Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

The novel titled Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe paints a realistic picture of the problems faced by the 17th century society. Narrating in the problems of Moll the problems that women faced during that period. Moll Flanders recounts the adventures of a lusty and strong-willed woman who is compelled from earliest childhood to make her own way in the 17th century England.

The plot is true in its vigorous style. The novel traces the fall and rise of a beautiful woman who was born in Newgate Prison. Because of her determination to be someone other than a servant she sought to marry a wealthy man. She married many times. Her fear of poverty led her to commit many criminal acts and she came to be known as the richest thief in London. Finally captured she was taken to Newgate Prison where she confessed her crimes to her spiritual advisor which helped her death sentence to be reduced to transportation to the American colonies, there she spent the rest of her life. In order to know more about this novel we need to know a little about the history during the Augustine Age.

English literature written during the rule of Queen Anne, George the first and second is referred to as the Augustine literature.

Neoclassical Age The Age Of Reason-

The term Augustine Age is born out of self-conscious imitation of writers contemporary to Augustus such as Homer, Virgil, Cisero and Horace by many writers of this age. 

It is for the same reason that this era in English literature is also referred to as the neoclassical age and the age of reason. English society at this time saw the emergence of powerful middle-class. The pre-eminence of the middle class made it an age of tolerance, moderation, refined manner and sweet reasonableness and common sense. This was an age of verbal skill. One of the key words for the entire period is wit. The upper-class courtiers as well as everyone with money we're supposed to be verbally skilled and comfortable with brilliant verbal repartee and clever talking. The wealthy sent their sons on the grand tour of Europe to acquire the wit, the daughters of the affluent homes were taught just enough French and Italian words to drop into their conversations, to make them appear sophisticated. The emphasis on looking right and acting right meant that this was an age of decorum. Great value was placed on Manners, on virtues like self-control and above all balance. 

One was not supposed to be outrageous, one was supposed to show control so literature takes a pedantic bent on this period meaning to show its readers how to think, to talk, to behave and to interact in the world. Writers viewed themselves as the shapers of good taste and took the responsibility very seriously. In novel writing this is an age of conversation. this epistolary form as a story told in a collection of letters. But it is also enhanced by self-reflection. This was an age when there was acceptability for self-publicizing. They saw this was not as a conceit but as self-awareness believing that self-examination was a requirement for the morally correct person. Hence the high interest in autobiography, biography, journals, Diaries, memories, publication of Diaries, collections of letters and other reflections on the self. 

Daniel Defoe-

Let us now move to the next segment of this lesson where we really need to know about the author that is Daniel Defoe. Along with Richardson, Dafoe is considered the founder of the English novel. Daniel Defoe was a prolific writer who could and would turn his hand to almost any topic. He produced some 200 works of nonfiction prose.

In addition, took 2,000 short essays in periodical publications several of which he also edited. He has been called as one of the greatest journalists and the father of journalism. To many of his contemporaries he was a man who sold his pen to the political party in office and so was lacking in integrity. He was not taken seriously by literary men though his skill at writing was acknowledged. Defoe was not a gentleman born or raised he was an outsider. Being a Puritan the son of a butcher and a suspected government spy. He changed his name from foe to Defoe and what a coach with his court of arms on its door with the aspiration of being a gentleman. Throughout his life Defoe wrote about commercial projects. But his own business ventures failed and left him with large debts. This burden shadowed the remainder of his life. Defoe was one of the first to write stories about believable characters in realistic situations using simple prose. He achieved literary immortality when in April 1719 he published Robinson Crusoe, a travelogue which was based on the memories of voyages castaways such as Alexander Selkirk who spent four years and four months on his Island. In the remaining years Defoe concentrated on books rather than pamphlets. And at the age of 62 he published Moll Flanders.

Defoe choice of the protagonist in Moll Flanders reflected his interest in the female experience. Moll is born in Newgate where her mother is under sentence of death for theft. Her sentence is commuted to transportation to Virginia. The abandoned child is educated by a gentlewoman. Moll suffers romantic disillusionment when she is ruined at the hands of a cynical male seducer. She becomes a woe and a thief but finally she against the status of a gentlewoman to the spoils of a successful colonial plantation. Defoe died of lethargy in the Year 1731 at Moorefield and was buried under the name of Mr. Dubow Cripplegate. He was deeply in debt and in hiding from a creditor.

