British Colonialism In Daniel Defoes Roxanna English Literature Essay

British Colonialism In Daniel Defoes Roxanna English Literature EssayMax Weber in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism claims that Capitalism educates and selects the economic subjects it involve through a process of survival of the fittest (Weber 154). Weber believes that there is a direct link amongst institutions and individual characters. In early(a) words, cardinal can say that Capitalism would non survive without economic workforce and overly economic men could non maintain their social start without Capitalism. In the following the researcher tries to show that at least certain(a) men and women, were s tracked by the logic of Capitalisms fruitive possibilities.Defoe was intensely interested in capitalistic modes of production, efficiency and improvements and in the exploitation and expansion of new markets along imperialist lines that would favor English trading interests. Defoe was as well interested in the politics of his time and in the social issu es. Defoe was a mature product of the cultural process initiated by Capitalism. In other words he is a master over circumstances, over nature. He has the confidence, notwithstanding his bonny birth, to comment on the social, political, and economic affairs of his day. In turn, Roxana was a woman, who, despite her reverses and her own mediocre birth, could entertain princes and kings.In the beginning of this emerging capitalist interest, and with the thirst of reform, Defoe was able to synchronize in his own life Capitalisms lot of a new social order, of commerces role and change. All his refreshfuls are sizeable in content and context.Roxana has been c e rattling(prenominal)ed by modern critics Defoes darkest novel. Many critics hold in claimed that the greatest difference between Defoe last novel and his earlier works is Roxanas greater gravity. Many critics described it as a novel whose primary fretting is with the psychological nature of Roxana and Amys sin. Roxana has mos t often been appraised as a grade of moral decay, in which the heroine progresses from virtuous poverty to corrupt wealth. Roxana has likewise been criticized as a woman with a cynical attachment toward those who love her and whose keen self-interest places her as the embodiment of Defoes vision of a corrupt society.Roxana is a heroine who rushes toward hearty comfort and self transformation at the price of her soul. Roxanas inhering creation of memory and guilt c at a timerning her various sexual partners, the death of her daughter Susan at the hands of Amy, and the like, becomes the price Roxana pays for the control she assumes in external humans of financial and sexual interests. In this aspect, two factors about Roxana should be accentuate the nature of Roxana as a new economic woman caught between profit and spirituality and the issues of empire and buckle downry which were not only measurable in the fictional life of Roxana, but withal in Defoes life.Considering th e above mentioned remarks, few exemplars are traceable in the novel. For instance, when Roxana discusses the dangers of marrying a foolish maintain her remarks repeat one of Defoes favorite maxims about the nature of commerce, while also underlining the context of commerces multinational nature I was a state of warning for all the Ladies of Europe, against marrying of Fools a Man of Sence falls in the world, and gets-up again, and a Woman has some Chance for herself but with a FOOL Once fall, and ever ruined once in a Ditch, and die in the Ditch once poor, and sure to starve (ibid 96).Roxana addresses her comments to the Ladies of Europe, and Roxana like so many of Defoes novels is at the touch on of attention internationally and all these shows that Roxanas warning have larger international designs. Another example of this imperialist economic instruction can be shew in Sir maskrt Claytons disquisition on prudent money management. As he instructed Roxana, he talks about industry as such If the Gentlemen of England would but act, every family of them would increase their Fortunes to a great degree (ibid 167).That international commerce and empire are part of the overall fabric of Roxana is also evident in the rituals of adornment which Roxana undergoes with each of her lovers. Because the English female body and female dressing were powerful motives of 18th centurys imperialist ideology. Roxanas Turkish dress is an example of this motif. This dress comes to the hands of Roxana from a Malthese Man of War, which had captured as spoils a Turkish ship and enslaved its passengers, one of which Roxana bought during her tour of Italy (ibid 173-174).This dress enables Roxana to market herself to English apostrophize culture. Roxana explains that Notion of the King being the Person that dancd with me, puffd me upto that Degree that I was very far knowing myself (ibid 177). Further, this dress is also, as Roxana emphasizes, a counterpart to the slave she purchases. She says I bought the rich clothes tooas a Curiosity, having never seen the like (174). Here Roxana confronts the other in the form of a person, and the material culture of that other. The dress is explained as extraordinary fine indeed the Robe was a fine Persian, or India Damask embroidered with Gold, and set with Pearl in the Work, and some Turquoise stones(ibid 174).Both the slave and the dress are also delivered to Roxana through the agency of imperialist aggression- by the acts of a Malthese Man of War (ibid174). Significantly, Roxana who is without Amy on her travels throughout Italy uses her slave as a means to instal the dress, with its various decorations, on her body. In other words, she learned how to cover herself in the dress of the other with the aid of an other. Literally, Roxana is using the local noesis of the Turkish womans material culture in order to use that knowledge to her value and this is a approximate example of the methodology of imperiali st expansion.On the other hand, Roxanas dress is an historic metaphor for imperial expansion another important metaphor is her purchase of a slave. Defoe, like many of his contemporaries during the proterozoic eighteenth century, was ambivalent about the issue of slavery in other words, Defoe was no abolitionist. Defoe demonstrated his ambivalence toward the slave trade by largely giving it strong support to increase his nations share of the market in human chattel, and in the African trade in general.Like Defoe, Roxana was also interested in what profits she could reap from the slave trade. She versed herself in the culture of the Turkish woman she bought from the Malthese, so one can assumes that Roxana did not find her slave, or her slaves manners, repugnant or distasteful. In dressing for her mo husband, Roxana even set her picture in diamonds above her heart, which was a preen among the Eastern peoples (ibid 247). In fact, in learning the language of the Turkish woman, Roxa na desire to know this Turkish slave and her culture in a way that was far much intimate than most Westerners at this time could have claimed or even imagined. The knowledge Roxana acquired of her Turkish slave is used to fare her socially and for a time, in London court society. Therefore, for Defoe and Roxana alike, prosperity could be found in the slave trade, and in the monies and knowledge of the world found in that trade. Like Defoe, Roxana claims that I could give up my virtue, but not give up my money (ibid147).In conclusion, while Roxana is a novel with an emphasis on the psychology of sin, that psychology is informed by more than just her own guilt, and her quest for individuality. It is informed by issues that concerned her cleric trade, imperialism, and slavery. Each was used to create networks of knowledge and power over the world within sight of both Defoe and Roxana. Like any other good capitalist, they both used knowledge to further their own ends. The acquisitio n of this knowledge was, in turn, directed toward populations of others- Africans, Arabs, Native Americans, etc. who could most readily behave their interests. For Defoe it was in form of improving Britains economy and social structure and for Roxana in the form of improving ones social status. Therefore, Roxana, as a creation of Defoe, mirror Defoes life as a capitalist. Yet she mirrored it as a seeker of personal aggrandizement than as a person attached to seeing Britain flourish. In conclusion, this may ultimately explain Roxanas fall.