Friday (Robinson Crusoe)

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Friday
Robinson Crusoe character
Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday Offterdinger.jpg
Robinson Crusoe and Man Friday by Carl Offterdinger
First appearance Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Last appearance The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719)
Created by Daniel Defoe
Portrayed by Jaime Fernández
William Takaku
Tongayi Chirisa
In-universe information
GenderMale
Nationality Amerindian, possibly Naso
A. F. Lydon illustration, 1865: "Robinson Crusoe and Friday attacking the savages" A. F. Lydon Robinson Crusoe Plate 09 (1865).JPG
A. F. Lydon illustration, 1865: "Robinson Crusoe and Friday attacking the savages"

Friday is one of the main characters of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe and its sequel The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe . Robinson Crusoe names the man Friday, with whom he cannot at first communicate, because they first meet on that day. The character is the source of the expression "Man Friday", used to describe a male personal assistant or servant, especially one who is particularly competent or loyal.

Contents

It is possible that a Miskito pirate by the name of Will became the inspiration for the character Friday.

Character

Robinson Crusoe spends twenty-eight years on an island off the coast of Venezuela with his talking parrot Poll, his pet dog, and a tame goat as his only companions. In his twenty-fifth year, he discovers that Carib cannibals occasionally use a desolate beach on the island to kill and eat their captives.

Crusoe helps one of the Caribs, kept captive and about to be eaten, escape his captors. Crusoe ambushes two pursuers, and the others leave in their canoes without knowing what happened to their companions. The escaped captive bows in gratitude to Crusoe, who decides to employ him as a servant. He names him Friday after the weekday upon which the rescue takes place.

Crusoe describes Friday as being a Native American, though very unlike the Indians of Brazil and Virginia. [1] His religion involves the worship of a mountain god named Benamuckee, officiated over by high priests called Oowokakee. Crusoe learned a few of his native words that have been found in a Spanish-Térraba (or Teribe) dictionary, so Friday may have belonged to that tribe, also called the Naso people. Friday is cannibalistic as well and suggests eating the men Crusoe has killed.

Crusoe teaches Friday the English language and converts him to Christianity. He convinces him that cannibalism is wrong. Friday accompanies him in an ambush in which they save Friday's father.

Crusoe returns to England twenty-eight years after being shipwrecked on that island, and four years after rescuing Friday. Friday's father goes with a Spanish castaway to the mainland to retrieve fourteen other Spanish castaways, but Crusoe and Friday depart the island before they return.

Friday accompanies Crusoe home to England, and is his companion in the sequel The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe , in which Friday is killed in a sea battle.

In Jules Verne's L'École des Robinsons (1882), the castaways rescue an African man on their island who says his name is Carefinotu. T. Artelett proposes to call him Mercredi ("Wednesday"), "as it is always done in the islands with Robinsons," [2] but his master Godfrey prefers to keep the original name.

Film and television adaptations

Idiom

"Crusoe Dilke and Man Friday McKenna," a Punch cartoon c. 1900 depicting banker and politician Reginald McKenna as a loyal servant of Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet. Crusoe Dilke and Man Friday McKenna Punch c1900.png
"Crusoe Dilke and Man Friday McKenna," a Punch cartoon c.1900 depicting banker and politician Reginald McKenna as a loyal servant of Sir Charles Dilke, 2nd Baronet.

The term Man Friday became an idiom to describe an especially faithful servant or one's best servant or right-hand man. [5] The female equivalent is Girl Friday. [6] The July 1, 1912, edition of the news magazine "Industrial World", volume 46, issue 2, published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, uses the term Girl Friday. The title of the 1940 movie His Girl Friday alludes to it and may have popularised it.

Reception

Friday's relationship with Robinson Crusoe has been the subject of academic analysis. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Robinson Crusoe</i> 1719 novel by Daniel Defoe

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robinson Crusoé</span> 1867 opéra comique by Jacques Offenbach, Eugène Cormon, and Hector-Jonathan Crémieux

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Friday is a day of the week.

Will was a Miskito pirate from the Misquito Coast, then part of the Spanish Main. He was left behind on the uninhabited Robinson Crusoe Island, surviving there alone for more than three years. It is possible that Will became the inspiration for Man Friday, the cannibal character in Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe.

Gerald W. Kingsland was a journalist, adventurer, and writer, born and raised in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, England.

<i>Robinson Crusoe</i> (1954 film) 1954 film by Luis Buñuel

Robinson Crusoe is a 1954 adventure film directed by Luis Buñuel, based on the 1719 novel of the same name by Daniel Defoe. It stars Dan O'Herlihy as Crusoe and Jaime Fernández as Friday. Both English and Spanish versions were produced, making it Buñuel's first English-language film.

