the significance of the foot-print episode in Robinson Crusoe

 

Examine the significance of the foot-print episode in Robinson Crusoe.

 

Ans. There are in Robinson Crusoe many thrilling and hair raising episodes. But the foot-print episode is the most mysterious, terrifying, sensational and significant episode of the novel.

 

One day while going towards his boat Crusoe was frightened to see print of a man's naked foot on sand of the shore. He feared as if he has seen a ghost. He looked everywhere about him but found no one else but the foot-print. He ran to his fortress looking behind again and again. He mistook every bush and tree at a distance to be a man. He was so much bewildered that he could not remember whether he entered his room by the ladder or through the door. He explored the possibility of a savage having visited the island. He thought the possibility of the savage coming again. His fear abated his religious thought because he could not pray with the disturbed mind. He thought that God, being angry at his sin had punished him with that foot-print. Some times he thought that the foot-print might merely be his fancy. He dared not get out of his fortress for three days for fear of any evil power. He was starving for want of food. He did not milk his she-goats for some days. He felt always haunted by an evil spirit.

 

Nothing happened for considerable days and Crusoe shed off his fear. He went to the shore to be sure if it was not his own foot-print. He found that the foot-print on the shore was larger than his own foot print. Morever, it could not be his own foot-print as he had never gone thither before. He now thought of destroying his farm house, his country house and his Animal farm in fear that the savages would trace him out through all those arrangements. Then he decided to separate his goats in groups to be kept at different places. He built a second fortress with double walls. The outer wall was thickened and thick grove was let to grow in front of his fortress. Within a few years the grove grew so thick and dense that nobody could imagine any habitation beyond it. He arranged his guns in such a way that he could fire his seven guns in two minutes in any emergency.

 

Significance of the footprint:

 

The foot-print has got a remarkable significance in Literature. L. A. Curlis says that its significance cannot be measured because it is elusive. Its meaning cannot be reduced to a desired effect. It lies beyond rational explanation. It is a mere foot-print but it is larger than life.

1.. Crusoe was eagerly longing for the company of a man. But now he is about to die in fear of the sign of it.

 

2. The sight of the foot-print abated his religious faith and activities. He could pray no more as he lost the peace of mind.

 

3. The sight of the foot-print reminded him of his wicked sin. He thought it was surely Gods creation to terrify Crusoe as the punishment for his sin.

 

4. The foot-print remains a mystery. How is it that it remains there without being blotted out by anything.