Roxana’s Search for Identity in Daniel Defoe’s Roxana Essay -- Roxana

Roxanas Search for Identity in Daniel Defoes RoxanaIn all of Daniel Defoes major works, his characters always notice a need to narrate their history, specifically through the adventures they had rather than any description of who they were. Some people would suggest that this compulsion to give such an greenback reveals a burden of guilt the narrator is trying to free him or herself from, and an attempt to feel more secure in terms of identity. In the article, why Roxana Can Never Find Herself, Peter New offers his theory to explain why Defoes characters, and Roxana in specific, are unable to obtain any real pledge of identity, even though they employ this method to achieve it. In News definition, a secure identity can only be achieved through a fully ac have intercourseledgment and virtuoso of pride in ones history. Roxana does try to define herself in terms of what she has done rather than who she is, which is an acknowledgment of her past. However, she tells her story because she wants to gain a sense of two freedom and trade protection, but the two are mutually exclusive. If Roxana writes as a penitent, she is choosing to be free from her past, or to disown it, thereby losing her security of identity. However, if she chooses security and owns up to all that she has been, then she can never be freed from her burden of guilt. Thus she is both trying to embrace and to reject her own history (318). We hear this tendency towards confusion and contradiction in Roxana all throughout the novel. She is constantly rationalizing her actions in the past, but immediately following that with a description of her feelings of guilt and regret. In News interpretation, it is this tendency which proves that Roxana can never really find herself becaus... ...this theory to show that although Roxana is desperately trying to define herself and discover her true identity, ironically, her selves will never be able to be integrated. His final conclusion about Roxanas charac ter is that She is condemned to search for an identity in the story of her selves and be unable ever to find it, because she both wants and does not want to be legion (329). This article presents an interesting, and valid argument about the character of Roxana in all her complexities. However, I think other arguments could be as plausible, depending on your viewpoint of Roxana. Are we to see her as insecure in her identity and confused as to what she wants? And if so, can we ever really know her true character if she cannot ever know her self? Work CitedNew, Peter. Why Roxana Can Never Find Herself. The Modern Language Review 91 (1996) 317-329.