The narrator of the story. Crusoe sets sail at nineteen years of age, despite his father's demand that he stay at home and be content with his "middle station" in life. Crusoe eventually establishes a farm in Brazil and realizes he is living the life his father planned for him, but he is half a world away from England. Crusoe agrees to sail to the Guinea Coast to trade for slaves, but when a terrible storm blows up, he is marooned on an island, alone. He spends 35 years there, and his time on the island forms the basis of the novel.