Rasselas Jan. 31

Philosophy of Happiness:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (physiological, safety, belonging, self-esteem, self-actualization)-

p 48 “I have already enjoyed too much; give me something to desire.”

-Pursuit of self-actualization

Commonality of Human Nature:

P 66- “The Europeans are less unhappy than we, but they are not happy, Human life is every where a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.”

P 78- “This state only was happiness, and that this happiness was in every one’s power.”

            “Be not too hasty to trust, or to admire, the teachers of morality: the discourse like angels, but they live like men.”

P89- “Tell me if thou waterest, through all thy course, a single habitation from which thou dost not hear the murmur of complaint?”

Development of Search:

-Poetry: the highest form of learning and half about nature, half about studying every mode of life. (p 63 “All the appearances of nature I was therefore careful to study.”) This takes place when they are still in the happy valley.

-Out of Happy Valley: Chapter XVI They enter Cairo, and find every man happy

            Expectation that happiness would be reached once they were out of the valley

            They find this false

            Search takes on a more structured approach in Chapter XVII The prince associates with young men of spirit and gaiety: p 76-77 “Happiness, said he, must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.”

            Discover that not everyone in Cairo is happy in Chapter XVIII The prince finds a wise and happy man. P 78 “Happiness was in every one’s power” –flawed logic

See the danger of prosperity (Chapter XX)

-Nature: Happiness of hermit

Happiness of a life led according to nature

P85- “Nothing is more idle, than to enquire after happiness, which nature has kindly placed within our reach. The way to be happy is to live according to nature, in obedience to that universal and unalterable law.” (philosopher—Rasselas did not find this to be an adequate explanation)

-Middle Fortunes: Nekayah, p 86 “What this world can give may be found in the modest habitations of middle fortunes; too low for great designs, and too high for penury and distress.”

Symbols:

Always appear in italics

-Happy valley

-Choice of life

Miriam Lewis

Rasselas 1/31 Discussion

Samuel Johnson

• contracted a tubercular infection as an infant, leaving him partially deaf and blind
• was not slowed by his disability, never accepting pity or help from anyone
• abandoned his religion at age eight, only to return to it with a renewed intensity soon after
• studied at Oxford for a year until his mother’s funds ran out
• married a very wealthy woman, twenty years older than he, and used her money to open a private school
• wrote books, poems and dictionaries

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

• Written in 1759
•  Seven Years War
•   -Huge conflict between the imperial powers for the rights to land in the New World
• Considered an apologue, or fable-like story meant to teach a moral

Discussion Questions

• Are there parallels between Rasselas and his “happy valley,” and Crusoe and his island “colony?”  Why does Rasselas first seek the isolation with nature that Crusoe had during his time on the island?
• Does the description of the royal lifestyle (in the first paragraph of Chapter II) mirror the society Johnson lived in?  He was known to have radical, anti-slavery feelings.  How might this contribute to the meaning of this paragraph/novel?
• How do you think Imlac affects Rasselas’ sense of the outside world?  How does his story open the eyes of Rasselas and motivate him even more to leave the valley?
• “’The Europeans,’ answered Imlac, ‘are less unhappy than we, but they are not happy.  Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed.’” (page 66) How does this quote show Johnson’s feelings of his own culture? How does it reflect Imlac's view on happiness in the world?
• Are the “happy valley” and the “pleasures” of royalty misnomers?  Why do both Rasselas and his sister seek to expand their lives by leaving the valley?  Why does Johnson create this contradiction?
• How do Rasselas’ experiences in Cairo shape his idea of happiness? What do the “pastoral life,” “solitude,” and “nature” expose him to?  Does a life of simplicity seem appealing to Rasselas?

Sources

                http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/20.html

               http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Rasselas,_Prince_of_Abissinia (image) 

A Persian translation of the novel.

1. Crusoe lived in all of the stages of life that his father told him about prior to embarking on his first nautical voyage. The middle stage can be characterized as his early plantation life in Brasil or part of his life on the island where he was well established and comfortable. He received wealth upon returning from the island and lived in relatively poor conditions upon first arriving on the island.

2. Crusoe, even after all of his experiences, retained his love for adventure. Even after being rescued from the island, he supplies those he left behind with necessities so that they might, in a way, continue on in the adventurous Crusoe way.

