1. J.

Swift:
- Corruption in politics, government, social practice and human nature in Swift;
- Utopia and Distopia in Swift's work;
- Humour and satire in Swift;
2. D. Defoe
- Puritanical morality and principles perceptions;
- Realist images in Defoe's novels.
3. S. Richardson
- Gender sensitivity and morality;
- Democratic discourse in Richardson;
- Didactic discourse.
4.H. Fielding
- The Picaresque mode
- Fielding's concept of comic-epic in prose.
5. L. Sterne
- The modernity of Sterne
- Sentimentality and humanistic vision in Sterne
6. J. Austen
- Models of femininity
- Austen's vision of love and marriage
7. W. Thackeray
- Appearance vs Essence in Vanity Fair
- Snobbery as key's social practice
- Satirical and didactic discourse in Thackeray
8. C. Dickens
-Child characters and images of childhood
- Novels of education and becoming
- The criticism of institutions
- Social effects in Dickens
- London as a character
- Good vs Evil

Swift's Moral Satire in Gulliver's Travels

"In its most serious function, satire is a mediator between two perceptions-the
unillusioned perception of man as he actually is, and the ideal perception, or
vision, of man as he ought ot be," (Bullitt, 3). Likewise, "misanthropy" can be
understood as being the product of one of two world views: 1) The Pure Cynic or
Misanthropist has no faith in human nature and has given up on any notion of
ideals. This type lies and manipulates as a matter of course and these are the
types that tend to run the world. 2) The "Burned" or Disillusioned Idealist's
misanthropy arises out of disappointment in humankind. In many ways, the

second type exhibits more bile as he is constantly frustrated by what men do as

opposed to what they ought to do. Jonathon Swift is the second type of
misanthropist and Gulliver's Travels is arguably his greatest satiric attempt to
"shame men out of their vices" (Ibid., 14) by constantly distinguishing between
how man behaves and how he thinks about or justifies his behavior in a variety of
situations. Pride, in particular, is what enables man to "deceive himself into the
belief that he is rational and virtuous when, in reality, he has not developed his
reason, and his virtue is merely appearance," (Ibid., 66). This satire works on so
many levels that a paper such as this allows me to deal with only three elements,
and in a necessarily superficial way: the ways in which the structure and choice of
metaphor serve Swift's purpose, a discussion of some of his most salient attacks
on politics, religion, and other elements of society, and his critique on the
essence and flaws of human nature. Swift's purpose was to stir his readers to
view themselves as he viewed humankind, as creatures who were not fulfilling
their potential to be truly great but were simply flaunting the trappings of
greatness. Gulliver's Travels succeeds in this goal brilliantly.
The form and structure of the whole work enhanced Swift's purpose, as did the
specific metaphors in each of the four voyages. Firstly, Swift went to great pains
to present Gulliver's Travels in the genuine, standard form of the popular
travelogues of the time. Gulliver, the reader is told, was a seaman, first in the
capacity of a ship's surgeon, then as the captain of several ships. Swift creates a
realistic framework by incorporating nautical jargon, descriptive detail that is
related in a "factual, ship's-log" style, and repeated claims by Gulliver, in his
narrative, "to relate plain matter(s) of fact in the simplest manner and style." This
framework provides a sense of realism and versimilitude that contrasts sharply
with the fantastic nature of the tales, and establishes the first ironic layer of The
Travels. As Tuveson points out (58), "In Gulliver's Travels there is a constant
shuttling back and forth between real and unreal, normal and absurd...until our
standards of credulity are so relaxed that we are ready to buy a pig in a poke."
The four books of the Travels are also presented in a parallel way so that voyages
1 and 2 focus on criticism of various aspects of English society at the time, and
man within this society, while voyages 3 and 4 are more preoccupied with human
nature itself, (Downie, 281). However, all of these elements overlap, and with
each voyage, Gulliver, and thus the reader, is treated not only to differing but
ever deepening views of human nature that climax in Gulliver's epiphany when
he identifies himself with the detestable Yahoos. As such, the overall structure
also works like a spiral leading to a center of self-realization. Or, as Tuveson puts
it, Swift's satire shifts from "foreign to domestic scenes, from institutions to
individuals, from mankind to man, from others to ourselves," (62).
The choice of metaphor in each voyage serves more particularly the various
points of Swift's satiric vision. "The effect of reducing the scale of life in Lilliput is
to strip human affairs of their self-imposed grandeur. Rank, politics, international
war, lose all of their significance. This particicualr idea is continued in the second
voyage, not in the picture of the Brobdingnagians, but in Gulliver himself, who is
now a Lilliputian," (Eddy, 149). And where the Liiliputians highlight the pettiness

of human pride and pretensions, the relative size of the Brobdingnagians, who do
exemplify some positive qualities, also highlights the grossness of the human
form and habits, thus satirizing pride in the human form and appearance. In the
voyage to Laputa, the actual device of a floating island that drifts along above
the rest of the world metaphorically represents Swift's point that an excess of
speculative reasoning can also be negative by cutting one off from the practical
realities of life which, in the end, doesn't serve learning or society (Downie, 282).
And in the relation of the activities of the Grand Academy of Lagado, Swift
satirizes the dangers and wastefulness of pride in human reason uninformed by
common sense. The final choice of the Houyhnhnms as the representatives of
perfect reason unimpeded by irrationality or excessive emotion serves a dual role
for Swift's satire. The absurdity of a domestic animal exhibiting more "humanity"
than humans throws light on the defects of human nature in the form of the
Yahoo, who look and act like humans stripped of higher reason. Gulliver and the
reader are forced to evaluate such behavior from a vantage point outside of man
that makes it both shocking and revelatory, (Tuveson, 62). The pride in human
nature as superior when compared to a "bestial" nature is satirized sharply.
However, the Houyhnhnms are not an ideal of human nature either. Swift uses
them to show how reason uninformed by love, compassion, and empathy is also
an inadequate method to deal with the myriad aspects of the human situation.
Within this framework, very little of human social behavior, pretensions, or
societal institutions escape the deflating punctures of Swift's arrows. Ewald states
that, "As a satire, the main purpose of Gulliver's Travels is to show certain
shortcomings in 18th century English society..." (151). Much of the first voyage
lampoons court intrigue and the arbitrary fickleness of court favor, (Eddy, 110).
The rank and favor of the Lilliputian ministers being dependent on how high they
can jump over a rope literally illustrates this figurative point. Gulliver himself falls
out of favor because he does not pander to the King's thirst for power. The two
political parties being differentiated by the height of their heels points out how
little substantive difference there was between Whig and Tory, (or today between
Democrat and Republican), and similarly, the religious differences about whether
the Host was flesh or symbol is reduced to the petty quarrel between the BigEndians and the Small-Endians. Swift also highlights the pretensions of politics by
informing the reader of some of the laudable and novel ideals and practices of
Lilliputian society such as rewarding those who obey the law, holding a breach of
trust as the highest offense, and punishing false accusors and ingratitude, but
shows that, like humans, even the Lilliputians do not live up to their own
standards when they exhibit ingratitude for Gulliver's help and accuse him of high
treason, (Downie, 278).
Of course, the perspective shifts in the second voyage, where Gulliver finds
himself in the same relation to the Brobdingnagians as the Lilliputians were to
him, which not only leads to some different kinds of satiric insights, but many
which are sightly darker in tone. Most of the social and political criticism occurs in
Chapters six and seven. Gulliver describes European civilization to Brobdingnag's
King, including England's political and legal institutions and how they work, as

well as some of the personal habits of the ruling class. Yet, even though Gulliver
subsequently confesses to the reader that he cast this information in the most
favorable light, the King still deduces that every strata of society and political
power is infested with rampant corruption and dismissively concludes "the bulk of
your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature
ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth." This echoes a basic
message of the first voyage but the attack here is more direct and corrosive. The
relative size of the Brobdingnagians adds a physical dimension to the King's
judgment and enhances its veracity. Also, "all the transactions of life, all passion,
and all social amenities, which involve the body, lose their respectability in
Brobdingnag," (Eddy, 150), from Gulliver's description of the odious breast to his
viewing of a public execution. In contrast, Brobdingnagian society has many
things to recommend it such as excellence "in morality, history, poetry, and
mathematics," although Gulliver ironically laments that these are only applied to
the practical aspects of life and not used for abstractions. However, much of
Swift's political writings indicate that he, like the Brobdingnagians, favored a
conception of government and society based on common-sense, (Lock, 132-134).
The supreme moment of ironical criticism of European civilization occurs in
Chapter seven when, after offering the secret of gun powder to the King and his
subsequent horrified refusal, Gulliver declares the King to possess "narrow
principles and short views!" Of course, mankind would never be so short-sighted
as to turn away from learning a new method of injuring, torturing, or killing one's
fellows! Aside from this sharp comment on human nature, Swift is also alluding to
the eagerness with which European nations would leap at such an offer as an aid
to waging war against their neighbors.
The main focus of social criticism in the voyage to Laputa is on intellectuals, such
as scholars, philosophers, and scientists, who often get lost in theoretical
abstractions and conceptions to the exclusion of the more pragmatic aspects of
life, in direct contrast to the practical Brobdingnagians. Many critics feel Swift was
satirizing "the strange experiments of the scientists of the Royal Society," but
may also have been warning his readers against "the political projectors and
speculators of the time," (Davis 149-150). The Laputians excel at theoretical
mathematics, but they can't build houses where the walls are straight and the
corners are square. Instead, they constantly worry about when the sun will burn
out and whether a comet will collide with the earth. This misuse of reason is
hilariously elaborated on in Chapters five and six, where the various experiments
occuring at the Grand Academy of Lagado are described. Of course, the point is
highlighted as Gulliver professes his sincere admiration for such projects as
extracting sunbeams from cucumbers and building houses from the roof down.
The satire in Voyage three attacks both the deficiency of common sense and the
consequences of corrupt judgment (Quintana, 317).
Most of the criticism in the Voyage to the Houyhnhnms is directed at human
nature itself, although the trend to more particular targets begun in the third
voyage is continued with glancing, but increasingly direct blows to the subjects of
war, (destruction clothed in the pretext of valour and patriotism), lawyers, (social

