Roxana: Analysis of Setting
"Roxana: Analysis of Setting" explores the settings of Daniel Defoe's novel "Roxana," focusing on the contrasting environments of London, Paris, and Amsterdam during the late seventeenth century. London is depicted as the heart of early capitalist society, where the pursuit of wealth and commerce overshadows genuine human relationships. Roxana's transformation into a "she-merchant" reflects the era's mercantile values, as she navigates her life through a series of transactional relationships, prioritizing financial gain over emotional connections.
In Paris, the narrative shifts, portraying the city as a place of moral ambiguity and excess, where wealth is often acquired through dishonest means. Here, Roxana revels in her newfound status but faces the darker consequences of her choices. The Amsterdam setting contrasts sharply with Paris, representing a place of integrity and Protestant values, where Roxana encounters an honest merchant who challenges her views on wealth and relationships. This juxtaposition of settings highlights Roxana's inner conflict between her desire for financial independence and her search for a meaningful life. Ultimately, "Roxana" presents a nuanced commentary on the moral implications of wealth and the societal expectations faced by women in a rapidly changing world.
Roxana: Analysis of Setting
First published: 1724
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Picaresque
Time of work: Seventeenth century
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
*London
*London. During the late seventeenth century, early capitalist London was the trade capital of the world, and Daniel Defoe’s own obsession with commerce carries over into Roxana. Indeed, money, upon which London’s capitalist society is built, is the only true love object throughout the novel. After Roxana’s husband leaves her with five children, she herself abandons her children and becomes her landlord’s mistress, beginning a pattern of selling herself to the highest bidders, typically signing contracts with her lovers, as if she were a merchant selling goods. Love plays no part in these exchanges.
In her efforts to transform herself and her place in society, Roxana amasses great wealth in London, lodging in Pall Mall, an area well known for housing royal mistresses. There, she entertains members of the city’s high society with lavish masquerade parties. During one period in London, she spends seven years with an anonymous aristocrat—possibly the king himself. Her fortune grows with each affair in London.
*Paris
*Paris. By setting much of the novel in Paris, Defoe removed much of Roxana’s wickedness from his own home city of London. This ploy also allowed Defoe to represent Paris money as dishonest money, accumulated by crime. In Paris, Roxana is intoxicated by dreams of money, high social rank, and the delusion that she can run away from her past.
Roxana’s English landlord and lover, a wealthy jewel merchant, takes her to Paris where he is murdered. After she learns that the jewels she removes from her dead lover were stolen, she orders her servant, Amy, to sell all her possessions in London and join her in Paris. Through lying and cheating Roxana amasses an even more sizable fortune and sets herself up as a “she-merchant,” who becomes increasingly intoxicated by accumulating wealth. After Roxana meets the French prince to whom the jeweler had intended to sell the jewels, she soon becomes his mistress. For eight years, she lives with the unnamed prince in close proximity to Paris.
Defoe utilizes Parisian settings to criticize how members of the French aristocracy, unlike London’s bourgeois merchants, lavishly spend their wealth, saving little. Paris is thus represented as a place of vice and excess. It is in Paris, also, that Roxana discovers her previous husband and, fearing discovery, flees to Amsterdam.
*Amsterdam
*Amsterdam. While it is evident that Defoe views Roman Catholic Paris as a prime place of debauchery, he views Holland in a positive light. For him, Holland, long a base of world exploration and commerce, represents strong Protestant values. In Amsterdam, money is earned cleanly and honestly. There, Roxana encounters an honest Dutch merchant who saves her from jail after her jewels are discovered to be stolen property. He helps her escape and attempts to marry her. Intent on maintaining her financial independence, however, Roxana becomes his lover but refuses marriage.
Throughout the novel, Roxana treasures her money and the freedom it gives her. Also, Roxana refuses the merchant because she dreams of achieving a higher social status than he can offer. In Amsterdam, Roxana often vacillates between profit and spirituality. After she returns to London, her Dutch merchant continues to accumulate wealth through hard work and honest trade. He eventually buys a noble title and marries Roxana after her servant sends word that her legal husband has died.
Bibliography
Backscheider, Paula R. Daniel Defoe: Ambition and Innovation. Louisville: University of Kentucky Press, 1986. Provides biographical data and critical interpretations of Defoe’s novels.
Bell, Ian A. Defoe’s Fiction. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1985. Studies the elements of Defoe’s writing style and characters. Discusses the character Roxana.
Boardman, Michael M. Defoe and the Use of Narrative. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1985. Provides a discussion on Daniel Defoe’s technique of storytelling. Focuses on how Defoe structures his stories.
Novak, Maximillian. Realism, Myth and History in Defoe’s Fiction. Omaha: University of Nebraska Press, 1983. An excellent starting place. Discusses the author’s use of realistic characters such as Moll Flanders and reveals the myth of female inferiority, discussing how Defoe overcomes that myth.
Richetti, John J. Daniel Defoe. Boston: Twayne, 1987. Looks at the process of writing and development of a plot and its characters, using Roxana and Moll Flanders as examples.
Starr, G. A. Defoe and Causitry. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991. Discusses the character and morality of Roxana, and how she created her many problems by her own choices and decisions.