The Ecstasies and Transports of the Soul — Emotional Journeys of Self-discovery

Abstract

There are ‘plentiful’ tears in Robinson Crusoe — tears of sorrow, despair and joy¹ — that resonated with readers at the turn of the nineteenth century who found themselves moved by religious feeling and new sentimental novels, by the fervent emotions of the American and French Revolutions, by patriotism during wars with the French, and the loss of sons who went to war or adventuring in the colonies. Historian Paul Langford describes it as an ‘age of unchained feeling’.² But emotions, ‘passions’, could undermine a man’s well-being and manliness as effectively as sedentary lifestyles and the indulgence of luxuries. Defoe ameliorated excesses of emotion by allowing Crusoe two strategies that his eighteenth-century readers would have recognized — he sent Crusoe on a long voyage and had him keep a journal.

Signs of rapture, floods of tears — Maintaining our state as men — Relief, or the discharge of a necessary duty? — For mine’s true, every word — The last link is about to be snapped?