parasites who measure their worth by their excellence at deception and

therefore, actually inhibit justice), and money, (the greed of a few is fed by the
labor and poverty of the many, as well as the relative uselessness and corruption
of these priveleged few). In addition, Swift makes some very cogent observations
on imperialism in the concluding chapter which point out the arrogance and self
deception of European nations when they claim to civilize, through brutality and
oppression, groups of indigenous people who were often mild and harmless. Of
course, as Swift implies, the real goal of imperialism is greed. The most ironic
point occurs when the author disclaims that this attack on imperialist countries
does not include Britain, which history shows was equally as brutal as its
European rivals and, in many cases, even more so, considering its Empire
became at one time the largest of any European country. What I found most
interesting was how many critics took this disclaimer seriously as an expression
of the author's patriotism, (Ewald, 143-144, Bullitt, 64). It seems obvious that
Swift is making the point that Gulliver's naive patriotism, the last remnant of
identification he has with his own kind, is misplaced and it is Swift's final,
palpable hit.
The main object of the satire in Gulliver's Travels is human nature itself,
specifically Man's pride as it manifests in "pettiness, grossness, rational
absurdity, and animality," (Tuveson, 57). Gulliver's character, as a satirical
device, serves Swift's ends by being both a mouthpiece for some of Swift's ideals
and criticisms and as an illustration of them (Ewald, 138-9); Thus, critiques on
human nature are made through Gulliver's observations as well as through
Gulliver's own transformation from a "naive individual...into a wise and skeptical
misanthrope," (Ibid.,142).
Chapter seven of the first Voyage, where Gulliver is informed that he is about to
be indicted for high treason by the Lilliputian Court, provides the most bitter
satiric attack on hypocrisy, ingratitude, and cruelty (Tuveson, 75), yet Gulliver,
and the reader, are able to distance themselves from these qualities by
concluding that though these tiny creatures are aping human behavior, they are
still not human. In the second voyage, both the human pride in physical
appearance is attacked through Gulliver's perspective of the Brobdingnagians,
and Gulliver's own pride in himself and his country is reduced to ridiculousness as
Gulliver becomes the object of comic satire (Ibid., 76). Gulliver's offer of the
secret of gunpowder only underscores that he is a typical member of his race.
From Gulliver's theme of the excellence of mankind, begun in Chapter six, the
episode concludes "with the shocking demonstration of what man's inhumanity is
capable of" (Ibid., 78).
One of the most interesting comments on the human condition is the description
of the immortal Struldbrugs in Voyage Three. Swift's treatment of the subject of
immortality is characteristically practical and down to earth. What would it really
be like to live in perpetuity? His answer: A living death. The main problem is that
the human body ages and is not a fit vessel to house a perpetual consciousness.
In relating this episode, Swift affirms with cutting precision that we have much in

common with the rest of earth's creatures; any superior reason we may possess,
and the pride we take in it, does not exempt us from the natural laws of physical
death and regeneration. In Book Three, Swift not only shows the possible
perversions of reason in the doings at the Academy of Lagado, but also shows its
limitations in shielding us from the natural consequences of physical life. Here, he
implies the importance of a moral structure to human life; reason is not enough
and immortality would only make things worse.
Yet on the surface, Book four seems to argue that reason is the one quality, when
properly developed, that can elevate man to his ultimate potential. But ironically
it is the horse-like Houyhnhnms that possess this perfect development of reason,
whereas the Yahoos, whom Gulliver most resembles, are primitive and bestial. I
agree with Ewald that Voyage four contains Swift's clearest attack on human
pride (154). Indeed, the quality of reason only enables humans "to aggravate
their natural corruptions and to acquire new ones which Nature had not
intended." Even a dispassionate view of human history would find it difficult to
dispute this conclusion. Whereas the attacks on human nature in the first three
Voyages deal with actions that are symptomatic of man's nature-"the corrosive
satire of the last voyage is concerned with the springs and causes of action"
(Tuveson, 80), in other words, the essence of man. As such, the satire directed
against the pretensions of court, political corruption, and the excesses of
speculative reasoning may divert and disturb Gulliver, and the reader, but it is
possible to distance oneself from the attacks. But the object of the satiric attack
in the last voyage is man himself: it is Gulliver and the reader. Here, "Swift is
attacking the Yahoo in each of us" (Ibid., 81).
Human nature is cut into two parts: The Houyhnhnms possess reason and
benevolence, and selfish appetites and brutish awareness are left for the Yahoos.
The microscopic analysis of the human form that took place in the second voyage
is now used to analyze the defects of man's moral nature, and it is pride that
prevents man from recognizing his flaws and dealing with them. When Gulliver
experiences the shock of recognition that he, too, is a Yahoo, Gulliver passes from
being a "perfect example a character acting in ignorance of his condition" to
experiencing "a terrifying insight into evil (which) is accompanied by all the
bitterness of a profound disillusionment" (Bullitt, 61, 65). Yet, I agree with many
of the critics who say that though Gulliver makes the mistake of identifying
himself completely with the Yahoos, Swift and the reader do not (Ibid., 65). "For
the truth, as we are meant to realize, is that man is neither irrational physicality
like the Yahoos nor passionless rationality like the Houyhnhnms" (Ibid.) but are
something in between. We are meant to be repulsed by the chilling calmness with
which the Houyhnhnms accept death as described in Chapter nine as much as we
are by the selfishness of the Yahoos, and it is clear Swift does not present
Gulliver's comic and absurd withdrawal from people as a viable solution. Instead,
Swift wants us to be shocked out of the pride that allows us to deceive ourselves
into thinking man is completely virtuous when he is not by experiencing, with
Gulliver, our own limitations without making Gulliver's final mistake. The solution
to the human dilemma is not so simple as Gulliver's rejection of humanity, and

Swift's final success, in terms of stimulating response, is that, after masterfully

dissecting and presenting the problem, he leaves the application of his lessons to
"the judicious reader."
For many critics, Gulliver's Travels "is in a sense, a tragic work...in that it is the
picture of man's collapse before his corrupt nature, and of his defiance in face of
the collapse" (Dobree, 447). Yet, obviously Swift felt that humbling human pride,
enabling a more honest self-assessment, was absolutely vital to addressing the
suffering and injustice so prevalent in human life. Contrary to many who label
Swift a misanthropist, only a man who cared deeply about humanity could have
produced a work like Gulliver's Travels. Weilding the scalpel of satire, Swift cuts
through our self-deception to our pride, the source of our moral denial and
inertia. As we travel with Gulliver through the voyages, Swift brilliantly peels
away our pretensions, layer by layer, until he shows us what we are and
challenges us, intensely and urgently, to be better. In Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan
Swift continues to vex the world so that it might awaken to the fact that
humankind needs saving, but it has to save itself.

Reason, Passion, Nature, Utopia, Dystopia in Gullivers Travels

Nick Guenther
In Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels a European man travels to other worlds and
investigates their cultures and governments. In book four, Gullivers mutinous
crew abandons him on an island where he is plunged into a world governed by
the Houyhnhnms horse creatures who live and govern in accordance with pure
reason and nature, that is also populated by a despicable race of humans called
the Yahoos, who live only for vice and squalor. These exaggerated attitudes call
attention to the way the humans in power rule Europe and to human nature in
general. But do the Houynhnms provide a model for the Europeans to follow? Is
the island of the Houynhnms a utopia, a dystopia, or something in between?
Using the clear distinction between the Yahoos and Houynhnms, Gullivers
ultimately failed attempt to emulate the Houynhnms, Gullivers relationship with
the Houynhnms, and Gullivers life after exile from their land, Swift represents the
idea of a great utopian society as impossible. The unobtainable nature of the
quest for a perfect society reflects that a society like the Houynhnms is not right
for mankind. Like the Yahoos in Houynhnmland, the humans of Europe and the
known world are not meant to have such reason. Swift depicts pure reason as
contrary to human nature- as neither possible nor desirous.