3. I thought it was interesting that Crusoe decided to travel by land instead of sea (pg. 290) to England. Leads to the stories with the wolves and the bear. Illustrates the misfortune that seems to follow Crusoe no matter what path he chooses.

4. I also found it interesting that, despite all of Crusoe's history, which usually consisted of negative experiences concerning boats, decides to set his "son" in a nautical direction as a career path. Refers to the lack of character development, or at least contradicts what the reader would think Crusoe would do.

Rasselas 1/31

Restlessness

• "he neglected their officiousness, repulsed their invitations..." - p. 46
• "pained with want, but am not, like him, satisfied with fullness" -p. 46
• "I fly from pleasure because pleasure has ceased to please" -p. 47
• "I know not what I want, is the cause of my complaint" -p. 48
• "my hopes and wishes have flown beyond this boundary of my life, which yet I have never attempted to surmount" - p. 49

How to be Happy

• Our desires must be quenched before we an truly be happy ("desires distinct from sense which must be satisfied before he can be happy." - p. 46)
• We must know what misery is before we can appreciate happiness ("if you had seen the miseries of the world, you would know how to value your present state."-p. 48)
• Pop culture reference: "Let Her Go" by Passenger
• Only know you've been high when you're feeling low
  Only hate the road when you’re missin' home
  Only know you love her when you let her go
  And you let her go
• "Happiness must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty"-p.77
• this will get ride of the issue of jealousy

Philosophy of Happiness

• happiness is a delusion as seen in the happy valley. It is presented to be some sort of paradise ("covered in trees... diversified with flowers... every month dropped fruits...sprightly kid... monkey frolicking" - p. 44), but is also derscribed as a prison that traps people ("every year produced new schemes of delight, and new competitors for imprisonment."-p. 44)
• "when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable"- p. 85
• happiness is superficial, there is always discontent lying somewhere under the surface
• the "young men of spirit and gaiety" practiced shameful acts in which he could not be happy
• the wise old man abandoned his idea of happiness after his daughter died
• shepherd rumored to celebrate life with innocence, but they are angry about their lower station in life
• there was not happiness in solitude because the man missed human interaction too much and had no one to share his feelings with
• the court of Bassa didn't have the happiness Rasselas assumed because there was always a threat to power
• the daughters Nekayah talked to were too light and superficial, "their affection seldom fixed on a sense of virtue," but their hearts were swelling with sorrow" from their poverty (88)
• happiness does not exist
• "Human life is every where a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed" - p.66
• "long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believe it possessed by others to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself"-p. 75
• we are never happy because we are always jealous of what others have
• "great father of  the waters, thou that rollest thy floods through eighty nations...Tell me if thou waterest, through all thy course, a single habitation from which thou dost not hear the murmur of complaint?"

Imlac's character also represents the importance of knowledge

• "they are more powereful...because they are wiser; knowledge will always predominate over ignorance"-p. 65
• "knowledge is certainly one of the means of pleasure" -p.66
• "man is not weak, knowledge is more than equivalent to force" -p.70
• and the fact that he left his father behind to travel the world in pursuit of knowledge. Above all, he praises the poet the most
• "presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations; as a being superiour to time and place"

Rasselas 1/31

Sam Johnson:
   -Wrote novel in 1759
   -From the United Kingdom
   -Spent most of his life in debt
   -Had symptoms close to Tourette's Syndrome
About Novel:
   -Rasselas inspired by Lobo's "A Voyage to Abyssinia"
   -Originally called "The Choice of Life"
   -Written in one week
   -Profit went to pay off Sam's mom's debt from her funeral, etcetera.
   -Abyssinia is now Ethiopia
   -Rasselas is a name adopted by emancipated slaves

Questions for Discussion:

1. How is Rasselas different from Crusoe? The same?
2. Do you think that the novel reflects the sadness of Sam during the time of his mothers' death?
3. Is Rasselas wrong for being restless and unhappy with paradise?
4. What do you make if his first escape attempt? 
5. How do you feel about his sister tagging along and Imlac leading them on their journey?
6. What brings about the apathy from Rassy about the man's daughter dying?
7.  Do you think there is an effect on the character being of ethnic descent and the author being from the UK?

