Autobiography has often been a response to moments of historical crisis. Diaries such as those of Anne Frank who wrote about the hardships of life as a Jew in Nazi Germany, the Bronte sisters who wrote about the times in which they lived, and Nelson Mandela who recorded his life in prison on a desk calendar, have been found and revealed in-depth information about those events (Liddy, 2014; Pettinger, 2014). Among these famous diarists are the world-famous writers Samuel Pepys and Daniel Defoe, who both wrote about the events of the Great Plague of London which occurred in 1665. Pepys and Defoe approach the plague in contrasting ways. This can be seen through the way they recorded the event, the reason behind recording the event, the authentic details used in their texts, the way their text addresses and influences the reader and finally through their emotional responses to the plague seen in their lyrics. These differences in their lyrics are due to the fact that Pepys and Defoe have contrasting personalities and backgrounds; thus, their texts were informed by different premises despite the similarities of the historical situation. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Great Plague of London was an epidemic that devastated London from 1665 to 1666; BEE is defined as “an infectious disease spread by bacteria causing fever and delirium, typically with bubo formation and sometimes infection of the lungs” (Oxford Dictionary, 2007). The Great Plague occurred due to domestic and human waste thrown into the streets which caused poverty, filth and unsanitary conditions especially in the poorest and most densely crowded areas of London. Rats, which thrived in these conditions, contributed to the rapid spread of the disease as they carried plague-infected fleas (The National Archives, 2008). The symptoms of the plague are characterized by high fever, vomiting, headache and swellings or buboes in the groin and armpits that over time spread throughout the body. Death ultimately occurred due to a sneeze. Victims of the plague were often seen as delusional due to their speech being affected and their actions becoming uncoordinated and unpredictable (Trueman, 2011). The English nursery rhyme, “Ring, a-ring, o'rosies /A pocket full of poses/ Atishoo, atishoo/ We all fall down,” describes the symptoms of the plague where the “ring o' rosies” refers to the buboes, “ a pocket full of soies” refers to the flowers that people carried around to mask the miasmas of the plague, “Atishoo” refers to the sneezing episode that ultimately leads to death, “we all fall” (Firth, 2012, p . 15). Deaths due to the plague were recorded and posted weekly in a public space in the form of a Mortality Bill. The plague reached its peak in September 1665, when there was a huge increase in weekly deaths: “7,000 people a week died in London alone.” (Firth, 2012, p. 14). Although the plague slowly abated in 1666, it was the Great Fire of London in September 1666 that finally put an end to it. The fire sterilized the city, destroying all the dirt and rats that had caused the plague to continually resurface (Firth, 2012, p. 14). The events of the plague were recorded in many documents such as medical records and personal writings such as those of Samuel Pepys and Daniel Defoe which provide subjective and descriptive interpretations of the plague and its effects. Samuel Pepys, an English diarist and politician, lived in London during the time of the Great Plague. Pepys was a cultured man who attended Cambridge University and achieved success through hisemployment as a Navy administrator and to his position as president of the Royal Society (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000; Stevenson,1909-1917). His education, skills and high position in the Navy and Royal Society allowed him to advance rapidly in society and private life. Pepys became very wealthy early in life, so he lived luxuriously as an upper class citizen (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000, p. 542). His love of wealth, material possessions and social status contributed to Pepys being described as superficial, self-centered, lustful and greedy. Pepys' personality is defined by his pleasure-seeking nature, "the diary is a manifestation of Pepys' character: he was a vain, naturally curious pleasure-seeker" (Cannan, 2006, p. 214). He sought pleasure in all aspects of his life such as food, theatre, people and women, which is evident through his many affairs: "He's a lover of music, he's a lover of sex, he's a lover of administration, is a lover of literature". , is a lover of science.” (Timpson, 2010). His desire and pleasure in accumulating money remained strong during the plague, as reflected in Stevenson's statement: "He remained faithful to his business during the terrible plague of 1666" (1909-1917). This statement also shows how Pepys profited from the plague while others suffered from it, further justifying his selfishness and self-centeredness. Pepys was a diarist for nine years, from 1660 to 1669, and faithfully recorded the details of his personal life, interests and daily activities. This document provides a scientific interpretation of the plague. His diary not only describes the historical events of the plague; it also reveals the lifestyles experienced by the wealthy in London and gives the reader an idea of ​​the social classes that existed in the society (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Ultimately, it was his short-sighted, selfish personality and his focus on