The final state of Crusoe’s plantation and the island can be reconciled with what Crusoe has learned about religion and values during his time on the island. Some of the lessons Crusoe learns are his father’s wisdom in admonishing Crusoe to be content with the “middle state,” the importance of trade to the value of a product, the sinfulness of waste, and the recognition of providence and God’s design for all things on earth. Crusoe applies these lessons learned on the island after his return to Europe.
The first of these lessons that Crusoe learns, that his father tried to teach him, is the security and satisfaction that come from being in the middle state of life. Crusoe’s father insists that this state is “best suited to human happiness” in that people do not have the “toil and pain” of the lower class, nor the “pride, luxury, ambition and the envy” of the upper classes (Defoe 5 ). This stage of life, his father tells him, is not “subject to so many disturbances and disturbances of body or mind” as the lower and upper classes are apt to suffer (Defoe 5).
Crusoe finds this warning to be true when he is stranded on the island and must do hard physical labor to survive and provide it with the items it needs and wants. As his father warned him, Crusoe fell gravely ill as a result of his extreme physical exertion, and his “spirit began to sink under the burden of heavy distemper” (Defoe 66).
After Crusoe returns to Europe, he is faced with the opposite end of the scale when he learns of the riches of his plantation. Although Crusoe has not been directly involved in increasing the value and production of the plantation, he still reaps the rewards that flow from it. This sudden wealth, which necessarily imposes great responsibility on Crusoe, makes him “turn pale and [grow] ill” (Defoe 205). Thus, Crusoe acknowledges the wisdom of his father’s advice, that after leaving the island, he is content to live in that average state for many years.
On the island, Crusoe learns that trade is vital to establishing the value of a commodity, for example gold and silver. When Crusoe finds the gold and silver on the ship, he realizes that it has no use for it on the island, because he cannot use it to exchange the money for something it does have a use for. His first inclination is to let the gold and silver sink to the bottom of the ocean, but on second thought, he takes it with him. But since Crusoe cannot change the money, he finds himself “in a drawer” and “mouldy with the dampness of the cave” (Defoe 95).
After Crusoe leaves the island and returns to Europe, he begins to convert the value of all his possessions into gold, silver, and “bills of exchange” (Defoe 207). Likewise, Crusoe decides to liquidate his plantation in Brazil because he has doubts that Catholicism is the right religion for him. He sells it to the children of the trustees of it, who “completely understand the value of it” (Defoe 218). Thus, Crusoe realizes that the products have no value until trade is involved.
Another lesson Crusoe learns on the island is the sinfulness of waste. He realizes that the island offers abundant opportunities for food, fuel, etc. But Crusoe begins to see that: all the good things on this earth are no more good for us than they are for our own use” (Defoe 94). Therefore, if Crusoe kills more than he can eat, or plants more than you can store for later consumption, or cut down more trees than you can find use for, they will all go to waste, as you cannot use them in time before they spoil or rot.
When Crusoe learns of the state of his Brazilian plantation, he is initially at a loss as to what to do with his sudden riches. But remembering the lesson that waste is sinful, he immediately becomes a philanthropist. Crusoe cancels the debt the old Captain owes him, and further establishes an annuity of “100 moidores” and “50 moidores a year” to the Captain’s son (Defoe 206). Likewise, Crusoe sends one hundred pounds each to his sisters and to Crusoe’s widow’s first benefactor, with the promise of more money to come.
Crusoe also grants 500 moidores to the monastery in Brazil and 372 moidores to be used for the benefit of the poor, “as the Prior must order” (Defoe 207). It is very important to note that Crusoe does not send money or gifts to his plantation managers because “they were far above any occasion” (Defoe 207).
Since Crusoe now has more money than is of immediate use, he distributes much to his family, friends, and religious institutions. After his return to England, he adopts two of his nephews and provides them with a home, giving them employment when they come of age. In this way, Crusoe converts much of his wealth to the benefit of others in need.
In the same way, Crusoe applies the lesson he learned on the island about God’s providence for all living things upon his return to civilization. Crusoe reconciles himself to the knowledge that God put him on the island, but realizes that banishment is not so much a punishment as a blessing, as Crusoe might have perished with the rest of the ship’s crew. Crusoe concludes that God put him on the island because he “rejected the voice of providence” that had designed Crusoe for the middle state of life in which he could have been “happy and peaceful” (Crusoe 67 ).
When Crusoe leaves the island, he makes sure it is left uninhabited by mutineers and shipwrecked Spaniards. When it comes to the island, Crusoe takes on a very God-like role, as he provides the men with weapons, tools, seeds, and instructions on how to survive and thrive on the island. Later, Crusoe returns to check on his progress and bring them more goods to help them on the island. Crusoe also brings them a carpenter and a blacksmith, who might have been of great use to Crusoe when he was on the island. Crusoe sails for Brazil after promising the men “not to leave the place” (Defoe 220). From Brazil, he sends more supplies to the island and women to marry the men. Crusoe’s obvious purpose here is to populate and improve the island in accordance with God’s admonition to Adam and Eve to be productive and multiply.
Crusoe learned valuable lessons on the island and changed his attitudes. He became more religious, which is evident in his unwillingness to return to Brazil; before confessing papist he didn’t bother him, but later, when he was already more religious, he couldn’t submit to catholicism. Crusoe also learned the value of hard work and endeavored to ease conditions for the remaining men on the island. These lessons he learned were not forgotten as soon as he stepped onto the ship to sail from his lonely existence on the island.