Quotes:

• "...pleasure has ceased to please me." (47)
• "I shall long to see the miseries of the world, since the sight of them is necessary to happiness."48
• Page 69 fourth paragraph
• "Many things difficult to design prove easy to perform."71
• "Imlac permitted the pleasing delusion, and was unwilling to crush the hope of inexperience."75

 

Robinson Crusoe Discussion Pages: 242-304

Things that I thought were interesting:

• Since this is a blog I'm going to be blunt at times and for that I apologize in advance. Anyway, by the time I got to this part of the book I started to get bored with Crusoe. In the beginning of it and in the middle I thought that it was entertaining and interesting but I felt like the story died off and became predictable. I say that because (as we have mentioned in class) Crusoe is a character that seems to be unable to develop on a human level. If you look at his religiosity you'll see that yes it does start to become more prevalent in his life but in key points in his story he quickly reverts back to his old ways. The example I'll use is in the aftermath of the battle with the cannibals I heard no mention of God or his religion (maybe I overlooked it) or thanking him for sparing his life. I thought that that was kind of ironic but if I think about it more, in a way it makes the story more believable because the human element that we all make mistakes and aren't perfect comes in. I just expect more development from a person who is stranded on an island for decades.
• Another thing that caught my attention immediately was how smug, arrogant, entitled and douche-like Crusoe was. He constantly refers to anybody that isn't from what he would call a 'civilized country' as a "savage" or another term that insinuates their inferiority. You would think that towards Friday and his father Crusoe would show more respect but he doesn't and that is very infuriating at times. I understand that that could be accurate of the attitudes of that era but to somebody who has helped you and has been a loyal companion to you, you would think that he would give him a little more respect. He also refers to himself as King of the island at times and that's also extremely irritating.

Possible Discussion Questions:

1. Does anyone else get the sense that Crusoe has not changed as a person too much? I ask this because when you look at the way he talks to Friday he speaks to him with an air of arrogance & entitlement which is frustrating at times because you would think that he would have grown as a person during his solitude. What do you guys think? Examples of his arrogance: pg.243
2. I thought that it was very odd that right after their battle with the savages there was no mention of God at all. It was like he had elevated himself and not his deity. Did yall notice that? his religion seems to have been temporarily lost.
3. Given the times, do you think that it was ever possible for Crusoe to view somebody from a 'less civilized' society as an equal?

Robinson Crusoe Wed 1/29

Alex Krall

Why does Crusoe wonder if it’s ok to go after the cannibals with their weapons only until he finds out that their captive is a European and then it’s completely justified?

How did Friday and Robinson manage to kill SEVENTEEN men with those old musket 17^th century guns while freeing the two captives?

How come Crusoe is so worried about the inquisition if he claims to be a good Christian now?

Why is Crusoe so set on the island seeming like it’s his? (Being called the governor, demanding the captain swear allegiance to him, etc.)

Crusoe was on the island for 28 years, two months, and 19 days…but no social abnormalities to report?

Helps out the widow and captain with his new found wealth but nothing for Friday, why is that?

Really? We get an island story where nothing happens for 28 years, but the awesome mountain adventures and bear baiting and wolf battles are all covered in a couple pages?

Does what his father said about the middle class being the happiest still apply at the end of the book? Is Crusoe middle or upper?

Crusoe promises more stories of adventures later.  Is this the first sequel hook/cliffhanger?

Robinson Crusoe Discussion Points

ENG 190: Robinson Crusoe-Bess Hoskins

Theme of Cultural Relativism:

·         Pg 246: Friday & Father reunited: demonstrates that savages have intrinsic values of love like all humans

·         Research: Spaniards are depicted as being “far more tolerant and far more civilized in their relations with the natives than the Castaways.”

o   Critique of English idea of racial purity

o   Source: Robinson Crusoe Christopher Hill History Workshop , No. 10 (Autumn, 1980) , pp. 6-24.

Motif of Master/ King:

·         Does he move from a positive master of the island to a negative, over-controlling man?
Does this offer a more realistic and humanistic feel?

·         Pg 250: “My Island was now peopled, and I thought my self very rich in subjects..”  