money, status, and business that influenced how he viewed the events of the plague and therefore how he wrote about them. Daniel Defoe, however, is different from Pepys in terms of education, wealth and personality. Although Defoe's parents prevented him from studying at Oxford and Cambridge because they were dissidents, he was still well educated (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). He began his career as a merchant and entrepreneur and went from prosperity to bankruptcy and then to success (Richetti, 2006, p. 126). Even though Defoe was busy with his career and with his services to King William III as a spy, he constantly found time to write and devote himself to literature. His writings have been classified into four major groups; his political and religious writings which got him arrested, his didactic writings, his journalistic writings such as A Journal of the Plague Year and his fictional writings which included his famous book, Robinson Crusoe (Stack, M and Griffin, L. , 2000). Defoe was a simple middle-class citizen and was described as "a practical man, who took an active and not insignificant part in the daily work of the world" (Jokinen, 2006). The quotes, “Defoe was by birth a persecuted minority” and “Socially, his position differed from that of his greatest literary contemporaries,” imply that Defoe neither came from a wealthy background nor lived a rich and extravagant lifestyle. He went through hardships that shaped his personality and his literature: “His experiences could have embittered or deformed him, but instead he became infinitely versatile, courageous, and resilient” (Backscheider, 1989, p. 11). literary works that his personality, social status, difficulty and spirit have influenced hiswriting in terms of the emotion and understanding that he portrays in them and this makes them different from Pepys' work. Pepys and Defoe's accounts of the plague differ drastically in many terms. An important feature of the difference between the two writers is the form of writing they used to document the events of the plague. Pepys provides a daily account of the Great Plaque in the form of a personal diary. A diary is referred to as “A book in which one records one's experiences on a daily basis” (Oxford Dictionary, 2007). In his diary he recorded the daily events of his life and during the plague years he wrote almost daily about the progression of the plague and its effects on his life. Unlike Pepys, Defoe wrote about the plague many years after its passing and focused on several major events (Shober, 2014). He did this by writing a diary about the Great Plague. A diary is “a record of events… by a person who is an eyewitness or participant,” and is less intimate and private than a personal diary as it does not necessarily record a person's daily activities and emotions (Stack , M and Griffin, L., 2000). Defoe's book, A Journal of the Plague Years, can be described as a "semi-fictional reconstruction of an authentic, contemporary document" as he obtained the information for his diary from eyewitness accounts, pamphlets and official documents such as folders clinics and official documents. medical notes which he used to reconstruct the events of the plague for his diary (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Pepys presents the events of the plague through his own experience; while Defoe presents the events of the plague through the narrator he created called HF or presumably Henry Foe, Defoe's uncle who may have experienced the events of the plague (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Defoe recorded the events of the plague, their responses to these events, and their individual personalities influenced how and why they wrote about the plague. Indeed, the motivations that each writer had in presenting the events of the plague and the didactic nature of their works are very different. Pepys documented the events in his personal diary, thus making his work purely subjective and private. This gives rise to the idea that his work was written solely to record the events of his personal life and his ideas. This also indicates that he did not intend for others to read his diary and therefore his motive was not to inform or educate others about the events of the plague. Pepys wrote for his own pleasure and self-reflection, which is clear through his constant reference to his business, trade and the effect the plague had on him as "being troubled by the disease, and my head full also other matters". enough, and in particular how to put my things and my assets in order” (Wortham, 2011). Even though Pepys did not intend to educate others about the plague, his diary is still didactic in that it provides information about a historical event from a personal perspective. - witness account and constantly mentions factual information about the plague such as "More than 700 plague deaths this week" and "his servant died of a bubo on his right groin and two spots on his right thigh, which is the plague" ( Wortham, 2011). “To the theatre, and there they saw “The Scornfull Lady” and “Mercer, his woman - Mary, Alice and Su, our maids; and Tom, my boy” also indicate that Pepys' diary educates the reader about the different social classes of 17th century society as well as the lifestyles of the rich (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Unlike Pepys, Defoe's plague diary is remarkably didactic and was written solely for the purpose of teaching hisreaders the events of the plague. Defoe used his diary to show how