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The concept of “FEAR” in Daniel Defoe’s novel
CONTENTS
“ Robinson Crusoe”.
The world view is the universal schemata devoid of national ethnocultural component. The point is that the world view is really a common contrust for the community based upon the individual one. The speaker employing it introduces his own opinion, interpretation. That’s language image never directly corresponds to a certain object of reality. It always contains speaker’s view of the object. And even if s/he wants to reveal it with maximum resemblance to the original, it’s impossible. In other words the language world view differs from objective world due to the spesific features of a separate individual culturerevealed in the language. During the interpretation of reality some qualities of the object, which are of no importance, may be lost, while the important ones are preserved. That is some information is a basic one, the other – new, the most important at the moment.
The problem here is that what is new for one speaker may be basic for other. To solve this problem, linguistics proved that the only important qualities of language ere those which are reflected in speaker’s speech.
To demonstrate the world view picture on the example, let’s interpret Robinson Crusoe’s viewing of the world. The example taken from Daniel Defoe’s novel “Robinson Crusoe” is a good one because the main character has an opportunity to interpret the two kinds of world. The one is a modern society Robinson used to live in, the other is quite opposite to the first one, a world of dispair, fear, anger, loneliness…
Having found himself on a deserted island, the character of Defoe gave way to dispair and fear, lost control over himself, ability to think logically. There was something in his character which allowed him to go through all the difficulties which he faced so many times. As he said “No matter how complicated my situation wasmy mind began to struggle with the fear which preoccupied my thoughts”. We can consider the concept of fear to be the main one in the novel. Reading the novel a reader can notice the change of the concept in the novel. At first it was fear of being devoured by animals, that’s the instinct of life preservation was a dominating one ( e.g “…repose, but durst not sleep for fear of being devoured; …at the approach of night I slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures; the fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I never slept in quiet; …whither to go for provisions and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; …lodged in the tree all night for fear of being devoured by wild beasts…).
fear of human beings ( e.g. …of the fear of men…)
fear of God, his revenge ( e.g …all life is the most destitute of the fear of God.)
fear of death.
The main reason for the author’s revealing the feeling of fear was that he aimed at showing the misery of human beings in extreme situations, when they are out of their usual place, out of being the master of the situation. In such situations s/he usually loses his/her human values. So, under such circumstances this feeling
and the feeling of self-preservation determines the actions of the main character. As Robinson Crusoe said: “Oh, what rediculous resolutions men take when posessed with fear!”In this case Robinson considered if a person managed to stay alive after the disaster, s/he should go on living and find the way out of any situation. According to Robinson’s conclusion a human being may feel fear, disappointment, anger, loneliness but any negative situation has something positive.
As we see, in the centre of the novel there is a human being, its problems, views of the situation, thoughts, interests, desires. So, the procedure of creating the world picture is always connected with the reconstruction of a certain system of the human knowledge. That’s why it’s often called the cognitive analyses which aimes at describing different cognitive abilities of a human being. Now we can say with sure that the world picture is an antropocentric one. On the example of Robinson Crusoe, we can say that even in a difficult situation a human being remains to be a human being and never betrays his/her interests, values, views, interests. He just renewed the conditions he used to live in using them on the island thus saving his life.
Concept is a central notion in cognitive theory and is referred to various language units, first of all to those3 which signify ordinary classes, situations and persons. The main feature of the concept is its ability to combine with other concepts, that’s why each concept has its domain and they form structure. Domains in their turn form a background out of which the concept is singled out. Every concept can be expressed with the help of the semantic field (a number of units of the same part of speech, connected with the help of the common component, sememe). Now let’s take the concept of “fear” which is used in the novel 41 times.
FEAR
n. the instinctive imotion aroused by impending or seeming danger, pain or evel.
an instance or manifestation of such a feeling.
a state or condition of alarm or dread.
Extreme reverence or awe, as toward a supreme power.
Anxious concern
Reason for alarm // a state marked by this emotion
A ground for dread or apprehension; possibility of danger
v. to be afraid of // to imagine or assume in fear // to regret politely or conventionally // to revere with awe // to be anxious or apprehensive about // to suspect // to feel fear within oneself // to be frightened or terrified.
Semantic components of the concept of “FEAR” are dread, fright, alarm, panic, trepidation, dismay, horror, consternation, anxiety, cowardice, scare, timidity, awe.
FEAR is the most general term (concept) and implies anxiety and usually loss of courage (fear of the unknown).
DREAD adds the idea of intense reluctance to face or meet a person or situation and suggests aversion as well as anxiety.
FRIGHT implies shock of sudden, starling fear.
ALARM suggests a sudden and intense awareness of immidiate danger.
PANIC implies unreasoning and overmastering fear causing histerical activity; strong, sudden fear.
TREPIDATION apprehension or dread characteristically marked by trembling or hesitancy.
DISMAY sudden loss of courage or power to act effectively.
HORROR is a combination of fear and aversin.
CONSTERNATION is the state of being confounded or made confused and helpless.
ANXIETY intense fear or dread lacking an unambiguous cause or a spesific threat.
In the text the concept of fear is expressed very brightly, having a great power to express the inner world of the main character as a wonderfull representative of a human being.
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