·         Pg 256: Told Spaniard to only bring men that would be completely obedient to him.

·         Is his decision to make Friday his servant excusable? If Friday was from Europe, would he have been given the same fate?

·         Given Religious Power by Savages & Those he Saved:

o   Pg. 251: “They would tell their people they were all killed by Thunder and Lightning, not by the Hand of men.”

o   Robinson and Captain call each other “deliverers”

§  pg 276: ‘I took my turn, and embrac’d him as my Deliverer”

§  When Crusoe makes everyone call him a ruler and is then called “Deliverer,” is he acting against the teachings of his religion? Hypocritical? Is he obsessed with power?

·         Pg 299: “They did me the honour to call me Captain as well because I was the oldest Man…”

o   Will he always need to be in position of power? Always need servants?

·         Pg 304: “I shar’d the Island into Parts with ‘em, reserv’d to my self the Property of the whole, but gave them such Parts respectively.”

o   lifetime ownership over the island

o   Brings them supplies and sends women: Is he still acting like their ruler or just being generous? Does he always need a sense of power?

Religious and Spiritual Journey:

·         Does Crusoe keep true to his declaration to repent all his sins when he was sick? Does the idea of repentance mean that sins are justified because you can repent them later?

·         Crusoe said to encompass the Protestant and Bourgeois values: His success came from “hard work, self-discipline, and refusal to waste time.” He “could not abide the thought” of nakedness. One of first actions was to give Friday a pair of linen shorts.
         -Souce: Robinson Crusoe Christopher Hill History Workshop , No. 10 (Autumn, 1980) , pp. 6-24

·         Pg 258: Develops rational thought about heading hints of danger from “an Invisible World”

·         Pg 288: What do you make of his quote: “I began to regret my having profess’d my self a Papist and thought it might not be the best Religion to die with.”

·         Remaining self-aware is a major theme in the book:
What are some things that Crusoe does to keep himself self-aware while stranded on the island?

Inability to Stay Still:

·         Returns to England, and thinks of returning to Brasil where he started.

·         When his trip by land has just as many disasters as his trips by sea, why does he not take this as a sign of God for him to stop traveling and to stay in the middle class? When the English ship first come to the island, he trusts a small feeling he has not to run straight up to the ship. However, he doesn’t take huge disasters as a signal from God. Why?

o   Very strategic on the island before acting, but when he gets back to Europe, he no longer employs that thinking. Why?

o   Are there any more changes of the Crusoe on the island versus the Crusoe back in Europe?

·         Pg 303: Skims through marriage, wife’s death, and children in two sentences. Are these not meaningful? Is traveling the most important?

Robinson Crusoe Discussion Notes 1/29

Discussion Notes for 1/29

Page 242-3: Robinson makes another unique comment about not having the right to judge the “savage” culture.

• ·      “I would act then as God should direct; but that unless something offer’d that was more a Call to me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them”
• ·      Then he switches to wanting to kill them and being “enrag’d to the highest Degree” when he discovers a captive is European.
• ·      Resembling the temporary shift earlier in the novel about not causing the savages harm because God will judge them.

Friday is always the one to kill people/animals.

• ·      What does this say about the savages? Or rather about how English society views “uncivilized people”?
• ·      Friday is so confident in his tactics to kill the bear and has impeccable aim when killing men that have taken his father captive and the Englishmen on the ship that lands.
• ·      Perhaps this is a comment on how Defoe views civilized men versus natives. They are much more skilled at these “unacceptable” tasks. However, Crusoe still is good at these tasks; Friday is just more skilled and more capable of killing more people/things.

Crusoe is very confused by the encounter between Friday and Friday’s father.

• ·      Page 247: “jump’d about again, like a distracted Creature [crazed, out of one’s mind person]”
• ·      The description (pages 247-248) seems like Crusoe is awestruck by this Father-Son bond. He mentioned before that he and Friday had a Father-Son bond but now he is rethinking that.
• ·      He has been on the island for so long and separated from his family for so long that he does not know companionship or love the way Friday did.
• ·      He even takes Friday away on the English ship without mentioning his Father again though he is about to return for Friday and Crusoe.

Crusoe taught Friday the word “Savage” page 258à “civilizing” him or brainwashing him?