Daniel Defoe’s Roxana: Puritanism and Its Subversion

Abstract

The narrative of the adventures of Roxana is described in the preface as a warning against various inappropriate behaviours, but Daniel Defoe’s novel as a whole includes a number of contradictory perspectives which undercut many of the Puritan values that its official and prefatory purpose tries to reassert. The heroine herself seems to enjoy rather than regrets the many drawbacks and misdeeds she indulges in by describing them at great length and with great gusto. This article studies the default lines of Roxana’s confession beyond the Puritan perspective by exploring the manner in which Roxana’s ambiguous re-telling hovers between qualification and pleasure.