Throughout the novel, Robinson consistently describes his experiences with hyperbolic language. He frequently uses superlatives: his father uses the "most affectionate manner" to persuade him; the storm leaves his body "most inexpressibly sick"; the clear sea was "the most delightful [sight] that ever [he] saw"; his decision to leave Brasil for Guinea was "the most preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances could be guilty of"; the rocks that got him onto the island recovered him "from the most desperate hopeless condition that ever [he] had been in, in all [his] life."
Robinson also frequently writes that it is impossible to express or describe or imagine how a certain thing looked or felt. For example, it is "impossible to express the astonishment" of the indigenous people that Robinson and Xury encounter on the coast of Africa when he shoots his gun. In addition, he finds it "impossible to express the terror" of a nightmare, even if he goes on to quite aptly capture it for the reader. When he comes across a passage from the Bible that soothes him, he writes that it is "impossible to express the comfort this gave [him]"—even if he, once again, quite sufficiently captures the feeling in question for the reader. He claims that words cannot capture his emotions, but usually goes on to effectively apply words to his experiences and inner struggles.
To some degree, the hyperbolic tendencies of the character can be understood as a standard of Defoe's day. Just as we use exaggerated words and phrases to express ourselves today, these hyperbolic expressions were normal figures of speech in the eighteenth century. And, given the genre of literary realism, it was especially important for Defoe that characters should express themselves in the way that real people express themselves. However, the narrator's frequent employment of hyperbole is also related to his narrative aims.
Robinson's tendency to use hyperbolic expressions may seem to run counter to his otherwise practical and precise narrative approach. This penchant for exaggeration underlines the conflicting parts of his personality and the balancing act he carries out in his narrative aims: he is devoted to details and specificity, but is also committed to holding onto his reader by sustaining the underlying adventurous mood of the story. He also seems to find it important to leave his reader impressed by everything he has lived through and survived, and so he evidently uses hyperbole to dramatize his struggles.
In the second chapter of the novel, Robinson uses personification and metaphor to exaggerate the might of the ocean:
I expected every wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never rise more.
This quote comes from the first storm that Robinson experiences. He personifies the ocean, describing it as a living force that is capable of swallowing up the ship and everyone aboard. This image of the swallowing ocean returns later in the hurricane that results in the shipwreck.
In the second storm that Robinson experiences, he says that the "sea went mountains high" and that this tempestuous experience makes his heart die. The metaphor of the ocean as mountainous returns several times throughout the novel.
Through this hyperbolic language, Robinson identifies the ocean as one of his fiercest opponents early on in the narrative. Not only does he emphasize that he had naively and grossly underestimated the power of the sea before his first voyage, he also makes it clear that he will be at the mercy of the ocean throughout the narrative and for the rest of his seafaring life.
Robinson discusses the barbarity of the Spanish Empire a few times in the novel. Like many Englishmen of his era, he was convinced that the Spanish Empire was much more violent and much less just than the English empire. This conviction shapes his decision-making at certain points.
For example, in Chapter 15, he dissuades himself from going on a killing spree of the "savages," because that would make him just as bad as the Spaniards. He describes the conduct of the Spaniards hyperbolically, with more passion than he normally tends to use:
"That this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards in all their barbarities practis’d in America, and where they destroyed millions of these people [...] and that the rooting them out of the country, is spoken of with the utmost abhorrence and detestation, by even the Spaniards themselves, at this time; and by all other Christian nations of Europe, as a meer butchery, a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either to God or man; and such, as for which the very name of a Spaniard is reckon’d to be frightful and terrible to all people of humanity, or of Christian compassion."
He also later claims, upon making contact with the Spanish prisoner in Chapter 22, that he would rather be eaten alive by the cannibals than go to Spain. The reader is not sure whether to believe this statement, given that getting to Spain would bring him much closer to returning to England. The hyperbole of the statement is also reinforced by the fact that he has long been obsessed by his fear of the cannibals and his desire to avoid a confrontation with them. Nonetheless, it is important for emphasizing his distrust of the Spanish:
"And that I had rather be deliver'd up to the savages, and be devour'd alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the priests, and be carry'd into the Inquisition."
Robinson's hyperbolic view of the cruelty of the Spaniards—probably also based in anti-Catholic beliefs—is an important historical marker. Even when he has lived in isolation from European society and imperial conflict, the character is profoundly shaped by the attitudes and myths of the colonial era. Ultimately, Robinson cannot genuinely have seen Spain as he claims to in these moments, given that he both makes friends with Spaniards and visits Spain before the novel's end.
Robinson discusses the barbarity of the Spanish Empire a few times in the novel. Like many Englishmen of his era, he was convinced that the Spanish Empire was much more violent and much less just than the English empire. This conviction shapes his decision-making at certain points.
For example, in Chapter 15, he dissuades himself from going on a killing spree of the "savages," because that would make him just as bad as the Spaniards. He describes the conduct of the Spaniards hyperbolically, with more passion than he normally tends to use:
"That this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards in all their barbarities practis’d in America, and where they destroyed millions of these people [...] and that the rooting them out of the country, is spoken of with the utmost abhorrence and detestation, by even the Spaniards themselves, at this time; and by all other Christian nations of Europe, as a meer butchery, a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either to God or man; and such, as for which the very name of a Spaniard is reckon’d to be frightful and terrible to all people of humanity, or of Christian compassion."
He also later claims, upon making contact with the Spanish prisoner in Chapter 22, that he would rather be eaten alive by the cannibals than go to Spain. The reader is not sure whether to believe this statement, given that getting to Spain would bring him much closer to returning to England. The hyperbole of the statement is also reinforced by the fact that he has long been obsessed by his fear of the cannibals and his desire to avoid a confrontation with them. Nonetheless, it is important for emphasizing his distrust of the Spanish:
"And that I had rather be deliver'd up to the savages, and be devour'd alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the priests, and be carry'd into the Inquisition."
Robinson's hyperbolic view of the cruelty of the Spaniards—probably also based in anti-Catholic beliefs—is an important historical marker. Even when he has lived in isolation from European society and imperial conflict, the character is profoundly shaped by the attitudes and myths of the colonial era. Ultimately, Robinson cannot genuinely have seen Spain as he claims to in these moments, given that he both makes friends with Spaniards and visits Spain before the novel's end.
