Rationalism vs. Romanticism

In 18th century in English Literature, we have seen two movements so far. The first one is Rationalism and the second one is Romanticism which has reaction against the former.

Rationalism was born against the increasing vice and immorality of humans in 18th century. People, I think,  acted so impulsively without thinking any moral or feeling any shyness in those years that people needed to tend to different areas. They did not care about individual feelings and they disregarded any kind of emotions. They thought that these feelings cannot not be tested. On the other hand, everything that we would talk about must share common senses. Puperstitions and prejudices only causes suffering. Only humans can discover and think. Why don’t we use our special gift from God? But as every society has met, of course there were people who were against that movement.

The other movement was Romanticism. Their ideas were that people have emotions and we cannot ignore this truth. We, as humans, cannot switch off our feelings. They were opposed to overpowering seeking of Rationalists. They wanted to change the idea of reason into the idea of feelings, imaginations, senses.  According to them, feelings are more important than reason. They reflect feelings of people against even casual facts on their works. They give great importance to the human rights, freedom and individualism.

Actually, I am in favor of Romanticism. Of course the reason very important for humans but that works do not adress to all human in a society. Only very few people who interest in can understand but the others cannot. Hovewer, when we talk about individual feelings and imaginations, there is always an open door for people to interpret. As everyone has feelings, everyone can like those kind of literature works.

A Quotation from Robinson Crusoe

For this week, I want to talk about a quotation of Robinson Crusoe that was given to us to explain in the lesson. This quotation is interesting for me. I will share it.

“O drug!” said I aloud, “what art thou good for? Thou art not worth to me, no, not the taking off of the ground; one of those knives is worth all this heap; I have no manner of use for thee; e’en remain where thou art and go to the bottom as a creature whose life is not worth saving.” However, upon second thoughts, I took it away. . . .

Actually, Robinson identifies money as ‘drug’. I could not understand that at first. Then it had a sense. Robinson finds money while searching for guns. As he is alone on the island, he doesn’t care them. On the contrary, as far as I can understand from the novel, he is keen on the money before he goes to the island. Being alone on the island changes him. He tends to God and religion.

After he finds money, he realizes that they are worthless for him. The only thing that are useful for him is tools that can save him from evil because he just lives on the island for surviving. What’s the point of money on the island? The interesting part is that he still save them for future. I think, he considers that somebody will come to rescue him and he can give him the money in return. 

Robinson Crusoe

Today, I watched the movie of Robinson Crusoe then I read its book. I had no idea about Robinson Crusoe before I watched it, now I have. Besides, I have to say that there are a lot of differences between the film and the book.

Firstly, I want to talk about differences. In the film, as far as I can understand, Robinson had to sail because of a fight. He killed a man because of a girl he loved and he had to run, but he didn’t want it actually. Then while having travel in the ship, there was a destructive storm. Noone had rescued but Robinson and he had to live on the island. On the other hand, according to the book, Robinson was a son of a wealthy family and he always wanted to travel around the world. He wanted to see every corner of the world. His father objected to this idea but he never listened to his father. He sailed and there was storm and he had to leave on the island. This is the biggest difference I’ve observed.

Secondly, I’ll talk about characteristics of the book. Robinson is a leader person. He never wants someone to say him what to do. He always orders. He makes use of the environment for himself. He is the only person that leads. He feeds even animals to help himself. After he saved the cannibal’s life, first thing he did is to want cannibal to say himself ‘Master’. He is the only leader that sees the rest as slave. The most interesting thing in the book is after he become alone on the island, Robinson had faith of God. At first he think that all he lives through are punishment for his objecting to his father. In time, he understand that his loneliness is a signal to understand God.

To sum up, there are huge differences between the novel and the book but the main idea is no matter what happens, never ever lose your hope and keep surviving.