I’m interested in learning about the beginnings of newspapers, as Defoe claims that they did not exist in the 1660s, but in my research on The Review Defoe was publishing a paper in 1703, so did Defoe invent the newspaper? It seems odd that it would go from something that did not exist at all to something commonplace in 3 decades. Did newspapers perhaps exist in some other form that either Defoe was not aware of or that he dismisses?
I had previously said, in my learning journal, that I don't care for the discussion of how much of it is fiction and how much is fact, because it doesn't really matter. But the more I read along, I find that the accounts, especially of specific stories on certain streets, houses, become a bit more ridiculous. So I think to fictionalize to that extent . . . well, a problem arises. The problem is of intention. Because its one thing to sort of imagine parts to fill in the gap of what you couldn't have known, and I think its another to editorialize.
I am almost tempted to say we should read the original journal/ account . . . isnt this based on some other guys real writing? Because then we could weight it out.
We start to hear about the narrator but I thought I overheard some people saying he was only young when this happened so I am a bit confused?
We learn more about who the narrator is, what he does. He goes on to describe the importance of his goods and possessions. While his home, business and possessions were important to him, during the plague he learned about true priorities and began to see that one’s health and family are of more importance. He learns from others to “trust God with my safety and health”. Religion began to play a big role in the lives of Londoners.
“Weekly Bill of Mortality”- it is evident that this is how everyone was receiving their information on how bad the Plague was getting. Just wondering who would have been in charge of the bills and what did they look like? How would they have been distributed?
As we talked about in class, some of his stuff can be quite funny: "It was a very ill time to be sick in, for if any one complained, it was immediately said he had the plague;"
The more I read this, the more it seems to me like the towns were preparing for the apocalypse. With the Mayan calendar ending in December and many fearing the end of the world, this work resonates with the thoughts of an impending apocalypse.
How does Defoe feel about what he is writing? When he describes the scene, he only talks of people as a number. "The usual number of burials within the bills of mortality for a week was from about 240 or thereabouts to 300. The last was esteemed a pretty high bill; but after this we found the bills successively increasing. . ." (14) ["There are moments when the narrator goes beyond all the numbers, when he talks about the misery, the horror, the melancholy. In these moments we see his emotions twards the plague rather than him acting as a statistician."]
Here Defoe speaks of the people leaving town to escape the spread of the plague. The narrator gets pretty emotional while watching this go on. For most of the work Defoe just brings up numbers and statistics, and the reader might not really think about the misery that came along with these numbers, the families and lives affected by this disease. But when Defoe describes the plague as “misery” and “melancholy” the readers then begin to feel sympathetic and disheartened.
What is his purpose in using such great amounts of details? maybe this is just to make people believe that he is reporting accurately?
Thought: Defoe does not mention why the family of the two men tried to hide the reason why they died, I wonder why. If the two men were already dead, why would they hide the cause of death? Possibly because they were afraid that the community would turn against them or think that they were sick too?
How did people feel about religion during the plague? When Defoe says he would put in trust in God to keep him safe rather than leave the city, he brother says, "is it not as reasonable that you should trust God with the chance or risk of losing your trade, as that you should stay in so eminent a point of danger, and trust Him with your life?" (18-19) ["I also wrote about the plague / role of religion (and its link to astrology and other beliefs) during the Plague Year."]["Religion is an interesting topic to discuss. What is the narrator saying about people's beliefs? That it is real or fake? I think paganism is also a big thing in this work."]
I was also really interested in the supposed "omens" he describes even later on.I found it amusing when he described the huge comet and goes on to say that "I saw both these stars, and, I must confess, had so much of the common notion of such things in my head, that I was apt to look upon them as the forerunners and warnings of God’s judgements," as though, of course, any rational and well-learned person would see them as such.
But what baffled me was the barely concealed hypocrisy and conflicting beliefs H.F exhibits when he mocks the other villagers for believing in astrology:
This may be a dumb one: but where the heck is St. Gilie’s anyways? And how far away would it have been from Defoe, or what is just a name of a grave yard?
In the opening paragraphs Defoe repeatedly quotes fairly high mortality rates, however, the number of people that die from the plague seems relatively in relation to the number of people that die in total. Death is obviously a larger part of life during the 18th century and people would be accustomed to having moderate levels of death. Thus, it seems that Defoe is presenting the emotion of fear of imminent doom brought on from a much more widespread epidemic.
Safe to say that elite, upper class, wealthy people fled (not so reliant on their business), while the majority of Londoners stayed, risking infection, for practical reasons?
The way that Defoe's brother is talking about predestination makes me wonder if he is a Calvinist.
I wonder how many lives would have been saved if the first few people admitted they had it?
The section about Defoe turning over the pages of the Bible and just as he is calling out for God's help, stumbles upon an inspirational passages seems too forced. It is like Defoe is taking a factual account of events, and implementing fictional devices to propel his work.
His questionable logic confirms his already-held position by finding religious justification for his decision- Defoe is critiquing this top-down decision making rather than bottom-top logic.
Thought: First of all, Defoe has the strangest writing style…is it just me, or is this a HUGE run-on sentence?? I would also like to question why he went into so much description about the weather. Is he trying to say that the city was healthy because it was cold?