The beginning of novel in England-

A novel is a long prose fiction with a plot, some characters and the plot coming to a logical conclusion through these characters. England is commonly viewed as the birthplace of modern novel. In England novel writing came into the forefront only in the late 17th and early 18th century because with the growth of the middle class by the middle of the 17th century not only could more people read but they also could spend money on literature.

The neoclassical novel can be divided in the following categories:

First the travelogues stories relating to the adventures of a Voyager or traveller through the unknown as in the case of Robinson Crusoe by Defoe and Gulliver's Travels by Swift.

The other is the epistolary novel in which the story develops and resolves itself through the means of letters and their replies as in Pamela by Richardson.

Lastly there is the Picaresque ‘The Adventures of a rogue hero’ who wanders from place to place and encounters many adversaries who are also lawbreakers as in Defoe’s Moll Flanders.

Structure-Moll Flanders

The structure of Moll Flanders is episodic rather than an organized plot where Moll is a female version of the Picaro. Whose adventures are summed up in the novel's full title the fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders who was born in Newgate and during a life of continued variety for threescore years. Besides her childhood was 12 years over, five times a wife, 12 years thief, eight years a transported felon in Virginia, at last grew rich lived honest and died a penitent. There was no fixed tenant about normal writing. And so in all neoclassical novels a contrast between taste and rules can be seen until fielding forged a theory of novel writing in his Joseph Andrews. Although Defoe was looked down upon by the intellectual establishment represented by Pope and Swift. Later developments in literary history have shown that it was he who would define the literature of a new age and not the so called Augustine's. As the novel remains the dominant literary form of the 20th century Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders are still widely read.

Picaresque Novel-Moll Flanders

We shall now discuss about the picaresque novel. the picaresque style in novel writing was conceived in Spain and was adopted by England. the Spanish word ‘Picaresca’ came from ‘Picaro’ which in English can mean rogue, adventurer, rapscallion. In a picaresque novel the story is told in a series of loosely connected Adventures of a rogue protagonist and adventures in a morally corrupt society. However unlike the idealistic night event hero. However the Picaro is a cynical and immoral rascal who if given a half a chance would rather live by his wits than by honourable work. Most Picaresque novels incorporate several defining characters like satire, comedy, social criticism.

The first characteristics of Picaresque novel is that it narrates the ups and downs of an adventurous life accompanied by some spectacular situation changes. It is usually written in first-person narration with an autobiographical ease of storytelling by a protagonist seeker on an episodic question for renewal or justice. Moll Flanders by Defoe recounts the adventures of a robust and a strong-willed woman who is compelled from earliest childhood to make her own way in the 17th century England.

The plot is true Picaresque style. the novel employs a first-person narrator recounting the adventures of a low-class adventurer who moves from place to place from one social environment to another an effort to survive. The novel is the chronicle of Moll’s full lifespan narrated by her in her seventeenth year with wonder and acceptance. In one sense moll is the product of a Puritan society turn to worldly zeal the ones dedicated servant of God turned to the worship of wealth, power, and success. Born to a criminal mother in Newgate Prison left with no resources but her needle she constantly seeks wealth or a wealthy husband to free herself from bondage of poverty and the temptations of crime. Nevertheless, the management of marriages the danger of thievery fascinates moll and when she finally becomes wealthy she cannot stop disguising herself for new crimes disdaining the humble trade of seamstress. When she finally settles into respectability it is with a gentleman not a merchant. Her husband is a rather pretentious somewhat sentimental highwayman who is not much good as a farmer but is a considerable sports man. Moll is the representative of a simple middle-class mercantile figure of the late 17th century.

Women in the 17^th century England-

We also need to know about the role of women and the problems that they face during the 17th century in England. Through this novel we get to see about the women and their problems. Moll Flanders paints a realistic picture of the 17th century society narrating in the problems of Moll those that the women faced in that society. Moll begins her life as the daughter of a transported convict without any system to protect them the children of convicts those days were thrown into the world with no prospects other than starvation or the same life of crime as their parents. Moll was very lucky to be taken in by the parish a 17th century law did not compel the parishes to take care of penniless children who were not born there. As a young girl Moll is forced to serve as a maid. maids were paired very little but they were fed sheltered and clothed. The fact that women were not able to support themselves legally always underlies moll decisions that she needs to get married. When she is widowed at 48 too old to hope to marry again she has no choice but to begin a life of crime. In the 17th century stealing was profitable because things were handmade and very expensive. Before the industrialization, production took an immense amount of labour and though labour was very cheap the amount which was required to make an object made theft very profitable. 

