Analysis of the“Sea” in Robinson Crusoe and Moby Dick

魏丽萍

【Abstract】This paper employs a comparative analysis to study Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe and Herman Melvilles Moby Dick. The author compares them from both quantitative and qualitative aspects. As for the quantitative aspect， a corpus-based study was carried out to research on the word“sea”. As for the qualitative study， the author mainly focuses on the implications of the seas， the images of two protagonists based on the interaction between man and the sea.

【Key words】Sea； Implication； Comparative analysis

0 Introduction

Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe and Herman Melvilles Moby Dick are two masterpieces in British and American literature. Robinson Crusoe was the first realistic novel in the British literature， which ushered in the realism in the English literature. Moby Dick is a window of the American romanticism. There have been many scholars doing research on the two works respectively. However， few of them have attempted to make a comparison between the two novels. This paper will compare them from both quantitative and qualitative aspects. It is targeted at pulling two novels together to have a well-balanced and systematic analysis.

1 Quantitative study of the sea in the two novels

1.1 The Corpora Used to Carry Out the Study

In order to study the characteristics of the two novels， textual materials are needed to make the linguistic descriptions and analysis. Two corpora， Robinson Crusoe（RC） and Moby Dick（MD）， are established to meet the needs of the research. The material are downloaded from the internet. The corpus RC contains 121527 words and the corpus MD contains 212479 words.

1.2 Methods Employed in the Study

In the process of the study， modern statistical methods are exploited. Firstly， a FoxPro program is designed to break each corpus into individual words and sort the words according to frequency and find out the position of the word“sea”. Another Foxpro program is designed to find the word“sea” and sort according to the word before it. Computer programs cannot meet all the purpose of analysis. So the results of the data are ‘exported to MICROSOFT EXCEL to do some tests.

1.3 Results and Analysis

From program 1， we can get the table below：

The two novels are both take the sea as the background， so the word “sea” holds an important position in them. From the table above， we can see that the frequency of“sea” is relatively high compared with those high frequency words.

According to program 2， we get 280 sentences containing sea in corpus RC and 698 sentences in MD. Comparing the two results， we find that in RC the words before the“sea” are mainly articles， prepositions and there are not many adjectives modifying it. The mostly frequently used word is“rainy”. However， in MD， besides those articles and prepositions， there are all kinds of adjectives modifying the sea. The sea is full of color： black， blue， golden， green， red， white， yellow， etc.. The sea has the characteristics of human beings： crazy， mad， manlike， maternal， masculine， moody， old， young， solitary， etc. The sea is everywhere： China， Dutch， Java， Japanese， Mediterranean， North， South， Tropical， Polar， etc. Here below are some examples chosen from the results of the program：

RC

that I had a *sea* in the country as

is this earth and *sea* of which I have

formed the earth and *sea* the air and sky

behind them without any *sea* after them But I

see some ships at *sea* and therefore resolved to

MD

fish But a combing *sea* dashed me off and

ship is a comfortable *sea* with a locker underneath

the docks any considerable *sea* will frequently offer to

anticipation of the cool *sea* there and so evade

mentioned and the crazy *sea* that seemed leagued with

Literature is the art of language， so is English literature. It uses language to create images to reflect all walks of human life and the numerous subject matters that it touches. It can be mimetic of the whole range of human experience and this includes linguistic as well as non-linguistic experience（Crystal & Davy， 1969）. From the words before the word“sea”， we can get some implications about the images， the style of the authors and their social background. In Robinson Crusoe， there are few modifying words of the sea， which indicates the monotonous life of the main character living on the island and which also indicates the status of peoples life at that time. In Moby Dick， there are so many modifying words， from which we can infer that the main character has rich thought and people live in a booming and colorful society.

