If one were to define ‘isolation’, it could be defined as the separation of a defined set

(single entity or a specific group) from the whole universal set under consideration or study.

It comes from the Latin word insula which means ‘island’. This trope is used to bring out

certain individualistic attributes of a character or provide a particular vision of the person

(usually protagonist) in question. This paper aims to advance the theme of isolation and

individualistic approach to it in Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, aided by a movie, set in

an urban locale- Trapped, by Vikramaditya Motwane starring Rajkumaar Rao. The cinematic

and literary works bring to light two very different sides of isolation. The reaction of the

individual protagonists and the effect that isolation has on them is also very unlike.

What strikes one is how both the novel and book begin by showing the protagonists in

question leading an extremely mundane and normal life. One could relate them to the average

working man. However, this routine life is disrupted by desire. We see Crusoe’s longing to be

at sea as a desire that kicks off his predicament while the movie in question sets love as what

the protagonist desires. Crusoe’s father says at the beginning of the text- “That boy might be

happy if he would stay at home; but if he goes abroad, he will be the most miserable wretch

that ever was born: I can give no consent to it.” This is possibly done to establish what

‘normalcy’ is to the society that he belongs to. The adventures and what his life plays out to

be is out of the ordinary, and hence, it becomes almost mandatory to show why things went

the way they did in the first place. Crusoe’s father tells him that the working middle class is

the most comfortable position to live in within the society. Despite his father’s repeated

warnings, Crusoe compulsively ventures out one day. In Trapped, Shaurya courts a woman

already engaged to another man. Moreover, he asks her to elope with him. Despite the

societal laws preventing him from doing so, he risks it all and goes ahead and rents the flat,

that too illegally. There is thirst for fulfilment of a desire, and the willingness to take risks

and breaking through societal norms for the same. Thus, this desire for freedom from society,
and breaking the normalcy is what causes isolation in the two fictional pieces of work, in the

first place.

The politics of space and topography comes into play while determining the form of

isolation in both cases. In Robinson Crusoe, the protagonist is shown to be stranded on an

island that seems uninhabited. The vastness of space and freedom to move around freely and

fend for oneself causes Crusoe to think himself the “supreme” of the island. He turns it into

his kingdom. He builds his own fortress and grows his own food. The circumstance is

apparently devoid of threats. The “solitary condition” on the island, as Crusoe puts it, offers a

certain amount of freedom and can be called the rustic form of isolation given the locales it is

based in, the self-sustained agrarian utilitarian economy that it represents, and the kind of

monopolistic dominion that Crusoe creates within the scope of the space and resources

available. There is a certain sense of complacency and achievement in Crusoe’s tone when he

says, “I had nothing to covet, for I had all that I was now capable of enjoying; I was lord of

the whole manor; or, if I pleased, I might call myself king or emperor over the whole country

which I had possession of…”.

In Trapped, the physical space is extremely limited. Shaurya is to make do with the

very basic bare minimums available to him. To a city dweller used to the luxuries of life, that

in itself becomes a difficult task. The unavailability of basic food and water makes things

worse. Also, ironically, Shaurya chose the apartment because of the very fact that it provided

isolation from city life. City life traps a human within a certain physical space and limits him

or her to that. This leads to a social claustrophobia and constant longing to break free of the

shackles of daily routine. On the other hand, isolation in the apartment or his entire lifestyle,

not only isolates the protagonist, but also limits his freedom of movement. It can be referred

to as the urban isolation.

 This form of isolation, we see, is not absolutely non-existent in Robinson Crusoe.

When Crusoe is rescued and taken back to the city life and society, he feels a sense of

disconnect and listlessness; he craves more adventure and wants to travel farther and wider.

The disconnect with the society is so much so that he doesn’t even mention other people in

his life in detail. Even the death of his wife is discussed in passing to chronologically bridge

the gap between two incidents in his own life- “…but my wife dying, and my nephew coming

home with good success from a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his

importunity, prevailed and enagaged me to go in his ship as a private trader to the East

Indies…”

It is interesting to note how our perception of space defines our attitude towards

isolation. Crusoe, in his self-constructed haven which he refers to as his kingdom, is isolated

from the world as a whole. He takes pride in the kind of isolation that is bestowed upon him

and has almost a narcissistic approach to the entire construction of his own world- “At last,

being eager to view the circumference of my little kingdom, I resolved upon my cruise…”.