In the 17th and the 18th centuries prostitution was widespread and was the other occupation available to women. This was the result of a social system in which per women could not make an honest living and if they were seduced they were fallen women who had to be prostitutes. The punishments for theft and prostitution were very harsh. A thief could be transported or hanged for stealing a watch or a length of cloth. transportation to Virginia was considered a terrible punishment even though transported convicts could eventually hope to be freed and settled in their own land. In the 17th century pregnant prostitutes were chased from parish to parish since the authorities would not want to have to take charge of the unwanted infants. They could take refuge in houses like that of Molls governess who used to bribe the parish so they wouldn't bother her. And wanted children could be given to families to be taken care of along with a sum of money. However these children were often neglected and the rates of child mortality was very high. Perhaps because of the high rates of child mortality some mothers guarded against becoming too attached to their children. Other familial ties were also less strong. People married for money rather than for love.

Social class in the 17^th Century:-

We now move to the next segment of this lesson where we shall discuss the importance of social class in 17th century in England. Moll longs for upward mobility in a time and a place that won't allow it. 17th century England had strict rules about who you are and what you can do with your life. These rules help to explain Molls downward spiral into prostitution and thievery. She is trapped in a society into prostitution that gives her few options after all. In eighteenth-century England people were very conscious of their social positions and marriages between the wealthy and the poor were not common. Because she was born of the lower-class and social mobility was not easy to achieve in the 18th century. Moll desperately wanted to be a part of the upper-class. But despite her best efforts she did not succeed. Although she learned to dance and speak French as well as the other girls and was even better singer than the others as shown in the court. Moll simply wasn't one of them. Marriages of convenience were the norm.

A marriage of convenience is one in which each party is marrying for some reason other than love. Quite often it is to improve one's social status of financial gain. For Example, a young man who has a title but no money might marry a young lady with money but no title to upgrade his social position or increase his wealth. Therefore molls first lover and eldest son set to inherit his father's estate has an attitude towards marriage that was quite typical at that time as the sister notes for the market is against. And if a young woman have beauty, birth, breeding, wit, sense, manners, modesty and all these to an extreme yet if she have not money, ‘she's nobody’. Throughout her life moll married many different men in hopes of achieving her goal of upper-class status. But each of those marriages drastically failed leaving her to follow in her mother's footsteps as a thief. Though she acquired great amounts of wealth and material goods through stealing she was never anything more than a thief. Through all her misdeeds and struggles mall saves her money and that frugality pays off when she arrives in the new world with the full savings account. In the New World having money matters the most and people who work hard can improve their status no matter where they come from.

Summary of the novel- Moll Flanders

We now move to the next section of this lesson where we would know about the summary of the novel with special reference to childhood and marriages. Moll Flanders is the pseudonym of the heroine who does not wish to reveal her true identity. She was born in Newgate Prison to a mother who was transported to Virginia shortly after childbirth. Around the age of three she ran away from the gypsies with whom she had been living. A parish took her in and she was given to the care of a nurse who brought her up to the age of eight. Then she was allowed to remain with her nurse instead suing and spinning. Although she should have gone to service. When her nurse died Moll was 14 she joined the household of the mayor and learned the same lessons as the daughters of the house. The older son of the house seduced her. Then the younger one fell in love with her also and wanted to marry her. The older one convinced Moll to marry the younger one and she lived as his wife until his death a few years later.

Moll then married a gentleman Draper with fine manners. He was agreeable but spent her money and soon went bankrupt. He broke out of jail and left England forever. After a long time Moll married a gentleman from Virginia pretending to be richer than she was. He took her to Virginia where she met his mother who turned out to be Molls mother as well. This discovery made Moll leave her brother, husband and children after several years of marriage. Back in England she became acquainted with a modest gentle whose wife was insane. They lived as lovers for several more years until he fell gravely ill. After he recovered he repented and did not want to see moll anymore. Moll decided to go not since living was cheaper outside of London. But before going she took care of financial business by meeting a sober gentleman who agreed to take care of her money. He was on the lookout for a virtuous wife and decided to divorce his unfaithful wife and marry Moll when she turned from the North. Moll thought this would be a good idea if she didn't find anything better in Lancashire. The friend took Moll to meet someone she thought to be a wealthy Irish gentleman. He an agreeable and handsome man courted and married her. Then it turned out that he had married for her money and she had married him for his. They loved each other but decided that it was practical to apart.

To conclude a novel like Moll Flanders which enthusiastically recounts all kinds of misdeeds was in great danger of being condemned on moral grounds. If Defoe could reinvent it as a useful and edifying work he knew he could profit from it.