Crusoe’s desire for a companion is again agitated when he sees cannibals bring their victims to the island and Crusoe says that “It came now very warmly upon my Thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was my Time to get me a Servant, and perhaps a Companion, or Assistant; and that I was call’d plainly by Providence to save this poor Creature’s Life” (Defoe 202). Being uncertain about what appellations, servant, companion, and assistant, would be appropriately applied to the poor creature in front of his eyes, Crusoe is in a perplexed situation to decide his position with regards to his relationship with this victim but what he can be sure of is that he wants a companion to form a society on his island. Crusoe’s determination to have a
companion and the appellations for that companion shows that this person stands in a subordinate status to Crusoe and his function is for Crusoe’s good. Often, Crusoe comes for nothing but his own individual desire and this desire stands out his individuality by ignoring others’ needs unless the fulfillment of others’ needs may bring out something profitable to Crusoe. In the later scene, Crusoe’s perplexity was soon out of his head after he saved the life of the victim and found that “at length he came close to me, and then he kneel’d down again, kiss’d the Gound, and laid his Head upon the Ground, and taking me by the Foot, set my Foot upon his Head; this it seems was in token of swearing to be my Slave for ever” (Defoe 203-4). At this moment, Crusoe acts like a master by observing this creature and commenting:
He was a comely handsome Fellow, perfectly well made; with straight strong Limbs, not too large; tall and well shap’d, and as I reckon, about twenty six Years of Age. He had a very good Countenance, not a fierce and surly Aspect; but seem’d to have something very manly in his Face, and yet he had all the Sweetness and Softness of an European in his Countenance too, especially when he smil’d (Defoe 205, original emphasis).
This scene is impressive in the sense of portraying Crusoe like a buyer who tries to find a suitable slave from the slave dealer by observing the physical shape of a candidate. If the main intention of the slave buyers is to make profit from the slaves, Crusoe acts in the same way in the later scene. Later on, Crusoe “made him know his Name should be Friday, which was the Day [Crusoe] sav’d his Life” and Crusoe likewise taught him to “say Master, and then let him know, that was to be” Crusoe’s name (Defoe 206, original emphasis). Naming in this scene is crucial in the light of establishing a hierarchy, which favors Crusoe with a superior status, between Crusoe and Friday but naming is not the only gesture that secures Crusoe’s superiority.
Crusoe is fully aware that to “teach [Friday] every Thing” was also his business since teaching “was proper to make [Friday] useful, handy and helpful but especially to make [Friday] speak, and understand” Crusoe (Defoe 210). The first part of Crusoe’s teaching is to make Friday physically useful to his daily works and the second part of it is to make Friday mentally or spiritually useful to Crusoe’s needs of conversation.
Both Friday’s physical and mental usefulness validate his value in the light of its importance to Crusoe’s needs. Here, we can easily understand that Crusoe stands in a status superior to Friday’s but the problem is what are the materials that Crusoe uses to teach Friday? Physically, Crusoe teaches Friday the ways and usage of all the tools he has or he makes in accordance with the things in England. Spiritually, Crusoe instructs Friday not only in language but also the “Knowledge of the true God”
(Defoe 216). In order to do this, Crusoe even prays to God by saying that
[… ] he would enable me to instruct savingly this poor Savage, assisting by his Spirit the Heart of the poor ignorant Creature, to receive the Light of the Knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to himself, and would guide me to speak so to him from the Word of God, as his Conscience might be convinc’d, his Eyes opened, and his Soul sav’d (Defoe 219, original
emphasis).
In fact, Crusoe’s teaching has its beneficial effects not only on Friday but also on Crusoe because Crusoe “inform’d and instructed [him] self in many Things, that either [he] did not know, or had not fully consider’d before” when he was “laying Things open to” (Defoe 220) Friday. In other words, both Crusoe and Friday are beneficiaries of this teaching process but the only problem is that all these materials are from the old world, England. Thus, Crusoe’s image in Friday’s eyes may seem to be a king or a master of this island but Crusoe’s kingship or mastery is the result of his connection with England.