the plague spread and highlights the beliefs and ideas surrounding the plague, "the danger was spreading insensibly, for the sick could infect no one except those who came within reach of the sick person" (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Defoe's diary informs the reader of how the plague affected ordinary people and their families, rather than himself and business, as seen in Pepys' diary. Defoe manages to convey the tragedy of the events and allows the reader to understand the events through the use of emotional stories such as "Burial Pits and Dead-Carts", in which the narrator sees a man mourning his dead wife and children (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Defoe also uses humor in the stories of the piper and the violent cure to lighten the dark atmosphere surrounding the plague, "Defoe uses humor to balance the heaviness of some of his themes" (Hannis, 2007, p. 49). “'But I'm not dead, am I?'” is a statement made by the bagpipe player that makes the other characters laugh and in turn makes the reader reflect on the fact that not all events during the plague were sad (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Pepys and Defoe's texts both display a didacticism, albeit for different reasons, and this in turn allows the text to relate to the reader in a certain way. Pepys' diary is purely personal and this influences how the text relates to and addresses the reader. His dairy shows no concern for the reader as he did not intend for his dairy to be read: “There is no sign that he wanted people to read his brutally frank personal thoughts” (Timpson, 2010). It addresses the reader in an indirect and distant way and is not inviting because it makes no effort to include them in the text and in the events of the plague, for example: “Up, and in the office and there all morning sitting” and “In the evening at home for dinner” (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). This is evident as his diary entries are short and to the point and he wrote predominantly about the progress of his business and the events of the plague in terms of the number of deaths, for example on 13 March 1666 he states: "the plague increased this week from 29 to 28, although the total has dropped from 238 to 207, which never pleases me” (Wortham, 2011). with the reader on a personal and emotional level as Defoe's journalistic style allowed him to carefully formulate the stories he told and to use certain methods to include the reader in his text his readers as he makes use of complete sentences and pronouns and this “helped generate the feeling that Defoe was speaking directly to his readers” (Hannis, 2007, p. 48) Examples that convey this are “I remember a citizen who” and “I know the story moves forward” (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Quotes from his diary such as "I say, as soon as he saw sight" and "but as John told me, that fellow was not blind", also indicate that Defoe is conversing with the reader to some extent and directly including in that that the narrator was experiencing and thinking (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Ultimately, this brings the reader closer to its text and allows them to gain a deeper understanding of the events it presents. Another aspect to consider when looking at the contrast between Pepys and Defoe is the authenticity of their work. Both of their accounts of the plague contain elements of truth that reassure the reader as they provide the texts with a sense of authenticity. Even if the reader is aware of the truth of thePepys' text as it is his personal diary, there are many other aspects that assure him that there is some truth in what he wrote. This is evident firstly through Pepys' constant reference to the Bill of Mortality which “was produced… to reveal patterns of death and disease in early modern London” (Slauter, 2011, p. 1). Examples of this in the text are: "sent for weekly count and find 8252 deaths in all" and "mortality count, with all our grief, is up 399 this week" (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Pepys also writes of conversations he has had which indicate to the reader that he is telling the truth, for example: "I met this noon Dr Burnett, who told me..." and "Sir W Batten met me and told me ” (Wortham, 2011). Pepys also creates authenticity in his dairy by mentioning the dates of the days he wrote as “31 October 1665” and “5 April 1666”. In Pepys's diary, statements such as "Then home late to my letter and so to bed" and "where to my great annoyance I met a corpse dead, of plague, in the narrow alley, descending only a couple of stairs" provide detailed descriptions of small and banal things he does or experiences and this gives his text an additional sense of truthfulness. Defoe's text on the other hand is based on real events but was not written during the time of the events like Pepys' diary. Defoe is very successful in reconstructing the events of the plague and creating a sense of authenticity in his work through the various techniques and sources he implemented, "Defoe's accounts were true, he was quick to include facts and details to increase their verisimilitude ” (Hannis, 2007). Although he writes about past events, he uses a first-person speaker, Henry Foe, who converses with other people in the diary such as the sexton (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Its narrator provides detailed, personal testimonies and honest, first-person accounts of events, such as hearing about the man who committed