Book four of Gullivers Travels does seem to represent the country of the
Houynhnms as a utopia, at least in the eyes of Gulliver. There are numerous
scholarly articles attempting to link it in style and content with Thomas Mores
Utopia. Chloe Houstons writes Broadly speaking there is a distinction between
those critics who take utopian to mean idealistic or perfectionist about human
society and perfectibility, and those for whom the deciding factor is the nature of
its engagement with the utopian tradition or with a particular utopian text,
usually (indeed, almost exclusively) Mores Utopia (Houston 426). In this essay I
will look at whether book four of Gullivers Travels represents a utopia in the
former sense, but Houston also looks at comparisons with Mores Utopia and
other similar works as a basis for determining how utopian or dystopian book four
and Houynhnmland are. Houston writes, Swifts take shares with the utopian
form its use of fantastic journeys and shipwrecks, the naive narrator, stories of
new places and seemingly ideal societies ( 427). She finds that Gullivers Travels
may be Utopian but that does not necessarily mean the lands he encounters are
utopian. She argues that a closer reading of the text reveals a more complex use
of utopian features by highlighting not only the satirical nature of Swifts text but
its deliberate mockery of earlier descriptions of new and ideal societies. She
sees the different lands of Gullivers travels as satires of utopian literature and
the idea of an idealistic or perfect utopian society. In particular she cites
Gullivers journey to Laputa, comparing its academy to Salomons House in
Francis Bacons New Atlantis.
She uses the theory that this satire enforces the idea that the possible utopia
found Houynhnmland as well as those found throughout Gullivers Travels and
other utopian works are unachievable, saying, Gullivers Travels can be seen as
utopian in its refusal to concede that the ideal society can exist in the real world.
As in Utopia, a seemingly ideal society can only be imagined far from English
shores (Houston 435). She supports this conclusion by citing Hermann J Real
who argues Swifts purpose is to manifest Gullivers ideal and simultaneously to
show its impossibility; by parading the Houyhnhnms, the epitome of virtue and
rationality, before and for Gulliver, Swift exhibits the ideal which the philosophy
of the schoolsclaimed for mans nature (Real 100) (Houston 435). Houston
comes to the conclusion that the text is neither a utopia, nor a dystopia, nor
even an anti-utopia (as it has variously been read); rather it contains images of
and interactions with ideas of utopia and dystopia which reflect its engagement
with the utopian mode and qualify it as simultaneously utopian and dystopian
(427).
Eugene R. Hammond links Utopia and Gullivers Travels based on the supreme
value of reason in the societies encountered by Gulliver and Raphael, the
protagonist of Utopia. His primary goal in his comparison of the two is to explore
the role of justice in societies ruled by reason. In both Utopia and Gullivers
Travels, reason is intimately linked with the virtue of justice, and in each, the
institutional injustice of contemporary society is pointedly satirized through
comparison with the impressive (if not perfect) justice of an imaginary, rational
society (Hammond 445). He also claims that in both Utopia and Gullivers

Travels nature and reason are linked, and defined saying, The distinctive
features of the terms nature and reason, as the Utopians and the Houyhnhnms
use them, are: 1) that nature is idealized and taken to be a reliable normative
standard; and 2) that reason is in perfect accord with nature (Hammond 450).
He cites, as evidence, Gullivers assertions that Houyhnhnm societys grand
maxim, is to cultivate Reason, and to be wholly governed by it (Swift 2408), and
the Houyhnhnms belief that Nature and reason [are] sufficient Guides for a
reasonable animal (Swift 2403).
Hammond mentions that the Houyhnhnms are frequently criticicized for being
cold and passionless. He cites Samuel Holt Monks statement that The
Houyhnhnms are the embodiment of pure reason. They know neither love nor
grief nor lust nor ambition (Monk 241), then says, Monks ordering of the
passions love, grief, lust, ambition is significant. The control of lust and
ambition by reason we all admire. And most of us would accept the control of
grief by reason. But by placing love, a passion we value, in the first and most
prominent position, after stating that the Houyhnhnms embody pure reason,
Monk is implicitly arguing that since their reason suppresses such an admirable
quality, it must be flawed (Hammond 461-462). While their form of justice is
based on the interaction of reason and nature, it is an unquestionable justice.
The Houyhnhnms have no choice but to obey a decree of their assembly (463
Even the freedom of thought of the Houyhnhnms seems to be severely
restricted. The Houyhnhnms can think of nothing but what is reasonable (463).
When Gullivers crew abandons him on the island of the Houyhnhnms and
Yahoos, the reader sees an obvious and stark contrast. The Houyhnhnms
embody perfection, in fact the word Houyhnhnm, in their tongue, signifies a
horse, and in its etymology, the Perfection of Nature (Swift 2889). Indeed the
Houyhnhnms possess many laudable qualities. They cannot lie, or have no
concept of it, for they have no word in their language to express lying or
falsehood (2389). They too are endowed by Nature with a general disposition to
all virtues, and have no conceptions or ideas of what is evil in a rational creature
(Swift 2408). The Houyhnhnms are not only innocent of evil and lying, they are
completely ignorant of it. They are good natured, friendly, and kind, Friendship
and benevolence are the two principal virtues among the Houyhnhnms, and
these are not confined to particular objects, but universal to the whole race
2409). This indicates that their pure and intense reason is not just cold and
impersonal. It is rational for the Houyhnhnms to be kind to one another, their
value of friendship and benevolence fosters a productive, happy society since
there is no ill will, no hatred, and every member of the society wishes well for
every other member of the society and; therefore, society in general. Hammond
states that The concern for fellowship shown by the Houyhnhnms breaks down
the barriers of pride (including family pride and lovers pride) which all of us
erect; this fellowship, far from being absurd, is the personal virtue that makes
possible the social justice in the Utopian and Houyhnhnm societies (Hammond
459). They raise their youth well and educate them in their values, Temperance,
industry, exercise, and cleanliness, are the lessons equally enjoined to the young

ones of both sexes (Swift 2410). They have an efficient effective form of
government, which consists only of a representative Council of the whole nation
which meets once every four years, Here they inquire into the state and
condition of the several districtsAnd wherever there is any want (which is but
seldom) it is immediately supplied by unanimous consent and contribution
(2410). On the surface their civilization seems perfect.
The land of the Houyhnhnms indeed looks like what every human would want his
or her country to look like. Soon after arriving on the island, Gulliver reflects a
desire to take use the teachings of the Houyhnhnms to improve England by
celebrating the praises of the renowned Houyhnhnms, and proposing their
virtues to the imitation of mankind, by the end of his time with the
Houyhnhnms, however, he has completely forsaken this idea. He tries not to
become a more rational human being, but to become a Houyhnhnm. He becomes
disgusted with his human body, saying When I happened to behold the relection
of my own form in a lake or a fountain, I turned away my face in horror and
detestation of myselfBy conversing with the Houyhnhnms, and looking upon
them with delight, I fell to imitate their gait and gesture (2415). He cannot
obviously become a Houyhnhnm, though. He merely imitates them.
The Yahoos seem to represent the filth, greed, hatred and selfishness of human
nature. These speechless humans exemplify human flaws in primitive ways. The
Yahoos were known to hate one another more than they did any different
species of animals, if you throw among five Yahoos as much food as would be
sufficient for fifty, they will, instead of eating peaceably, fall together by the ears,
each single one impatient to have all to itself, and they covet certain shining
stones of several colors. The Yahoos represent the complete opposite of the
Houyhnhnms. If Houyhnhnm society is a utopia, Yahoo society is a Dystopia. It is
not so simple, though.
Houyhnhnm society is clearly not utopian in the idealistic and perfectionist
sense mentioned by Houston. Their society includes something very much like a
caste system, for among the Houyhnhnms, the white, the sorrel, and the irongrey were not so exactly shaped as the bay, and the dapple-grey, and the black;
nor born with equal talents of mind, or a capacity to improve them; and therefore
continued always in the condition of servants, without ever aspiring to match out
of their own race, which in that country would be reckoned monstrous and
unnatural (Swift 2402). While this is appalling to readers, it is rational for the
Houyhnhnm society. If certain breeds of horses are better suited for certain work
it makes sense for the productivity of their society that they should do that work
and do it without the distraction of ambition for a higher position or fear of
demotion. In human society, however something like this would completely
disregard things we hold as dear such as hope, individuality, genius, and
fairness. A world without these things cannot represent a utopia for humans.
The Houyhnhnm society works and works without the flaws of human society, but
the goal of humanity is not simply to work. Gulliver forgets this when he sees

how well the Houyhnhnm society functions, and how poorly the Yahoo society
works and sees in them the exaggerated flaws of human nature. He recalls the
ills of European society, the wars started by the the ambition of princes and
difference of opinion (Swift 2395), the lawyer, being practiced almost from his
cradle in defending falsehood (2397), the Minister of State who possesses no
other passions but a violent desire of wealth, power, and titles (2401). He does
not however, relate any examples of beauty, art, love, compassion, opportunity,
sacrifice, or literature, the things that seem to make the human experience worth
living. The implication is that to achieve a world governed solely by reason many
positive elements of the human experience must be sacrificed. And the question
is whether pure reason is worth this sacrifice.
The Houyhnhnms and their pure reason represent human desire for a better form
of government, a better society, something that makes sense. This desire is
impossible as we see from Gullivers failed attempts to emulate them. Gulliver
has encountered a society which he feels to be truly ideal, but he is not fit to live
there. Although he claims to have a happy life among the Houyhnhnms and
that he sees a great improvement in his virtue by conversing with them (Swift
2413), he does not belong there. The Assembly of Houyhnhnms deemed that the
Master Houyhnhnms friendship and the gain of any advantage or pleasure in
[Gulliver's] company; was not agreeable to reason or Nature, or a thing ever
heard of before among them. As Hammond stated The Houyhnhnms have no
choice but to obey a decree of their assembly (463). Even the freedom of
thought of the Houyhnhnms seems to be severely restricted. For they can think
of nothing but what is reasonable (463).
Gulliver must leave his utopia -the world he wanted to be a part of. Houston
describes his life after expulsion, Forever changed by his experience, he is
unable to re-assimilate into his own environment, and ends up caught between
the perfect society he remembers and the real world in which he is obliged to
live (433-434) That Gulliver cannot integrate the Houyhnhnm way of life into the
humanity he returns to suggests that this way of life is not meant for humans.
This is clearly demonstrated by the stark divide of Yahoo and Houyhnhnm kind,
and by Gullivers exile from their island. It is not that humans are simply
incapable of the reason displayed by the Houyhnhnms, they are not meant to live
that way. When Gulliver gives up on trying to learn and apply the lessons of the
Houyhnhnms and instead tries to become one of them, it is clear that he has not
learned the teachings of the Houyhnhnms, for he does not behave rationally at
all, he does not try to work for the greater good of the species, rather he
becomes selfish and withdrawn in a way no Houyhnhnm would, spending his time
with his horses. As Houston puts it Gullivers travels leave him sheltering in his
stables, unable to bear human society, having learned nothing that will improve
the life he is ultimately obliged to live (437). One of the few Houyhnhnm traits
he does display upon his return to England is contempt for human kind and a
devotion to the unchangeable hierarchies of Houyhnhnmland. He finds his family
completely disgusting describing his first sight of them after their long

