The outcast figure in Defoe's novel

2 OUTCAST CHARACTERS, OUTCAST AUTHOR Daniel Defoe, one of the first English novelists, wrote many novels whose main characters well answer the definition of outcast 1 . As an example we can analyze the main characters in four works by Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1722), Colonel Jack (1722) and Roxana (1724). Before entering into details it is proper to present a brief summary of each story. Robinson Crusoe is the account of a man who manages to survive on a desert island for about 27 years in a quite complete solitude until he is rescued and eventually gets very rich; Moll Flanders is the story of an independent and strong woman whose misfortunes turn her into a prostitute and then into a thief, until she manages to marry an honest man and to retire quietly in Virginia; Colonel Jack relates the misadventures this man experiences in order to become a gentleman and a colonel; Roxana is about a fortunate mistress who after several love affairs and a wicked conduct succeeds in marrying a good man and repents of her past sins. There is a basic difference, however, between the outcast condition of each of them, especially between Robinson Crusoe and the other three figures: Robinson is indeed a physical outcast and a voluntary one. He spends several years of his life completely alone on a desert island as a result of his own choice. First he chooses not to follow his parents’ advice to become a businessman and he rather sets out to sea; then once on the island he chooses to live retired in his cave even when he perceives a human presence. There are certainly very few moments when Crusoe feels an anguished sense of loneliness: he tends to do activities such as to build an enclosure, to bake, to prune trees. He remains industrious and matter of fact rather than to fall into despair. The other characters are rather social outcasts. Even if their lives and adventures are different from each other, they share some elements such as that of being confined from society. Since these people cannot find a steady place in it, they keep on moving and changing their “jobs” (or rather wicked activities) and their husbands/wives. What is important is that these characters are also ordinary human beings beyond being outcast. Their being estranged does not derive from an extraordinary or weird act 1 An “outcast” is a person ostracized by his/her society, who lives alone either for his/her own choice or for that of other people, and whose bonds are for the most part neither stable nor sincere. (Oxford English Dictionary, the term has been recorded in this sense since 1390)