Dissatisfaction and Disillusionment in Defoe: Steps to Wisdom in Robinson Crusoe Sophia Sharpe College

We, as individuals, seek greatness. It is a fundamental and irresistible pull that allows us to continue to move through life and seek out a greater purpose or experience. This thread, while often proving valuable, can cause us to act in ways that disregard the potential and significance of an overlooked environment. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe draws attention to the detriments of dissatisfaction and disillusionment, while also acting as a prominent example of finding a greater understanding of gratitude in adversity.

Through Robinson Crusoe, Defoe reveals the detriments of loneliness as he attempts to accommodate himself within his present circumstance. Crusoe acts as his own paradox, initially setting out on a journey to achieve isolation, yet once this has been obtained, he discovers the difficulty of reorientation. Crusoe, although catalysing his circumstances, expresses his feelings of remorse and regret since moving, “I had got into an employment quite remote to my genius, and directly contrary to the life I had delighted in…” Crusoe expresses the juxtaposition between his present condition versus what he revels in, and further expresses dissatisfaction as he moves into the “…middle station or upper degree of low life”...