<i>Mr. Robinson Crusoe</i> 1932 film

Mr. Robinson Crusoe is a 1932 Pre-Code American film. It is one of the few "talkie" films starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., in his penultimate film role; Fairbanks also produced the film and provided the story during the Great Depression. The film was directed by A. Edward Sutherland, a veteran silent film director, for Fairbanks's Elton Productions, and released by United Artists. Steve Drexel shows a fiery optimism and can-do spirit that matches the Fairbanks screen persona that appears in his most popular films.

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is a French-German children's television drama series made by Franco London Films and based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe. The show was first aired in Germany in October 1964 under the title Robinson Crusoe as four 90-minute episodes by co-producers ZDF television, and syndicated in the USA the same year. It was first aired in the UK in 1965 as a 13-part serial. This English dubbed version produced by Henry Deutschmeister also had a new musical soundtrack composed by Robert Mellin and Gian-Piero Reverberi the music composed by Georges Van Parys for the French/German original. The production concentrated not only on events on the island but included Crusoe's other adventures, told in flashback.

<i>Man Friday</i> (film) 1975 film by Jack Gold

Man Friday is a 1975 adventure film directed by Jack Gold and starring Peter O'Toole and Richard Roundtree. It is adapted from the 1973 play by Adrian Mitchell based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe, but reverses the roles, portraying Crusoe as a blunt, stiff Englishman, while the native he calls Man Friday is much more intelligent and empathic. The film can be regarded as being critical of western civilization, against which it draws a contrasting picture of Caribbean tribal life.

<i>Crusoe</i> (TV series) TV series or program

Crusoe is an adventure-drama television series, based loosely on the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. The series' 13 episodes aired on NBC from October 17, 2008, to January 31, 2009, during the first half of the 2008–2009 television season. It follows the adventures of Robinson Crusoe: a man who has been shipwrecked on an island for six years and is desperate to return home to his wife and children. His lone companion is Friday, a native whom Crusoe rescued and taught English.

<i>Little Robinson Crusoe</i> 1924 film by Edward F. Cline

Little Robinson Crusoe is a 1924 American comedy film starring Jackie Coogan. The film was directed by Edward F. Cline and written by Willard Mack.

Robinson Sucroe is an animated series created by France Animation in France and Cinar in Canada. In 2009, it was found to have infringed Claude Robinson's work Les aventures de Robinson Curiosité.

<i>Miss Robin Crusoe</i> 1953 film by Eugene Frenke

Miss Robin Crusoe is a 1953 American low-budget adventure film produced and directed by Eugene Frenke and starring Amanda Blake, George Nader and Rosalind Hayes. One of many film variations of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe, it features a female castaway.

<i>Robinson Crusoe</i> (1902 film) 1902 French film

Robinson Crusoe is a 1902 French silent film directed by Georges Méliès, based on Daniel Defoe's 1719 book of the same name.

<i>Robby</i> (film) 1968 American film

Robby is a 1968 family film written and directed by Ralph C. Bluemke. It is a modern-day retelling of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe in which the main characters are portrayed as children. The film deals with many themes, including friendship, homesickness, racial blindness and naturism.

References

  1. Robinson Crusoe. He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight, strong limbs, not too large; tall, and well-shaped; and, as I reckon, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good countenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in his face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of a European in his countenance, too, especially when he smiled. His hair was long and black, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large; and a great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The colour of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not an ugly, yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other natives of America are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive-colour, that had in it something very agreeable, though not very easy to describe. His face was round and plump; his nose small, not flat, like the negroes; a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and as white as ivory.
  2. L'École des Robinsons, chapter 18, Jules Verne.
  3. "Robby". republished online at fkk-museum.de. p. 2. Archived from the original on 2017-09-04. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
  4. "William Takaku". IMDb.com. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  5. Safire, William (Feb 17, 2008). "Footprint". The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  6. "Definition of GIRL FRIDAY". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  7. Kim, Wook (16 December 2011). "Top 10 Literary Sidekicks". Time. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  8. "How Robinson Crusoe Managed His Man Friday". Psychology Today. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  9. "Colonial Representation in Robinson Crusoe, Heart of Darkness and A Passage to India" (PDF). Dspace.bracu.ac.bd. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 October 2018. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  10. "Postcolonial Problems in Cinematic Adaptations of Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe" (PDF). Dspace.library.uu.nl. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  11. Matthew Watson (2018). "Crusoe, Friday and the Raced Market Frame of Orthodox Economics Textbooks" (PDF). New Political Economy. 23 (5): 544–559. doi: 10.1080/13563467.2017.1417367 . S2CID   158148698 . Retrieved 27 October 2018.