2 The implications of the sea

The two novels with no exception take advantage of the sea as the background of stories. Specifically speaking， in Robinson Crusoe， the sea acts as a natural force to separate Robinson Crusoe from the island. The island in fact is a big platform in the boundless ocean， just like the earth in the boundless universe. Accordingly， some mysterious force will come from the sea. A single oversize footprint， which without reason appeared on the deserted island， was a token of this kind of force. The force in fact， in a large measure， stands for the mysterious nature. In this sense， the sea is more than a natural barrier. It is a symbol of primitive nature. On the sea， Robinson did not surrender the natural force or a kind of sacred force in nature but labored hard to pursue his own living conviction. Therefore， we can say that， the island in the sea provides us a fixed platform to consider mans fate when facing the unknown natural force.

In Moby Dick， the sea plays a different role from that of the sea in Robinson Crusoe. Ahab， along with a group of whalers aboard the ship Pequos pursued a white whale across all the oceans in the world in order to take vengeance on the whale， which once bit off Ahabs right leg. On the surface， this is a revenge story. But from the macro angle of this novel， this story is a fable. Moby Dick is just an avatar of mans living target. By nature the seeking course of the Moby Dick was the life course of human beings. That is to say， everyone in the world is seeking for something. Thus， the boundless sea has its connotative meaning， which

stood for the outside natural force as well as just like the sea in Robinson Crusoe. But the force of the sea is much more powerful and more mysterious. More importantly， the sea takes on two forms， namely， the concrete sea and the abstract sea. The former， which we can observe through our eyes， is super-powerful. The latter， which we can perceive through Moby Dick， was mysterious and divine. On this condition， Ahabs fight with the sea let us observe what kind of spirit he is showing. In this sense， the ship Pequod bearing Ahab with a group of whalers in the sea in Moby Dick offered us an independent and movable platform to brood over mans fate when facing super-powerful and divine force.

3 The images of two protagonists based on the interaction between man and the sea

From the interaction between man and the sea， we can dig into mans spiritual outlook. In Robinson Crusoe， mans initial characteristics are invested with Robinson Crusoe： he had the initial mans basic capacity： the simple skill of physical labor； his self-consciousness was at early stage since he just got rid of chaos； his living conviction， based on an intuition， which was the basic condition for man to recognize nature or the external forces， to a certain degree， was instinctive， colored with some blindness with God still occupying a place in his brain. In the course of fighting with the primitive sea， he gradually improved himself until he saved himself from the shackles of nature. Therefore， due to the interaction between man and the sea， mans lining instinct， living will and living courage were demonstrated. This positive spirit will proceed to exist in a collective way without an end.

In Moby Dick， Ahab acts as a role to represent mans some common characteristics in a certain period. He， like Robinson Crusoe， had a strong intuition as well： his intuitive judgment on characteristics of Moby Dick， which was the incarnation of the sea standing for the abstract sea. Compared with Robinson Crusoe， who was just enlightened and became awake from chaos of nature and universe， Ahab was more independent of nature and external forces. He was a fully developed man equipped with mans personal will， esteem and living purpose. He wanted to pursue what on earth was the living purpose， which was a painful course for him and which was a torture in his mind. Through the interaction between man and the sea， Ahabs challenging spirit and exploratory spirit were projected out notwithstanding that the ending was tragic. In fact， the tragic ending was to demonstrate that to seek for the ultimate goal of life was a suffering course and a satisfactory answer would never be found. But it was worthy of ones whole-life pursuit.

4 Conclusion

Among the ocean novels， Robinson Crusoe and Moby Dick are unanimously concerned with mans fate on the ocean. In the second part of this paper we have seen the sea from the quantitative aspect. The sea plays an important role in both works， but the roles of the sea are different from one another. In Robinson Crusoe， the sea is natural and mysterious and it maps remote surroundings of mans history. In Moby Dick， the sea is super-powerful and divine. The role of the sea is to provide a platform with us to brood over mans fate when facing mysterious force. To sum up， although there are only two oceanic novels before us， by virtue of the seas， we can look into a kaleidoscopic picture， which consists of the aspects from different seas to different social status.

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[责任编辑：王楠]