Moll Flanders
Daniel Defoe
Plot
Moll was born in Newgate prison because she was a thief’s
daughter. Her mother was transported to Virginia and Moll grew
up in the Mayor of Colchester’s house.
She was pretty, beautiful and very intelligent.
At the age of 14, she worked as a servant for a rich family. There
she received a lot of love by both sons. The eldest son convinced
her to act as if they were married but he never married Moll. He
persuaded her to marry his young brother, instead.
Moll got married five times, she had children, become a prostitute
and also a thief to survive. She was arrested, condemned and
sentenced to death but thanks to a priest, Moll was successful to escape to Virginia.
where she discovered that her death mother bequeathed her cotton plantations. Moll
worked very hard and become very rich.
She finally went back to England where she led a respectable life.
Moll remembered her life and her experiences: they were only mistakes not to repeat.
Themes
A lot of scholars suppose that this novel is a narrative
representation of capitalism because of the many allusions to money
and contracts.
Everything and everyone has a monetary value which is very
important to understand that Moll has a calculating personality.
Defoe is a spy of 18th-century society of which he gives a lot of
information using Moll as an example. During that period, the only
woman’s respectable role was that of wife. This is the reason why
Moll felt the need to be a wife, but at the age of 48 she was too old to
hope to marry again (she remained a widowed for the rest of her
life).
“Moll Flanders” leads the reader to wonder if doing something immoral is actually a
crime if, for example, you need to survive. Therefore, the novel can arouse compassion
even when Moll exploits other people.
Meaning of the novel and critics
“Moll Flanders” is a picaresque novel but also a
moralistic one.
It is a picaresque novel because Moll was a poor
girl who lives in a rich world and reveals the vanity
and the smallness of the rich class.
It is a moralistic novel because we can read it in
two ways:
1. It is the story of a poor girl who wants to
become rich but to do so she becomes a
thief, a prostitute, she abandons her
children, and she gets married five times.
2. Even if she isn’t the stereotype of the good
Christian, she can achieve peace only by
confession, redemption and submission to
God.
Defoe was a puritan, therefore he believed in hard
work, devotion, and Providence.
From the point of view of historians, “Moll Flanders” gives a lot of information about
life in the 18th-century, criminals and their punishments: there are a lot of detailed
descriptions about life in “The Mint”, the best representation of Newgate prison.
The novel also talks about immigrations to America
considered as the best place for peace, tolerance,
opportunities and religions. Although Defoe’s descriptions of
America are insignificant compared to later ones (for
example ”The travel” by Oliver Goldsmith), his novel has
great value for the history of culture.
Cinema and Theatre
Among the adaptations of the novel are:
-“The amorous adventures of Moll Flanders” (1965), starred
by Kim Novak.
-a musical adaptation by Hug Whitemore in 1975;
-the adaptation of 1993 by Jasie Lawrence.