suicide and seeing a man cry over his dead wife and children. This makes the reader believe that they were actually a witness to the events (Shober, 2014). Defoe also includes dialogue such as "'Is he really dead?' And the first replied: «Yes, yes, quite dead; rather dead and cold!'», which makes the situations in the text more believable (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). "Bell Alley" and "Aldersgate Street", names of inns such as "Angel Inn", "White Horse" and "Pied Bull" and names of people such as "John Hayward" which all existed in London during the time of the plague, for create authenticity in his diary (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000) uses many primary and secondary sources such as The Bill of Mortality, doctors' notes, pamphlets and eyewitness accounts to reconstruct his version of the plague years. (Shober, 2014). Through the use of these sources, and also through people scientifically associated on the facts he mentioned, for example "the opinion of doctors agreed with my observations", Defoe provides the reader with scientific credibility. (Hazlitt, 1841) Although the events in his diary are verified, his descriptions of these events are sometimes overly dramatic, for example, “a woman… cried, 'Oh! Death, death death!'” (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). This dramatization may lead the reader to believe that the truth of events may have been distorted to create a certain effect in the diary (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). The final and most important difference between Pepys and Defoe's accounts of the plague is their use of emotion and understanding in their texts. As stated previously, Pepys's dairy has a narrow focus compared to Defoe's diary (Shober, 2014). Pepys shows little concern for other people affected by the plague anddoes not express emotion towards them but rather at the closure of the city, for example, "and so sad in bed at the news that seven or eight houses in Bazing-hall the streets are closed" and "Lord, how sad it is to see the streets empty of people” (Wortham, 2011). In fact, he seems to only care about his family and his business as his diary focuses mainly on himself, his daily events and how the plague affected him, as seen through. his diary entries stating: “As for me, I am very well ” and “Besides, office affairs are excellent” (Wortham, 2011) takes an objective approach to the plague and can be assumed to do so due to his self-centered personality he cares about no one else at all and especially about those who have a lower status than himself, as can be seen through his statements such as "the poor who cannot be noticed due to the size of the number" and “Captain Cockes black had died of the plague, which I had already heard about but had not noticed” (Wortham, 2011). He does not describe any personal or emotional events that occurred during the plague and this makes his text appear indifferent and insensitive to the pain experienced by others who were affected by the plague (Shober, 2014). Pepys's diary elicits little emotion from its readers compared to Defoe's diary, which, through its text, allows the reader to visualize and understand the true horror people experienced during the plague. Lewis states that Defoe's text “aims to help the reader form images” and this occurs through the use of emotions and the description of people's reactions to their experiences (2004). An example of this is his description of a man who was crying with “a sort of masculine pain that could not give vent to tears” and who was “crying out loud, unable to contain himself” (Stack, M and Griffin, L. , 2000). This thrilling story, along with vivid descriptions such as "a woman let out three fearful shrieks, ... in an inimitable tone" and "Her clothes were torn, her jaw dropped, her eyes opened in a fearful posture", allows Defoe tells readers to visualize and understand how the plague truly affected people on an emotional level. The quote stating that Defoe's "eerie evocation...of the plague itself" "terribly frightened [their readers]", supports the idea that he was able to clearly convey to the reader the true horror of the plague ( Lewis, 2004, p. 95). Defoe also provides a broader picture of the plague than Pepys, as he writes not only about himself but also about others, such as the man who lost his family and the piper (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000 ). Defoe writes with compassion and concern for all those affected by the plague. He writes about different people with different backgrounds, social status and wealth and this in turn informs the reader that Defoe found each plague story significant, important and worthy of mourning. Defoe's compassion towards others is further highlighted in the scene where he hears about a man who has committed suicide and then states: "I take care not to mention the name... it would be an inconvenience to the family, who are now prospering from new" (Stack, M and Griffin, L., 2000). Ultimately, Defoe's emotions, compassion, and attention to the effects of the plague on others make his text a faithful and realistic description of the events. Despite recording a single historical event, the Great Plague of London, Pepys and Defoe's interpretations and their writings on the plague could not be more different. In his diary, Pepys' approach to the plague is objective and scientific, as seen from his constant reference to business and death numbers. He is mainly concerned with his own] 22].