Crusoe, in the book, is shown to be comfortable and almost adverse to the idea of being

rescued. He does not want to return to the life he belonged to and feels more alienated and

isolated in that space of society than he feels in this literal incarceration of him on this island.

He tells the reader, “From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was possible

for me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition than it was probable I should ever

have been in any other particular state in the world…”

Shaurya, on the other hand, is not very comfortable with the idea of his isolation from

the world. It is literal isolation from resources and society, but his approach to it was

desperate and one of longing to return to his natural life. The very chaos of life he wanted to

escape looked like the only companion his self had had in the first place. He longs to be back
in the society and desperately attempts to communicate through self made fire torches, and

signals.

In the movie, we see a desperate attempt to escape, regardless of the time that has

passed, while Crusoe looks like he could do away with being rescued. However, there are

lapses in Crusoe’s comfort and ease with solitude sometimes, especially when he calls the

island a “prison” at the beginning of his stay- “…for though I was indeed at large in the

place, yet the island was certainly a prison to me, and that in the worse sense in the world.”

But then again, he seems to be at peace with his solitude on the island when he speaks of only

animals who give him company and the human societal order is absent- “With this attendance

and in this plentiful manner I lived; neither could I be said to want anything but society; and

of that, some time after this, I was likely to have too much.” This escape from human

interaction is a welcome change for him unlike Shaurya in the movie who craves to be back

with the human societal order despite trying to run away from it before being trapped.

Robinson Crusoe is shown by the author to be more at peace with his isolation and he

accepts where he is in life. There is no anxiety that we see, the marooning has caused. The

concerns that hit Crusoe are far more religious and related to survival. His loneliness doesn’t

bother him. But then again, we are acquainted with the fact that this oblivion to solitude was

not built in a day and he’d had his fair share of loneliness that hit him in the beginning- “and I

had not been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all comfort and company as I now

was. This forced tears to my eyes again.” To keep his speech intact, he is shown to pray out

loud. Crusoe leads a happy life on the island and is satisfied with the kingdom that he has

established. He seems to have an upper hand in the dealings on the island. Friday and the

other stranded people are shown to work under him. This could be a slight indication to the

colonial supremacy that he had earlier enjoyed on land. The sense of superiority is threatened

when he sees footprints on the sand implying how Crusoe had found comfort in isolation and
felt threatened in company. The colonial supremacy manifests itself in Crusoe’s dealing with

other people. Although he hated being a slave himself, he did not spare a thought before

selling Xury off, or exercising his rights on Friday. This sense of authority is exemplified in

his narrative when he tells us- “I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command; I

could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away, and no rebels among my subjects.”

On the other hand, Trapped shows its protagonist in all his desperation. The situation

he is trapped in is not compatible with his lifestyle. He does not command supremacy in this

case. A house rat is shown to command over him on a number of occasions. For example,

when there are these couple of minutes that the tap sprouts water for, Shaurya merely stands

and watch the water flow instead of drinking it or filling his bottle just because the rat is

present nearby. His fear of rats keeps him away. Later, the desperation reaches such heights

where Shaurya is forced to drink his own urine out of thirst. He starts to hallucinate about

food, going out with his beloved, enjoying himself in his ‘normal’ life. While Crusoe is

shown to handle isolation with grace and acceptance, the movie shows the urban setup where

impatience is widespread, and Shaurya tries desperately to exit the isolation, even if it meant

cutting his arms with a shard of glass to use as makeshift ink to call for help. Crusoe likes this

life away from the malice, cunning, jealousy, and evils of the society. He does not wish to go

back to that life where absolute freedom from materialism is not possible like it is on the

island. In Trapped, we see Shaurya hallucinating about the life he hates. All the things that he

hated doing or that happened to his own self, he craved for it all in the end.

What we can, thus safely conclude is that isolation as a trope has been used in both

the first novel in the language as well as this thriller from Bollywood. There is a tropic

binding of these two works of fiction even though they are several centuries apart. What one

can refer to as rustic isolation from centuries ago was a literal isolation from the society, but

the kind of solitude and alienation one faces today in dealing with a fast-paced life is two-
fold: there is anxiety in living a life of solitude amidst a crowd, but also a fear of losing out

on that crowd and life. Thus, we see how the theme of isolation holds much relevance even

today, if not more, in order for our works of fiction to be a mirror to the society. This paper

is, therefore, relevant to identifying how the major overlying theme of isolation that we find

in Robinson Crusoe is relevant even today and will continue to be so for a long time now.