Friday: Or, The Other Island: Analysis of Major Characters
"Friday: Or, The Other Island" explores the complexities of its major characters against the backdrop of survival and transformation on a deserted island. The protagonist, Robinson Crusoe, is a young Quaker mariner who, after a shipwreck, undergoes profound changes during his twenty-eight years of isolation. Initially despondent, he gradually evolves from a self-centered, orderly figure into a man who embraces nature and sensuality, particularly after encountering Friday, an Araucanian native whom he saves from sacrifice. Friday embodies a dual nature; while he follows Robinson, he also possesses an independent spirit and a pragmatic relationship with the island's wildlife. His eventual decision to board a ship, unaware of the dangers of the slave trade, highlights themes of naïveté and betrayal. Other characters, such as Jaan, a young galley boy, and Captain Van Deyssel, who foreshadows Robinson's fate, further enrich the narrative, emphasizing the intersections of power, loyalty, and cultural differences. The story ultimately reflects on identity and the quest for harmony within oneself and with the environment.
Friday: Or, The Other Island: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Michel Tournier
First published: Vendredi: Ou, Les Limbes du Pacifique, 1967; revised, 1972 (English translation, 1969)
Genre: Novel
Locale: Speranza, an island off the coast of Chile
Plot: Mythic
Time: 1759–1787
Robinson Crusoe, a Quaker mariner from York, England. At the age of twenty-two, as a tall, red-haired, slender young man, he leaves his family to seek a fortune in the New World, but this ambition is thwarted by a shipwreck off an island on the South American coast. Robinson is the only human survivor. At first, he rails against his fate and his haven. He names the island “Desolation,” and he builds a ship, the Escape, but cannot launch it. Robinson then experiences the first in a series of rebirths of personality and philosophy that occur during his twenty-eight-year ordeal. He rechristens the island “Speranza,” and his pious, obsessive nature comes to the fore. He cultivates more crops than he could possibly need, and he legislates and codifies his existence. Robinson believes that he can even stop time when he chooses to shut off his water clock. He is, during this phase, a dry and avaricious man, yet he is ethical, successful, and moral by societal standards. After discovering a cavern on the island, Robinson adopts a more Earth-oriented, nonconventional outlook, and he develops a sensual nature. The island literally becomes his mistress; he copulates in the cave, in a tree, and in the soil itself. When this period of emotional and physical awareness is interrupted by the arrival of Friday, Robinson returns to the psyche that loves order, until Friday inadvertently blows up the island's buildings. Then, Robinson adopts a persona inspired by his Araucanian (South American Indian) companion. He lives in the present and enjoys nature but does not exploit it, he allows his hair to grow and his skin to darken, and he appears to be years younger. At this point, Robinson achieves a happiness based on harmony with his environment, particularly with the sun. When Friday leaves and Jaan appears, Robinson is on the threshold of a new life that will allow him to blend the multiple facets of the self he has developed.
Friday, an Araucanian native. A slender, extremely dark, and lithe young man, Friday is brought to the island for sacrifice by his fellow tribesmen. By accident, Robinson saves him; then, he is named by and becomes a companion to Robinson. Friday has an insouciant manner; he is equally content to follow Robinson's orders, nature's will, or his own whims. He feels at ease with animals, even those (such as vultures) that society abhors, but he is not averse to torturing or even killing them for his own ends. After he accidentally destroys Speranza's civilized ambience, Friday in many ways becomes the master of Robinson. Rather than take advantage of this situation, he shares his knowledge and cultural myths in a matter-of-fact way. Friday consistently possesses a dual nature. He is skilled in the ways of the island, enjoys the fairness of one-to-one combat with nature, such as in a battle with the goat Andaor, and is seemingly content. He has a simple inquisitiveness that can be callous. He is capable of being companionable, but his allegiance is easily seduced. Perhaps this is a result of his naïveté, which in the end proves dangerous. He abandons Robinson to go on board the Whitebird, a ship that discovers them. Although it is clear to Robinson, Friday does not understand that his fascinating new friends have destined him for the slave trade.
Jaan Neljapäev, a galley boy on the Whitebird. The twelve-year-old, fair-haired, and blue-eyed youth, born in Estonia, is an often-whipped and ill-rewarded servant of the ship's cook. When he serves Robinson's dinner, he senses his kindness. Later that night, when he sees Friday board the ship, he takes Friday's canoe and literally takes his place. Robinson renames him “Sunday.”
Captain Pieter Van Deyssel, the skipper of the brig Virginia. A bulky, sardonic, Epicurean man, this Dutch commander accurately prophesies Robinson's future via the tarot cards during the fateful storm of September, 1759.