separation; the sight of them filled me only with hatred, disgust, and contempt
(Swift 2422).
The relationship between the purely reasonable Houyhnhnms and humans or
Yahoos must be dichotomous. The Houyhnhnms even consider exterminating
the Yahoos completely, and the one human who does try to integrate into
Houyhnhnm society is exiled. The Houyhnhnm society is neither utopian nor
dystopian for the simple fact that it is not human, so it can be neither ideal nor
completely bad for humans, it is simply not for us. Swift is trying to say that
humankind is not meant for pure reason, since it entails the abandonment of so
many things that are intrinsically human. Yes, we should attempt to curb our
vices, and should not live as the Yahoos, and kill and devour cats or live in
wretchedness, but neither should we try to eliminate our humanity. In
Hammonds article, he suggests the Houyhnhnms are so reasonable that they
do not sense any coercion from their societies, they become paradoxically so
much the less admirable as individuals. Since they make almost no moral
choices, it has been suggested that they are no more to be admired than the
Yahoos are to be blamed(466). The Houyhnhnms cannot be admired or
emulated because they are just doing what they inherently do. The same reason
is not inherent in humans. Houston suggests that Gullivers Travels represents a
double-edged satire which simultaneously shows that humanity does not
measure up to its own standard and moreover that this standard is not for
man. (Houston 435). These suggestions are apt. Through the possible utopian
and dystopian societies encountered by Gulliver and his interaction with them,
Swift depicts the flaws and beauties of human nature, our intrinsic desire for
something more and the failure to find it in reason alone.
Satire and Humour
Jonathan Swift is known primarily as a satirist, possibly the best satirist to have
ever written in the English language. His work contains scathing attacks of
peoples foolishness, greed, vanity and pomposity.
Despite his uncompromising descriptions of peoples weaknesses, he was at
heart a gentle man and felt great powers should never be set against the weak or
disadvantaged. He was no bully; intellectually speaking, he only picked on people
his own size.
One thing that always surprised and delighted Swift was that while people were
quick to recognise the faults he satirised in others, they could rarely see when
the joke was on them.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover

everybodys face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of
reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.
Thats as well said as if I had said it myself.

Punning is an art of harmonious jingling upon words, which, passing

in at the ears, excites a titillary motion in those parts; and this, being conveyed
by the animal spirits into the muscles of the face, raises the cockles of the heart.
It is as hard to satirise well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man
of distinguished virtues.

Thats as well said as if I had said it myself.

Men are contented to be laughed at for their wit, but not for their folly.
Dont set your wit against a child.

Punning is a talent which no man affects to despise but he that is

without it.
All human race would be wits. And millions miss, for one that hits.
Strange an astrologer should die, without one wonder in the sky.

Daniel Defoe
AKA Daniel Foe
Born: Sep-1660
Birthplace: London, England
Died: 24-Apr-1731
Location of death: London, England
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Buried, Bunhill Fields Cemetery,
London, England
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Author
Nationality: England
Executive summary: Robinson Crusoe
English author, born in the parish of St. Giles,
Cripplegate, London, in the latter part of 1659 or early in 1660, of a
nonconformist family. His grandfather, Daniel Foe, lived at Etton,
Northamptonshire, apparently in comfortable circumstances, for he is said to
have kept a pack of hounds. As to the variation of name, Defoe or Foe, its owner
signed either indifferently until late in life, and where his initials occur they are
sometimes D.F. and sometimes D.D.F. Three autograph letters of his are extant,
all addressed in 1705 to the same person, and signed respectively D. Foe, de Foe
and Daniel Defoe. His father, James Foe, was a butcher and a citizen of London.
Daniel was well educated at a famous dissenting academy, Mr. Charles Morton's
of Stoke Newington, where many of the best-known nonconformists of the time
were his schoolfellows. With few exceptions all the known events of Defoe's life
are connected with authorship. In the older catalogues of his works two
pamphlets, Speculum Crapegownorum, a satire on the clergy, and A Treatise
against the Turks, are attributed to him before the accession of King James II, but
there seems to be no publication of his which is certainly genuine before The
Character of Dr. Annesley (1697).
He had, however, before this, taken up arms in Monmouth's expedition, and is
supposed to have owed his lucky escape from the clutches of the king's troops

and the law, to his being a Londoner, and therefore a stranger in the west
country. On the 26th of January 1688 he was admitted a liveryman of the city of
London, having claimed his freedom by birth. Before his western escapade he
had taken up the business of hosiery factor. At the entry of William and Mary into
London he is said to have served as a volunteer trooper "gallantly mounted and
richly accoutred."
In these days he lived at Tooting, and was instrumental in forming a dissenting
congregation there. His business operations at this period appear to have been
extensive and various. He seems to have been a sort of commission merchant,
especially in Spanish and Portuguese goods, and at some time to have visited
Spain on business. In 1692 he failed for 17,000. His misfortunes made him write
both feelingly and forcibly on the bankruptcy laws; and although his creditors
accepted a composition, he afterwards honorably paid them in full, a fact
attested by independent and not very friendly witnesses. Subsequently, he
undertook first the secretaryship and then the management and chief ownership
of some tile-works at Tilbury, but here also he was unfortunate, and his
imprisonment in 1703 brought the works to a standstill, and he lost 3000. From
this time forward we hear of no settled business in which he engaged.
The course of Defoe's life was determined about the middle of the reign of
William III by his introduction to that monarch and other influential persons. He
frequently boasts of his personal intimacy with the "glorious and immortal" king,
and in 1695 he was appointed accountant to the commissioners of the glass
duty, an office which he held for four years. During this time he produced his
Essay on Projects (1698), containing suggestions on banks, road-management,
friendly and insurance societies of various kinds, idiot asylums, bankruptcy,
academies, military colleges, high schools for women, etc. It displays Defoe's
lively and lucid style in full vigor, and abounds with ingenious thoughts and apt
illustrations, though it illustrates also the unsystematic character of his mind.
In the same year Defoe wrote the first of a long series of pamphlets on the then
burning question of occasional conformity. In this, for the first time, he showed
the unlucky independence which, in so many other instances, united all parties
against him. While he pointed out to the dissenters the scandalous inconsistency
of their playing fast and loose with sacred things, yet he denounced the
impropriety of requiring tests at all. In support of the government he published, in
1698, An Argument for a Standing Army, followed in 1700 by a defense of
William's war policy called The Two Great Questions considered, and a set of
pamphlets on the Partition Treaty. Thus in political matters he had the same fate
as in ecclesiastical; for the Whigs were no more prepared than the Tories to
support William through thick and thin. He also dealt with the questions of stockjobbing and of electioneering corruption. But his most remarkable publication at
this time was The True-Born Englishman (1701), a satire in rough but extremely
vigorous verse on the national objection to William as a foreigner, and on the
claim of purity of blood for a nation which Defoe chooses to represent as crossed
and dashed with all the strains and races in Europe. He also took a prominent
part in the proceedings which followed the Kentish petition, and was the author,
some say the presenter, of the Legion Memorial, which asserted in the strongest
terms the supremacy of the electors over the elected, and of which even an irate
House of Commons did not dare to take much notice. The theory of the
indefeasible supremacy of the freeholders of England, whose delegates merely,
according to this theory, the Commons were, was one of Defoe's favorite political
tenets, and he returned to it in a powerfully written tract entitled The Original

Power of the Collective Body of the People of England examined and asserted
(1701).
At the same time he was occupied in a controversy on the conformity question
with John How (or Howe) on the practice of "occasional conformity." Defoe
maintained that the dissenters who attended the services of the English Church
on particular occasions to qualify themselves for office were guilty of
inconsistency. At the same time he did not argue for the complete abolition of the
tests, but desired that they should be so framed as to make it possible for most
Protestants conscientiously to subscribe to them. Here again his moderation
pleased neither party.
The death of William was a great misfortune to Defoe, and he soon felt the power
of his adversaries. After publishing The Mock Mourners, intended to satirize and
rebuke the outbreak of Jacobite joy at the king's death, he turned his attention
once more to ecclesiastical subjects, and, in an evil hour for himself, wrote the
anonymous Shortest Way with the Dissenters (1702), a statement in the most
forcible terms of the extreme "high-flying" position, which some high churchmen
were unwary enough to endorse, without any suspicion of the writer's ironical
intention. The author was soon discovered; and, as he absconded, an
advertisement was issued offering a reward for his apprehension, and giving the
only personal description we possess of him, "as a middle-sized spare man about
forty years old, of a brown complexion and dark brown-colored hair, but wears a
wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth." In
this conjuncture Defoe had really no friends, for the dissenters were as much
alarmed at his book as the high-flyers were irritated. He surrendered, and his
defense appears to have been injudiciously conducted; at any rate he was fined
200 marks, and condemned to be pilloried three times, to be imprisoned
indefinitely, and to find sureties for his good behavior during seven years. It was
in reference to this incident that Alexander Pope, whose Catholic rearing made
him detest the abettor of the Revolution and the champion of William of Orange,
wrote in the Dunciad, "Earless on high stands unabash'd Defoe" -- though he
knew that the sentence to the pillory had long ceased to entail the loss of ears.
Defoe's exposure in the pillory (July 29, 30, 31) was, however, rather a triumph
than a punishment, for the populace took his side; and his Hymn to the Pillory,
which he soon after published, is one of the best of his poetical works. Unluckily
for him his condemnation had the indirect effect of destroying his business at
Tilbury.
He remained in prison until August 1704, and then owed his release to the
intercession of Robert Harley, who represented his case to the queen, and
obtained for him not only liberty but pecuniary relief and employment, which, of
one kind or another, lasted until the termination of Anne's reign. Defoe was
uniformly grateful to the minister, and his language respecting him is in curious
variance with that generally used. There is no doubt that Harley, who understood
the influence wielded by Defoe, made some conditions. Defoe says he received
no pension, but his subsequent fidelity was at all events indirectly rewarded;
moreover, Harley's moderation in a time of the extremest party-insanity was no
little recommendation to Defoe.
During his imprisonment he was by no means idle. A spurious edition of his works
having been issued, he himself produced a collection of twenty-two treatises, to
which some time afterwards he added a second group of eighteen more. He also
wrote in prison many short pamphlets, chiefly controversial, published a curious