Crusoe’s kingdom increases in size when more and more people join. When Crusoe saves a Spaniard and is informed that there were some other white men in Friday’s motherland, Crusoe bids the saved Spaniard to take his countrymen to Crusoe’s island with conditions “upon their solemn Oath, That they should be absolutely under [Crusoe’s] Leading, as their Commander and Captain [… ] and that he would bring a Contract from them under their Hands for that Purpose” (Defoe 245).
In fact, making oath or signing contract to be obedient to Crusoe’s authority is not particular in the Spaniard’s case because Crusoe requires the same thing when he saves an English commander. When Crusoe saved this English commander, he told him that:
I. That while you stay on this Island with me, you will not pretend to any Authority here; and if I put Arms into your Hands, you will upon all
Occasions give them up to me, and do no Prejudice to me or mine, upon this Island, and in the mean time be govern’d by my Orders. [… ] 2. That if the Ship is, or may be recover’d, you will carry me and my Man to England Passage free (Defoe 256, original emphasis).
After Crusoe helped the English commander get back his ship, the commander
“brought [Crusoe] a Case of Bottles full of excellent Cordial Waters, six large Bottles of Madera Wine; the Bottles held two Quarts a-piece; two Pound of excellent good Tobacco, twelve good Pieces of the Ship’s Beef, and six Pieces of Pork, with a Bag of Pease, and about a hundred Weight of Bisket” (Defoe 274, original emphasis). These goods are like the tribute from the English commander in order to pay his respect to Crusoe, the king of the island. Crusoe’s image of king is further certified when the English commander argues about the ways to deal with those mutineers. Crusoe said:
That they were my Prisoners, not his; and that seeing I had offered them so much Favour, I would be as good as my Word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it, I would set them at Liberty, as I found them; and if he did not like it, he might take them again if he could catch them (Defoe 276).
Up to now, Crusoe is certainly a king, or at least a commander, on the island and his kingship is impossible until he has the oath or contract from his people. In both the Spaniard and the English commander’s cases, the oath or contract is not consensual because both of them are, to some extent, forced to give their consent to it in terms of their survival on the island. However, for Crusoe, oath and contract play “an
important part in the theoretical development of political individualism” (Watt 70) namely his kingship. Here, I will further argue that oath and contract help not only the formation of Crusoe’s political individualism but also his individuality by means of forcing others to act in the way of answering his needs. The importance of this English commander is to not only strengthen the idea about Crusoe’s almighty authority on the island but also restate the relationship between Crusoe and England by means of empowering Crusoe with the ability and possibility to go back. When Crusoe and the English commander defeated the mutineers, the latter said to the former that “My dear Friend and Deliverer, there ’s your Ship, for she is all yours, and so are we and all that belong to her” (Defoe 272, original emphasis) and the former
responded to these words in the way of embracing the latter and said that “I look upon him as a Man sent from Heaven to deliver me” (Defoe 273). Thus, after having been
“thirty and five Years absent” (Defoe 278) from England, Crusoe can finally sail back to England in this vessel.
At the second stage, Crusoe is no longer in his solitary exile, as he is at the first stage, with the companions of Friday, Spaniard, and the English commander. Actually, all these companions are “Other” to Crusoe because their appearance threatens
Crusoe’s almighty authority on the island in certain ways. Nevertheless, Crusoe
“embodies the experience of facing the Other, and finding the familiar in the Other”
(James 8). The familiarity in James’s words refers to Crusoe’s connection with England or his Englishness, in simple and plain word. In conclusion, even though Crusoe’s kingship is further strengthened with the appearance of his companions, his mentality is never away from England in terms of his materials for teaching Friday and his desperate want to go back to England. So, in fact, he still lives in two
identities, as a king of the island and as a castaway from England, at this second stage.
Besides, no matter which identity Crusoe chooses to live with while he is on the island, what he does and what others do is always bound to his individual desire. This tells us that most of the details in the novel are to assert Crusoe’s individuality.