(a) As the middle classes became more affluent, women got
more leisure time to read and write novels. Also, novels began
to explore the world of women, their emotions, identities,
experiences and problems. Domestic life became an essential
subject of novels- a field women had an authority to speak
about.
(b) Robinson Crusoe's actions that make us see him as a typical
colonizer are many. Shipwrecked on an island inhabited by
coloured people, Crusoe treats them as inferior beings. He is
portrayed as "rescuing" a native and then making him a slave.
He gives him the name Friday, without even caring to ask for his
name. Colonized people were seen as barbaric and primitive,
and colonialism became their self-professed civilizer. Crusoe was
a direct representation of this ideology of colonizers.
(c) After 1740, the readership of novels began to include poorer
people because of the introduction of circulating libraries, low priced books, and also because of the system of hiring out of
books by the hour. This made books easily available to the poor
people, who could not afford books earlier due to high costs and
absence of lending libraries.
(d) Novelists in colonial India wrote for a political cause because
the novel was a powerful medium for expressing social defects
and suggesting remedies for the same. It also helped establish a
relationship with the past. Since people from all walks of life
could read novels, it was an easy way to popularize anti-colonial
ideas. It also helped bring about a sense of national unity among
the people.
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