Charlotte Joo
 Context
 Overview
of the story
 The Isle of Pines as a commentary on 17th
Century England
 Paternal Power
 Religion
 Race
 Adherence to utopia?
 Personal reflections and conclusion
 Henry
Neville- republican
 Published in 1668 anonymously in guise
of a travel pamphlet
 First phase of restoration, time where
England’s identity as a nation was in
question
 Anglo-Dutch war
 Story not based at present time, but
under the rule of Queen Elizabeth
A
Dutch ship is driven to an island due to
bad weather
 On the island the crew find about two
thousand people
 They are all the descendants of George
Pine
 Pine leaves a letter with his grandson
detailing his story – this is how the Dutch
come to understand the state of the
island
 Pine
was part of a crew whose ship was
wrecked near to the island
 Only he and four women survive- the
daughter of his master, two white women
and a ‘negro’, Phillipa
 The island is initially a utopia, with no
creatures to hurt them and enough
subsistence
 Pine begins to engage in sexual relations
with all of the women, including Phillipa,
despite initial reservations
All of the women reproduce and eventually their
children do also, explaining the island’s large
population
 His children are grouped based on their mother
into the English, Sparks, Trevors and Phills
 After the death of Pine and his lovers the island is
left on the brink of civil war due to the unruly
behaviour of the Phills- the descendants of
Phillipa
 This is the point at which the Dutch arrive
 The Dutch help quell an uprising, but leave the
island in an uncertain state

 Pine’s
concern about presentation of
England and behaviour of Charles II
manifests in text
 Issues with Charles’ promiscuity and the
impact of women on his rule
 Pine acts as both father and king
 Use of pronouns- in control of women, even
with seduction of Phillipa
 His social status fluid and upwardly mobile
while the women remain the same
 Women dependent on him
 Has all the tools for survival
 Does all the work
 Male satisfaction primary throughout
 Kingship represented in passing island on
to his son
 Women are passive
 Parallels
with Adam and Noah
 ‘mischief began to rise and they soon fell
from those good orders prescribed to
them by my grandfather’
 Instructed not to forget religion
 7 days to establish themselves on the
island
 Rules reminiscent of the 10
commandments
 ‘God had otherwise provided for us’
 (on the Bible) ‘I charged that it should
be
read once a moneth’
 When on the brink of death ‘charged them
(his children) to remember the Christian
religion’,
 ‘praying to God to multiply them and send
them the light of the Gospel, I last of all
dsmist them’
 Tells son ‘not to let religion die with him, but
to observe and keep those precepts which
he had taught them’
 First
utopia that was not racially
homogenous
 National identity of the island built out of
interracial crossing
 Pine’s relationship with Phillipa used as a
device by Neville
 Presented differently from the outset
 Commentary on colonialism and intermarriage/relations in the colonies
 Phils- the tribe of Phillipa’s children bring
the island into disarray
 Punishment for Pine for lying with a Phillipa
 Questioned
whether the island was real or
not when published
 People believed it and wanted it to be true
‘for the work promised a better life, sexual
liberty and economic opportunities- all in
an earthly paradise’
 Result of a vision of a founding father
 Influence of rules to contain unruly people
 Neville’s background in utopian literature –
Harrington
 Word play- anagram of Pines
 Studied
in many different formsrestoration satire, travel literature, utopia
 What initially seems utopian is not
 A dystopia?
 Society only managed with the help of
the Dutch
 State of Civil War
 Commentary
on many issues important to
Neville/ society at the time
 Each offers an interpretation, but are
mutually exclusive
 Key themes useful for interpretation:
 Paternal Power
 Religion
 Race
 Primary purpose: Providing a commentary
on 17th Century England
 Highlighting republicanism as desirable to
a monarchy