It is nearly always useful and rewarding to consider a work of fiction in its own historical and social setting, and one may compare and contrast the characters of Robinson Crusoe (1719), Lemuel Gulliver (1726), and Ben Gunn (1883) from that perspective, inasmuch as each character is reflective of his own peculiar milieu.
Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is an original amalgam of the traditional Puritan spiritual autobiography (not unlike John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress), plus Defoe's constant portrayal of Crusoe as a typical middle-class Briton, one who is orderly and industrious, temperate, moderate, quiet and sober, always God-fearing, a man who is almost an exemplar of the Boy Scout motto: be prepared. Defoe's advice to readers seems to be, go to work and do something productive. Crusoe, for example, immediately upon perceiving his situation takes inventory of all the goods he has rescued from his wrecked ship; he stores his gunpowder at several dry locations on his island in order that, should something unfortuitous occur, at least all of the powder will not become wet and useless. This aspect of Crusoe's character may have been what led Napoleon Bonaparte to dismiss the whole of England as a nation of shopkeepers. Keep in mind, however, that it was this same nation of shopkeepers who defeated the Emperor (twice) and imprisoned him until his death on the island of St. Helena, hastening his death (rumor has it) with arsenic. Clearly, such a nation of shopkeepers is not to be trifled with. Several twentieth-century readers have criticized Crusoe for shooting in the dark, and for shooting people when he feels like it, such critics maintaining that violence is not the answer. Defoe's reply probably would be that a gun is sometimes a handy item to have and that violence is the answer to violent people. Defoe's book is a take-off on a true history of a Briton named Alexander Selkirk; it exemplifies "desert island" narratives that were popular in Defoe's day and remain popular today.