work on the famous storm of the 26th of November 1703, and started in February
1704 perhaps the most remarkable of all his projects, The Review. This was a
paper which was issued during the greater part of its life three times a week. It
was entirely written by Defoe, and extends to eight complete volumes and some
few score numbers of a second issue. He did not confine himself to news, but
wrote something very like finished essays on questions of policy, trade apd
domestic concerns; he also introduced a "Scandal Club", in which minor questions
of manners and morals were treated in a way which undoubtedly suggested the
Tatlers and Spectators which followed. Only one complete copy of the work is
known to exist, and that is in the British Museum. It is probable that if bulk,
rapidity of production, variety of matter, originality of design, and excellence of
style be taken together, hardly any author can show a work of equal magnitude.
After his release Defoe went to Bury St. Edmunds, though he did not interrupt
either his Review or his occasional pamphlets. One of these, Giving Alms no
Charity, and Employing the Poor a Grievance to the Nation (1704), is
extraordinarily far-sighted. It denounces both indiscriminate alms-giving and the
national work shops proposed by Sir Humphrey Mackworth.
In 1705 appeared The Consolidator, or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the
World in the Moon, a political satire which is supposed to have given some hints
for Jonathan Swift's Gullivers Travels; and at the end of the year Defoe performed
a secret mission, the first of several of the kind, for Harley. In 1706 appeared the
True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs Veal, long supposed to have been
written for a bookseller to help off an unsaleable translation of Drelincourt, On
Death, but considerable doubt has been cast upon this by William Lee. Defoe's
next work was Jure divino, a long poetical argument in (bad) verse; and soon
afterwards (1706) he began to be much employed in promoting the union with
Scotland. Not only did he write pamphlets as usual on the project, and vigorously
recommend it in The Review, but in October 1706 he was sent on a political
mission to Scotland by Sidney Godolphin, to whom Harley had recommended
him. He resided in Edinburgh for nearly sixteen months, and his services to the
government were repaid by a regular salary. He seems to have devoted himself
to commercial and literary as well as to political matters, and prepared at this
time his elaborate History of the Union, which appeared in 1709. In this year
Henry Sacheverell delivered his famous sermons, and Defoe wrote several tracts
about them and attacked the preacher in his Review.
In 1710 Harley returned to power, and Defoe was placed in a somewhat awkward
position. To Harley himself he was bound by gratitude and by a substantial
agreement in principle, but with the rest of the Tory ministry he had no sympathy.
He seems, in fact, to have agreed with the foreign policy of the Tories and with
the home policy of the Whigs, and naturally incurred the reproach of time-serving
and the hearty abuse of both parties. At the end of 1710 he again visited
Scotland. In the negotiations concerning the Peace of Utrecht, Defoe strongly
supported the ministerial side, to the intense wrath of the Whigs, displayed in an
attempted prosecution against some pamphlets of his on the all-important
question of the succession. Again the influence of Harley saved him. He
continued, however, to take the side of the dissenters in the questions affecting
religious liberty, which played such a prominent part towards the close of Anne's
reign. He naturally shared Harley's downfall; and, though the loss of his salary
might seem a poor reward for his constant support of the Hanoverian claim, it
was little more than his ambiguous, not to say trimming, position must have led
him to expect.

Defoe declared that Lord Annesley was preparing the army in Ireland to join a
Jacobite rebellion, and was indicted for libel; and prior to his trial (1715) he
published an apologia entitled An Appeal to Honour and Justice, in which he
defended his political conduct. Having been convicted of the libel he was
liberated later in the year under circumstances that only became clear in 1864,
when six letters were discovered in the Record Office from Defoe to a
Government official, Charles Delafaye, which, according to William Lee,
established the fact that in 1718 at least Defoe was doing not only political work,
but that it was of a somewhat equivocal kind -- that he was, in fact, sub-editing
the Jacobite Mists Journal, under a secret agreement with the government that he
should tone down the sentiments and omit objectionable items. He had, in fact,
been released on condition of becoming a government agent. He seems to have
performed the same not very honorable office in the case of two other journals -Dormer's Letter and the Mercurius Politicus; and to have written in these and
other papers until nearly the end of his life. Before these letters were discovered
it was supposed that Defoe's political work had ended in 1715.
Up to that time Defoe had written nothing but occasional literature, and, except
the History of the Union and Jure Divino, nothing of any great length. In 1715
appeared the first volume of The Family Instructor, which was very popular
during the 18th century. The first volume of his most famous work, the immortal
story -- partly adventure, partly moralizing -- of The Life and Strange Surprizing
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, was published on the 25th of April 1719. It ran
through four editions in as many months, and then in August appeared the
second volume. Twelve months afterwards the sequel Serious Reflections, now
hardly ever reprinted, appeared. Its connection with the two former parts is little
more than nominal, Crusoe being simply made the mouthpiece of Defoe's
sentiments on various points of morals and religion.
Meanwhile the first two parts were reprinted as a feuilleton in Heathcote's
Intelligencer, perhaps the earliest instance of the appearance of such a work in
such a form. The story was founded on William Dampier's Voyage round the
World (1697), and still more on Alexander Selkirk's adventures, as communicated
by Selkirk himself at a meeting with Defoe at the house of Mrs. Damaris Daniel at
Bristol. Selkirk afterwards told Mrs. Daniel that he had handed over his papers to
Defoe. Robinson Crusoe was immediately popular, and a wild story was set afloat
of its having been written by Lord Oxford in the Tower of London. A curious idea,
at one time revived by Henry Kingsley, is that the adventures of Robinson are
allegorical and relate to Defoe's own life. This idea was certainly entertained to
some extent at the time, and derives some color of justification from words of
Defoe's, but there seems to be no serious foundation for it. Robinson Crusoe
(especially the story part, with the philosophical and religious moralizings largely
cut out) is one of the world's classics in fiction. Crusoe's shipwreck and
adventures, his finding the footprint in the sand, his man "Friday" -- the whole
atmosphere of romance which surrounds the position of the civilized man fending
for himself on a desert island -- these have made Defoe's great work an
imperishable part of English literature. Contemporaneously appeared The Dumb
Philosopher, or Dickory Cronke, who gains the power of speech at the end of his
life and uses it to predict the course of European affairs.
In 1720 came The Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell. This was not
entirely a work of imagination, its hero, the fortune-teller, being a real person.
There are amusing passages in the story, but it is too desultory to rank with
Defoe's best. In the same year appeared two wholly or partially fictitious

histories, each of which might have made a reputation for any man. The first was
the Memoirs of a Cavalier, which Lord Chatham believed to be true history, and
which William Lee considers the embodiment at least of authentic private
memoirs. The Cavalier was declared at the time to be Andrew Newport, made
Lord Newport in 1642. His elder brother was born in 1620 and the Cavalier gives
1608 as the date of his birth, so that the facts do not fit the dates. It is probable
that Defoe, with his extensive acquaintance with English history, and his
astonishing power of working up details, was fully equal to the task of inventing
it. As a model of historical work of a certain kind it is hardly surpassable, and
many separate passages -- accounts of battles and skirmishes -- have never been
equalled except by Thomas Carlyle. Captain Singleton, the last work of the year,
has been unjustly depreciated by most of the commentators. The record of the
journey across Africa, with its surprising anticipations of subsequent discoveries,
yields in interest to no work of the kind known to us; and the semi-piratical
Quaker who accompanies Singleton in his buccaneering expeditions is a most
lifelike character. There is also a Quaker who plays a very creditable part in
Roxana (1724), and Defoe seems to have been well affected to the Friends. In
estimating this wonderful productiveness on the part of a man sixty years old, it
should be remembered that it was a habit of Defoe's to keep his work in
manuscript sometimes for long periods.
In 1721 nothing of importance was produced, but in the next year three capital
works appeared. These were The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, The
Journal of the Plague Year, and The History of Colonel Jack. Moll Flanders and The
Fortunate Mistress (Roxana), which followed in 1724, have subjects of a rather
more than questionable character, but both display the remarkable art with which
Defoe handles such subjects. It is not true, as is sometimes said, that the
difference between the two is that between gross and polished vice. The real
difference is much more one of morals than of manners. Moll is by no means of
the lowest class. Notwithstanding the greater degradation into which she falls,
and her originally dependent position, she has been well educated, and has
consorted with persons of gentle birth. She displays throughout much greater
real refinement of feeling than the more highflying Roxana, and is at any rate
flesh and blood, if the flesh be somewhat frail and the blood somewhat hot.
Neither of the heroines has any but the rudiments of a moral sense; but Roxana,
both in her original transgression and in her subsequent conduct, is actuated
merely by avarice and selfishness -- vices which are peculiarly offensive in
connection with her other failing, and which make her thoroughly repulsive. The
art of both stories is great, and that of the episode of the daughter Susannah in
Roxana is consummate; but the transitions of the later plot are less natural than
those in Moll Flanders. It is only fair to notice that while the latter, according to
Defoe's more usual practice, is allowed to repent and end happily, Roxana is
brought to complete misery; Defoe's morality, therefore, required more
repulsiveness in one case than in the other.
In the Journal of the Plague Year, sometimes called, from the title of the second
edition, A History of the Plague, the accuracy and apparent veracity of the details
is so great that many persons have taken it for an authentic record, while others
have contended for the existence of such a record as its basis. But here too the
genius of Mrs. Veal's creator must, in the absence of all evidence to the contrary,
be allowed sufficient for the task. The History of Colonel Jack is an unequal book.
There is hardly in Robinson Crusoe a scene equal, and there is consequently not
in English literature a scene superior, to that where the youthful pickpocket first
exercises his trade, and then for a time loses his ill-gotten gains. But a great part

of the book, especially the latter portion, is dull; and in fact it may be generally
remarked of Defoe that the conclusions of his tales are not equal to the
beginning, perhaps from the restless indefatigability with which he undertook one
work almost before finishing another.
To this period belong his stories of famous criminals, of Jack Sheppard (1724), of
Jonathan Wild (1725), of the Highland Rogue, i.e. Rob Roy (1723). The pamphlet
on the first of these Defoe maintained to be a transcript of a paper which he
persuaded Sheppard to give to a friend at his execution.
In 1724 appeared also the first volume of A Tour through the whole Island of
Great Britain, which was completed in the two following years. Much of the
information in this was derived from personal experience, for Defoe claims to
have made many more tours and visits about England than those of which we
have record; but the major part must necessarily have been dexterous
compilation. In 1725 appeared A New Voyage round the World, apparently
entirely due to the author's own fertile imagination and extensive reading. It is
full of his peculiar verisimilitude and has all the interest of Anson's or Dampier's
voyages, with a charm of style superior even to that of the latter.
In 1726 Defoe published a curious and amusing little pamphlet entitled
Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business, or Private Abuses Public Grievances,
exemplified in the Pride, Insolence, and Exorbitant Wages of our WomenServants, Footmen, etc. This subject was a favorite one with him, and in the
pamphlet he showed the immaturity of his political views by advocating
legislative interference in these matters. Towards the end of this same year The
Complete English Tradesman, which may be supposed to sum up the experience
of his business life, appeared, and its second volume followed two years
afterwards. This book has been variously judged. It is generally and traditionally
praised, but those who have read it will be more disposed to agree with Charles
Lamb, who considers it "of a vile and debasing tendency", and thinks it "almost
impossible to suppose the author in earnest." The intolerable meanness
advocated for the sake of the paltriest gains, the entire ignoring of any pursuit in
life except money-getting, and the representation of the whole duty of man as
consisting first in the attainment of a competent fortune, and next, when that
fortune has been attained, in spending not more than half of it, are certainly
repulsive enough. But there are no reasons for thinking the performance ironical
or insincere, and it cannot be doubted that Defoe would have been honestly
unable even to understand Lamb's indignation.
To 1726 also belongs The Political History of the Devil. This is a curious book,
partly explanatory of Defoe's ideas on morality, and partly belonging to a series
of demonological works which he wrote, and of which the chief others are A
System of Magic (1726), and An Essay on the History of Apparitions (1728),
issued the year before under another title. In all these works his treatment is on
the whole rational and sensible; but in The History of the Devil he is somewhat
hampered by an insufficiently worked-out theory as to the nature and personal
existence of his hero, and the manner in which he handles the subject is an odd
and not altogether satisfactory mixture of irony and earnestness. A Plan of
English Commerce, containing very enlightened views on export trade, appeared
in 1728.
During the years from 1715 to 1728 Defoe had issued pamphlets and minor
works too numerous to mention. The only one of them perhaps which requires

notice is Religious Courtship (1722), a curious series of dialogues displaying

Defoe's unaffected religiosity, and at the same time the rather meddling
intrusiveness with which he applied his religious notions. This was more flagrantly
illustrated in one of his latest works, The Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse
of the Marriage Bed (1727), which was originally issued with a much more
offensive name, and has been called "an excellent book with an improper title."
The Memoirs of Captain Carleton (1728) were long attributed to Defoe, but the
internal evidence is strongly against his authorship. They have been also
attributed to Swift, with greater probability as far as style is concerned. The Life
of Mother Ross, reprinted in Bohn's edition, has no claim whatever to be
considered Defoe's.
There is little to be said of Defoe's private life during this period. He must in some
way or other have obtained a considerable income. In 1724 he had built himself a
large house at Stoke Newington, which had stables and grounds of considerable
size. From the negotiations for the marriage of his daughter Sophia it appears
that he had landed property in more than one place, and he had obtained on
lease in 1722 a considerable estate from the corporation of Colchester, which
was settled on his unmarried daughter at his death. Other property was similarly
allotted to his widow and remaining children, though some difficulty seems to
have arisen from the misconduct of his son, to whom, for some purpose, the
property was assigned during his father's lifetime, and who refused to pay what
was due. There is a good deal of mystery about the end of Defoe's life; it used to
be said that he died insolvent, and that he had been in jail shortly before his
death. As a matter of fact, after great suffering from gout and stone, he died in
Ropemaker's Alley, Moorfields, on Monday the 26th of April 1731, and was buried
in Bunhill Fields. He left no will, all his property having been previously assigned,
and letters of administration were taken out by a creditor. How his affairs fell into
this condition, why he did not die in his own house, and why in the previous
summer he had been in hiding, as we know he was from a letter still extant, are
points not clearly explained. He was, however, attacked by Mist, whom he
wounded, in prison in 1724. It is most likely that Mist had found out that Defoe
was a government agent and quite probable that he communicated his
knowledge to other editors, for Defoe's journalistic employment almost ceased
about this time, and he began to write anonymously, or as "Andrew Moreton." It
is possible that he had to go into hiding to avoid the danger of being accused as
a real Jacobite, when those with whom he had contracted to assume the
character were dead and could no longer justify his attitude.
Defoe married, on New Year's Day, 1684, Mary Tuffley, who survived until
December 1732. They had seven children. His second son, Bernard or Benjamin
Norton, has, like his father, a scandalous niche in the Dunciad. In April 1877
public attention was called to the distress of three maiden ladies, directly
descended from Defoe, and bearing his name; and a crown pension of 75 a year
was bestowed on each of them. His youngest daughter, Sophia, who married
Henry Baker, left a considerable correspondence, now in the hands of her
descendants. There are several portraits of Defoe, the principal one being
engraved by Vandergucht.
In his lifetime, Defoe, as not belonging to either of the great parties at a time of
the bitterest party strife, was subjected to obloquy on both sides. The great Whig
writers leave him unnoticed. Swift and Gay speak slightingly of him -- the former,
it is true, at a time when he was only known as a party pamphleteer. Pope, with
less excuse, put him in the Dunciad towards the end of his life, but he confessed

to Spence in private that Defoe had written many things and none bad. At a later
period he was unjustly described as a "scurrilous party writer", which he certainly
was not; but, on the other hand, Samuel Johnson spoke of his writing "so
variously and so well", and put Robinson Crusoe among the only three books that
readers wish longer. From Sir Walter Scott downwards the tendency to judge
literary work on its own merits to a great extent restored Defoe to his proper
place, or, to speak more correctly, set him there for the first time. Macaulay's
description of Roxana, Moll Flanders and Colonel Jack as "utterly nauseous and
wretched" must be set aside as a freak of criticism.
Scott justly observed that Defoe's style "is the last which should be attempted by
a writer of inferior genius; for though it be possible to disguise mediocrity by fine
writing, it appears in all its naked inanity when it assumes the garb of simplicity."
The methods by which Defoe attains his result are not difficult to disengage. They
are the presentment of all his ideas and scenes in the plainest and most direct
language, the frequent employment of colloquial forms of speech, the constant
insertion of little material details and illustrations, often of a more or less
digressive form, and, in his historico-fictitious works, as well as in his novels, the
most rigid attention to vivacity and consistency of character. Plot he disregards,
and he is fond of throwing his dialogues into regular dramatic form, with by-play
prescribed and stage directions interspersed. A particular trick of his is also to
divide his arguments after the manner of the preachers of his day into heads and
subheads, with actual numerical signs affixed to them. These mannerisms
undoubtedly help and emphasize the extraordinary faithfulness to nature of his
fictions, but it would be a great mistake to suppose that they fully explain their
charm. Defoe possessed genius, and his secret is at the last as impalpable as the
secret of genius always is.
The character of Defoe, both mental and moral, is very clearly indicated in his
works. He, the satirist of the true-born Englishman, was himself a model, with
some notable variations and improvements, of the Englishman of his period. He
saw a great many things, and what he did see he saw clearly. But there were also
a great many things which he did not see, and there was often no logical
connection whatever between his vision and his blindness. The most curious
example of this inconsistency, or rather of this indifference to general principle,
occurs in his Essay on Projects. He there speaks very briefly and slightingly of life
insurance, probably because it was then regarded as impious by religionists of his
complexion. But on either side of this refusal are to be found elaborate projects of
friendly societies and widows' funds, which practically cover, in a clumsy and
roundabout manner, the whole ground of life insurance. In morals it is evident
that he was, according to his lights, a strictly honest and honorable man. But
sentiment of any "high-flying" description -- to use the cant word of his time -was quite incomprehensible to him, or rather never presented itself as a thing to
be comprehended. He tells us with honest and simple pride that when his patron
Harley fell out, and Godolphin came in, he for three years held no communication
with the former, and seems quite incapable of comprehending the delicacy which
would have obliged him to follow Harley's fallen fortunes. His very anomalous
position in regard to Mist is also indicative of a rather blunt moral perception. One
of the most affecting things in his novels is the heroic constancy and fidelity of
the maid Amy to her exemplary mistress Roxana. But Amy, scarcely by her own
fault, is drawn into certain breaches of definite moral laws which Defoe did
understand, and she is therefore condemned, with hardly a word of pity, to a
miserable end. Nothing heroic or romantic was within Defoe's view; he could not
understand passionate love, ideal loyalty, aesthetic admiration or anything of the

kind; and it is probable that many of the little sordid touches which delight us by
their apparent satire were, as designed, not satire at all, but merely a faithful
representation of the feelings and ideas of the classes of which he himself was a
unit.
His political and economical pamphlets are almost unmatched as clear
presentations of the views of their writer. For driving the nail home no one but
Swift excels him, and Swift perhaps only in The Drapier's Letters. There is often a
great deal to be said against the view presented in those pamphlets, but Defoe
sees nothing of it. He was perfectly fair but perfectly one-sided, being generally
happily ignorant of everything which told against his own view.
The same characteristics are curiously illustrated in his moral works. The morality
of these is almost amusing in its downright positive character. With all the Puritan
eagerness to push a clear, uncompromising, Scripture-based distinction of right
and wrong into the affairs of everyday life, he has a thoroughly English horror of
casuistry, and his clumsy canons consequently make wild work with the infinite
intricacies of human nature. He is, in fact, an instance of the tendency, which has
so often been remarked by other nations in the English, to drag in moral
distinctions at every turn, and to confound everything which is novel to the
experience, unpleasant to the taste, and incomprehensible to the understanding,
under the general epithets of wrong, wicked and shocking. His works of this class
therefore are now the least valuable, though not the least curious, of his books.
There is considerable uncertainty about many of Defoe's writings; and even if all
contested works be excluded, the number is still enormous. Besides the list in
Bohn's Lowndes, which is somewhat of an omnium gatherum, three lists drawn
with more or less care were compiled in the 19th century. Wilson's contains 210
distinct works, three or four only of which are marked as doubtful; Hazlitt's
enumerates 183 "genuine" and 52 "attributed" pieces, with notes on most of
them; Lee's extends to 254, of which 64 claim to be new additions.

Credibility and Realism in Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders and Aphra Behn's
Oroonoko

Anne-Kathrin Rochwalsky

Note: This is the text of a final paper one of my students in Freiburg did for the
course "The Beginnings of the English Novel" at the University of Freiburg in
1997. I would like to thank her here for going to the extra trouble of rewriting her
paper for this page.
1 Introduction
In the Dictionary of Literary Terms, Harry Shaw states, "In effective narrative
literature, fictional persons, through characterization, become so credible that
they exist for the reader as real people." (1) Looking at Daniel Defoe's Moll
Flanders (2) and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (3) the reader will find it difficult to
make this definition conform to Moll and Behn's narrator. This doesn't mean that

Defoe's and Behn's work is 'ineffective', but there is indeed a difficulty: it is the
claim of truth. Defoe in his preface states, "The Author is here suppos'd to be
writing her own History." (Moll Flanders, p. 1) and Behn claims, "I was myself an
eye-witness to a great part, of what you will find here set down, and what I could
not be witness of, I received from the mouth of the chief actor in this history, the
hero himself, (...)" (Oroonoko, 75)
Although both authors claim their stories are true, and thereby that their
characters are realistic, there seems to be a gap between the authors' claims and
the "reality" of the characterization. This question is closely connected to the fact
that both novels belong to the earliest English novels. There was no fixed
tradition that the authors worked in; instead the novel was in the process of
being established. The question arises whether the two works lack a certain
roundness in their narrators.
The main characteristic of the new literary form of the novel according to Ian
Watt is "truth to individual experience" (4) and its new shape is created by a
focus on the individual character. He is presented in a specific definition of time
and space. The second section of this paper will show how far this is realized in
both of the novels. In the third section I want to analyze the characters'
individualism in connection with the claim to truth and their complexity in
description.
2 Realism
Watt argues that the characters in a novel owe their individuality to the realistic
presentation. "Realism" is expressed by a rejection of traditional plots, by
particularity, emphasis on the personality of the character, a consciousness of
duration of time and space and its expression in style.
2.1 Rejection of traditional plots
Watt states that, "Previous literary forms had reflected the general tendency of
their cultures to make conformity to traditional practice the major test of
truth: .... This literary tradition was first and most fully challenged by the
novel ..."(5).
Aphra Behn's work especially is part of this development. The best example is the
story's outline. In her novel there is both a rejection and an acceptance of
traditional plots: the Surinam episodes are far from established plots. The story is
innovative, for example, inasmuch as the hero is black and enslaved. Behn
actually was among the first to contribute to the image of the 'noble savage' in
literature, seventy years before Rousseau did. It is now commonly accepted that
Behn probably experienced this part of the plot herself. The first part which takes
place in Africa, on the other hand, is very traditional: it follows patterns of the
typical oriental tale like "Arabian Nights" or narratives in the romance tradition
narration (6).
Moll Flanders is indebted to the tradition of the picaresque. But while the rogue
biographies have a "contrived air" Moll is "closer to authentic biography than to

the semi-fictional rogue biography." (7) Watt states that it is the fact that Moll's
life is ordinary and her story is presented in episodes which make it life-like. Thus,
the rejection of traditional plots is in both novels expressed by the choice of
biography as the method of presenting the story, because the aim is to attract
the reader's attention with stories as authentic as possible.
2.2 Particularity
The second element Watt speaks of is particularity, which is most obvious in the
presentation of character and background.
It is difficult to decide whether the narrator in Oroonoko is particular or rather a
universal type. She is only a minor character in contrast to Moll. Oroonoko,
however, is particular: he is described minutely and doesn't fit into any
stereotype. He is a prince and in the style of a romance finds his great love, but
at the same time he is a black slave. In the description of the background as well
we find an immense love for detail. Yet the narrator's character doesn't seem
developed. She observes and tells the story to her audience, as Behn probably
did before, but we know little about her appearance or why she is in Surinam, or
her family, her occupation, or her life in the colony. We know that she is in some
ways Oroonoko's mentor and teacher because she is quite well-educated. Her
father should have become lieutenant general in Surinam, but died at sea, and
she pretends to play an important role in the politics of the colony, but there is no
evidence for it. On the contrary, she withdraws whenever she should make use of
this circumstance. However, we learn more about her by Behn's conscious
identification with her narrator. Reading between the lines, the picture of an
independent woman arises (8).
The aspect of particularity in Moll Flanders is often discussed in literary criticism.
Moll is quite one-sided because all her concerns in life are of an economic nature.
Critics go so far to speak of her having an "economic psychology" (9). Her
character is revealed by her actions and thoughts but we know few details of her
marriages, nor does she express any emotions without mentioning economic
matters in the same sentence. She is completely devoted to material comfort.
This is the reason why Dorothy Van Ghent, for instance, argues that Moll is not an
example of true realism, although she admits that looking at the whole novel
there is a realistic representation of the background (10).
Both narrators are conscious about their individuality because they feel unique in
their environment. For example neither of them identifies with wicked people of
their own class, a circumsatnce which is expressed in the skilful use of personal
pronouns: "(...) 'tis fit I tell you the manner of bringing them to these new
colonies; for those they make use of there, are not natives of the place, for those
we live in perfect amity, without daring to command them;" (Oroonoko, 75) and
Moll Flanders speaks of other pickpockets as "they," she doesn't include herself:
"Namely, that tho' I often robb'd with these People, yet I never let them know
who I was ..." (221). The personality of a character also expresses itself in the
name. Watt claims that the innovation of giving characters individual and
ordinary names instead of universal ones gives identity to the person. Former

prose fiction had preferred 'unrealistic' names like type names, historical names
or names connotating something (11).
Defoe's protagonist Moll Flanders has a very ordinary and realistic name while
the narrator in Behn's Oroonoko actually doesn't have any name. Behn identifies
with her. As a result we can see that both of the characters show certain
inconsistencies in their realistic particularity because they don't seem to be fully
presented. On the other hand, neither of them is stereotyped, both obviously
specific characters who act unpredictably and individually.
2.3 Time
The element of temporal development is another novelty Watt analyzes. Time
influences a character as far as "past experience" is the "cause of present
actions" (12). Personal development, thoughts and changes are dependent on the
flow of time. In earlier prose fiction in the Middle Ages, timelessness and "ahistorical" aspects like death and eternity supported the universality of a work,
while the novel shows that the "time process" has "effects upon characterization"
(13).
Watt points out that especially Defoe's characters gain individuality in view of the
"historical process" and "against the background of the most ephemeral thoughts
and actions," (14). Looking at Moll Flanders we can see that time is an important
factor. It is a biography which begins with the protagonist's birth. The whole story
is told by an old Moll looking back on her life. There is an inconsistency between
the young and the old Moll, however, as she doesn't seem to be aware of any
difference in her memories and thoughts between the past and the present. She
doesn't realize her development. Furthermore, she doesn't seem to grow older
physically and she forgets many parts of her life. Ira Konigsberg rates this as a
withdrawal from consciousness of time whereas Watt argues that this is an
unattentiveness towards formal elements which results from Defoe's emphasis on
moral purpose (15). Despite this, Moll is deeply rooted in the time process and
although there is little development in her character, she is nevertheless
influenced by her former experiences: "I had been trick'd once by that Cheat
call'd Love, but the Game was over; I was resolv'd now to be Married, or Nothing
at all." (Moll Flanders, p.60).
Time contributes to Oroonoko in as far as it reflects a part of British history. The
Surinam epidoses read more like a romantic travel story than a novel. As it is
commonly believed that Aphra Behn went to Surinam it is quite possible that her
readership read it like a travel journal. But, nevertheless, the narrator doesn't
respond to time as there is no development in her throughout the story. She
promises to support Oroonoko and claims to have authority in the beginning of
the novel which later she will not give or have. Similar to Moll, she isn't capable
of applying her past thoughts.
Looking at the time process in both works there are inconsistencies. They are
obviously in a transitional state but there is a clear difference from the

universality of a work by Shakespeare, Milton or Chaucer and these two early

novels.
2.4 Space
The reader will notice a specific awareness of space in both novels. This finds its
expression in description. Moll's world in particular is precisely revealed. Moll is
caught in the self-defined space of a lower middle-class environment full of
craving for material wealth and comfort. In her report she makes this world
'visible' to the reader.
Behn's narrator is conscious of space in a different way. As her work (especially
the part taking place in Surinam) is in many ways a travel story, there is a lot of
description of the colony and its inhabitants and a lively illustration of customs
and scenery. Thus, although both narrators lack a certain concern for their
surroundings they are aware of it.
2.5 Language and style
The last characteristic of realism in the novel Watt defines as "the realist point of
view in language and prose structure"(16). Language in realistic literature should
show accuracy and authenticity. Therefore, the novel can do away with formality
and rhetorical figures. Defoe was a journalist with an immense output of written
work. Moll Flanders mirrors this, as it is written in a journalistic, observing and, in
some ways, bare style. There are no literary devices, no flourish and no poetic
images, so that the reader finds a certain "immediacy and closeness of the text"
(17).
Behn's style is very functional as well. Her narrator tells what she sees and what
has been reported to her. Aphra Behn is said to have narrated her story orally
many times and this is the impression the reader gets in her work, as she often
addresses her "audience," for example: "But before I give you the story of this
gallant slave, 'tis fit I tell you the manner of bringing them to these new
colonies; ..." (p. 75). She also does not use rhetorical devices but writes in plain
language. In both books there is an immediacy between the reader and the
narrator and a kind of transparency in their report. This forms a clear difference
to their predecessors.
3 The Narrators' Individualism
3.1 The claim of truth
As stated above, the characters' presentation by Defoe and Behn is problematic.
It is possible that both authors were aware of the difficulty of creating a credible
character and therefore claimed "truth" before starting the story. Angeline
Goreau points out that Aphra Behn's "claim to veracity had its roots in a desire to
establish the story as part of her own experience rather than in a self-conscious
literary device" (18). Behn also wanted to "make his (Oroonoko's) glorious name
to survive to all ages" (Oroonoko, p.141). Yet her claims to truth might have been
a protection against male prejudices concerning women's writing too,(19) with
Behn trying to verify her characters by identification with the narrator. Thus,

Behn's narrator owes her realistic presentation to both literary circumstances and
Behn's ingenuity.
In Moll Flanders there is no difficulty in the presentation. We can accept the claim
of truth as a literary device, intended to support her roundness and contribute to
the book's attractiveness, even knowing that Moll never really existed (20). It
doesn't add to her realism.
3.2 Complexity
The narrator figure in Oroonoko probably is in many ways a fictionalized Behn.
Therefore, she becomes very vivid, because the reader assumes a connection.
The debate about Aphra Behn having been to Surinam and Oroonoko being a real
travel account shows how authentic her narrator is: otherwise, her claim to truth
would have been seen as a literary device similar to Defoe's. Another element
supporting her individualism is her view of the world. Behn uses her narrator to
voice protest. Although she has an unclear standpoint on slavery, her indictments
of bureaucracy, politics and male dominance over women is strong. Some critics
even saw in the novel an allegory of English politics and compare Oroonoko to
Charles I, or speculate about a private revenge on Behn's enemies such as Lord
Byam.(21) This all makes her narrator life-like because these are personal and
individual features.(22) But as it is fairly difficult to differentiate between the
narrator and Behn, the reader can only get a complete picture of the narrator by
looking at Behn's life.
Moll Flanders seems to lack this complexity. Ian Watt says it is not possible to
analyze Moll because her merely economic motivation makes it "superfluous,"
and Defoe focussed on realistic action rather than on Moll's personality (23).
Furthermore, it is quite difficult to recognize any emotions in her relationships to
other people. We don't get a full picture of her because we only see her through
Defoe's eyes. This leads to another conclusion: the relationship between Moll and
Defoe himself. Watt maintains that both are similar because "the facts show that
she is a woman and a criminal, for example; but neither of these roles determines
her personality as Defoe has drawn it." (24) Moll has less feminine or criminal
than masculine and middle-class-citizen traits and hence is to be identified with
Defoe.
Many inconsistencies might have their origins in Defoe's journalistic and rapid
way of writing. Thus he might just have forgotten, for instance, to mention what
becomes of her children. Except for one, none of them appears again. Her age is
inconsistent; according to the length of her marriages she must have been much
older than she says. Another inconsistency is that Moll doesn't show any moral
compunction, although both she and the "editor" often speak of the didactic
purpose of keeping the readership from imitating Moll's mistakes. But Moll
doesn't show honest repentance, which makes her unreliable. As G.A. Starr puts
it, "We are drawn into the quest of a heroine who in some degrees escapes the
bounds of everyday moral, social and psychological law." (Moll Flanders, p. VIII)

4 Conclusion
Aphra Behn's Oroonoko was written in 1688 and Moll Flanders in 1722. Literary
theory regards Moll Flanders as the first English novel rather than Behn's work
(25). Certainly, Oroonoko is an imperfect example of the novel. Yet we have to
bear in mind that Oroonoko was written at a time when the narrative technique
and the feature of the fictionalized author were undeveloped. Looking at
Oroonoko and the definition of the novel, we can see that it fulfills many criteria
of this form. Particularly her narrator-figure reflects the new genre, although there
are inconsistencies in her presentation. Not only is Oroonoko a first-person
narrative but the narrator is a woman and self-conscious and life-like, too. She
has moral qualities and a clear motivation, as she wants to give eternal fame to
Oroonoko. The time and place are the appropriate framework for this aim, and
she even criticizes current society. All these qualities support the realism and
novelty of Oroonoko and its narrator.
There is an ongoing discussion whether Moll Flanders is credible or not. The
question of Moll's roundness is not easy to answer. Similar to Oroonoko, it fulfills
many criteria of realism in the novel. Moll's self-realization is further developed as
she is more of an individual character than Behn's narrator, who is an imperfect
fictionalized author. It is rather the insufficiency of formal or moral patterns which
lessen her credibility.
Both authors have in common that they claim the truth of their narratives and
both narrators have weak points in credibility. Yet the first-person narrative is
susceptible to imperfection because it is a new creation. Fielding and Richardson
will be more skillful in the presentation of their narrators but they owe their
dexterity to the innovations of Behn and Defoe.
Notes
1 Harry Shaw, Dictionary of Literary Terms, New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, et
al.: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1972: 47.
2 Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders, Oxford, New York, Athens, et al.: Oxford U.P. 1971.
3 Aphra Behn, Oroonoko, The Rover And Other Works, London, New York, Victoria,
et al.: Penguin Books, 1992. Page numbers from this edition and the above will
henceforth be given in the text.
4 Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding,
London: Chatto & Windus, 1974: 13.
5 Ian Watt, The Rise of the Novel: 13.
6 About Oroonoko's place in the history of the novel see Dale Spender, Mothers
of the Novel. 100 Good Women Writers before Jane Austen, London and New York:
Pandora, 1986, esp.: 60-64.
7 Watt: 107.

8 For details about Behn's life in Surinam and Oroonoko see: Angeline Goreau,
Reconstructing Aphra. A Social Biography of Aphra Behn, Oxford, London,
Glasgow, et al.: Oxford U.P., 1980: 41-69.
9 Ira Konigsberg, Narrative Technique in the English Novel. Defoe to Austen,
Conneticut: Archon Book, 1985: 30.
10 Dorothy Van Ghent, The English Novel. Form and Function, New York, Chicago,
San Francisco, et al.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1953: 33-35.
11 Watt: 18-21.
12 Watt: 22.
13 Watt: 22.
14 Watt: 24.
15 Ira Konigsberg, Narrative Technique in the English Novel. Defoe to Austen: 35,
and Watt: 116-118.
16 Watt: 30.
17 Watt: 29.
18 Angeline Goreau, Reconstructing Aphra. A Social Biography of Aphra Behn:
281.
19 For details see Ros Ballaster, "Pretences of State. Aphra Behn and the Female
Plot", Rereading Aphra Behn. History, Theory, and Criticism, ed. Heidi Hutner,
Charlotteville and London: U. of Virginia, 1993: 202-208.
20 See Konigsberg: 18-21.
21 For details see Moira Ferguson, Subject to Others: British Women Writers and
Colonial Slavery, 1670- 1834, London: Routledge, 1992: 27-49.
22 For further research on the realistic description of the narrator, her work and
her importance see William C. Spengemann, "The Earliest American Novel: Aphra
Behn's Oroonoko", Nineteenth Century Fiction 38 (1983-1984): 384-414.
23 Watt: 108/109.
24 Watt: 113.
25 For more details about Behn's reception see Ruth Nestvold, (12. 4. 1996)