about the middle station in Chapter 4, when he is living in Brazil:
I was coming into the very middle station, or upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to before; and which if I resolved to go on with, I might as well ha’ staid at home, and never have fatigu’d my self in the world as I had done; and I used often to say to my self, I could ha’ done this as well in England among my friends, as ha’ gone 5000 miles off to do it among strangers and savages.
The motif of the middle station is on one level bound up with Robinson's shame and regrets. Not infrequently does Robinson chastise himself for his folly in following fancy rather than reason. He even refers to his dissatisfaction with "the station wherein God and Nature" had placed him and his subsequent opposition to his father's "excellent advice" as his original sin. Nonetheless, it remains ambiguous whether Robinson truly regrets his adventures—does he really wish he had stayed in England to pursue the comfortable middle station, like his father advised?
He often seems proud of and grateful for his adventures, not least for how they steered him on the path towards redemption and piety. He also seems to appreciate the adventures in and of themselves. There is plenty of evidence for this, including his own frank admission at the end of the novel that he itches to set out on new adventures. The fact that Defoe wrote a sequel to Robinson Crusoe, which details Robinson's further adventures, suggests that though the character may claim to regret having veered from the middle station, Robinson would have made the same decisions if he were afforded a do-over. On the face of it, the motif is associated with his regrets, but on another level, the idea of the middle station speaks to the low appeal of sensibility and stability.
Related Themes:
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Life's Middle Station:
The idea of life's "middle station" is a motif throughout the novel. In his entreaties in Chapter 1, Robinson's father asserts that the middle station is the best station to have in life. He expresses a profound wish for his son to be content with becoming and remaining the middle man. However, the young and unfilial Robinson yearns more for adventure than stability.
He told me, I might judge of the happiness of this state, by this one thing, viz. That this was the state of life which all other people envied, that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequences of being born to great things, and wish’d they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to this as the just standard of true felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty or riches.
Robinson's father employs a carefully constructed combination of ethos, logos, and pathos to bolster his argument. Although he does not succeed in swaying his son, he does convince the reader that the middle station is what one, or at least Robinson, had better strive for. The father's authority, reason, and emotion leave an impression early in the narrative, such that it becomes unlikely for the reader to forget the middle station. When Robinson evokes his father's words later in his narration, the middle station becomes consolidated as an important motif.
Robinson thinks back to his father's speech about the middle station in Chapter 4, when he is living in Brazil:
I was coming into the very middle station, or upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to before; and which if I resolved to go on with, I might as well ha’ staid at home, and never have fatigu’d my self in the world as I had done; and I used often to say to my self, I could ha’ done this as well in England among my friends, as ha’ gone 5000 miles off to do it among strangers and savages.
The motif of the middle station is on one level bound up with Robinson's shame and regrets. Not infrequently does Robinson chastise himself for his folly in following fancy rather than reason. He even refers to his dissatisfaction with "the station wherein God and Nature" had placed him and his subsequent opposition to his father's "excellent advice" as his original sin. Nonetheless, it remains ambiguous whether Robinson truly regrets his adventures—does he really wish he had stayed in England to pursue the comfortable middle station, like his father advised?
He often seems proud of and grateful for his adventures, not least for how they steered him on the path towards redemption and piety. He also seems to appreciate the adventures in and of themselves. There is plenty of evidence for this, including his own frank admission at the end of the novel that he itches to set out on new adventures. The fact that Defoe wrote a sequel to Robinson Crusoe, which details Robinson's further adventures, suggests that though the character may claim to regret having veered from the middle station, Robinson would have made the same decisions if he were afforded a do-over. On the face of it, the motif is associated with his regrets, but on another level, the idea of the middle station speaks to the low appeal of sensibility and stability.
Related Themes:
