Daniel Defoe and the Analysis of Panic and Fear in "A Journal of the Plague Year"

• Main Authors: Jiunn-Yuh Su, 蘇俊育
• Other Authors: Rudolphus Teeuwen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/50388927716615267619

碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 92 === Viruses are microscopic biological organisms offensive in nature. Human beings have been combating viruses since times remote. Some battles were won, but never the war. One of the most eminent and destructive epidemics throughout human history is the bubonic plague, better known as the Black Death. Since its first attack on human beings, the casualty count produced by the bubonic plague has been astronomical. The epidemics not only inflict damage physically, but also psychologically on human beings. It is remarkable how such nearly invisible agents can instill so much fear in humans. Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year is a masterpiece in journalistic fiction which brings literature, microbiology, and human behavioral psychology together. The book simply describes scenes from the 1665 London bubonic plague attack through the eyes of a narrator amidst the turmoil. However, it also serves as a guide book to human behavior in desperate times. Defoe vividly describes the plague, the suffering, the horror, and most importantly, the society, the people, and their reactions. With the Journal, Defoe blurred the line between factual and fictitious writing. He wrote a fiction based on factual data which very probably served as a warning aimed at public awareness towards epidemics. Some suspect that the Journal was merely an instrument of government propaganda; whichever the case, this book still constitutes as a milestone in epidemic literature as well as journalistic fiction. This thesis aims mainly at analyzing the relationship between the plague and humans. It is interesting to observe how the plague changed human behavior and induced some of the most common flaws in human character out of deep fear: mutual distrust, paranoia, superstition, opportunism, madness, anger, and hostility. The fragility and vulnerability of the human psyche are exposed in epidemic times such as in the recent SARS outbreak. Unavoidably, the destructiveness of the plague makes it evil in human eyes. However, it is possible to discover the positive and constructive sides of the plague instead of just the negative attributes. People tend to rely on religion in seeking comfort, explanation, and spiritual support. There are people who devote themselves to religion as well as those who choose a different path. At the end of the discussion, we take a look at how religion plays an important role in counteracting the epidemics’ delirious effect on human beings.