The Life of Moll Flanders: Between Crime, Redemption, and Society

The Childhood of Moll Flanders

Moll Flanders was born in Newgate prison in London since she is the daughter of a thief. Moll's birth is symbolical, she's born in prison so she has no basis, no family, she has the disadvantage of not having parents to support her and introduce her in society. When her mother is transported to Virginia, Moll is brought up in the house of the Mayor of Colchester, who sends her into the service of a rich family when she was 14.

Moll's Life Choices

There, she is seduced by the eldest son and after that she goes through 5 marriages, and as a widow with children, she becomes a thief and a prostitute in order to survive without a husband. She is imprisoned and imported to Virgina, where she works hard and becomes a rich plantation owner. Finally she goes back to England where she leads a respectable life, and after repentance she recollects her experiences as examples of mistakes to be avoided.

Urban Society of the 18th Century

This story describes urban society, Defoe gives information about the customs of his time as well as insights into social problems like crime and abandoned children. Moll begins her life with a great disadvantage, she lacks the support system of a family and friends. Moll's decisions are driven by the premise that women couldn't support themselves legally in the 18th century society, and their only respectable role was the one of the wife. Indeed when she is widowed at the age of 48, she is too old to look for a husband, and start to think about life in a different way. Poorness is a sin, if one is poor it means that he hasn't done enough, and Moll prefers being a thief to being poor, and starts to be pickpocket and a prostitute.

The Plague of Prostitution

Prostitution increased the number of venereal diseases and unwanted children, who were abandoned. Indeed many writers of the 18th century like Dickens dealt with abandoned children, all the protagonists of his books are unwanted and abandoned children like Oliver Twist, moreover even romantic poets like Blake dealt with it. Prostitution is a social plague: it shows the lack of love and respect for the family.

Moll rejects emotional experience, seen as an impediment to the rational accumulation of capital and the social definition that it implies. The puritan mind means to make the most of one's life and develop one's skills in order to

gain. Though all of her experiences have hardened her heart, she is very torn between what she feels and needs and what she is going to do. She does have emotions.

The Narrative and Material Value

Moll Flanders is narrated in retrospective first person narration by Moll herself in her old age. The characterisation doesn't focus on feelings but it stresses Moll's experiences in a simple and direct style aimed at creating sympathy in the reader. The novel includes documents such as hospital bills and quoted letters in order to increase the illusion of verifiable (verafaiabol) fact. Moll's world contains many tangible things such as dresses watches and wigs described only in terms of their market value. What's important is pricing and evaluating things according to the wealth they represent and the social status of their owner. Moll is obsessed with keeping up appearances, in accordance with the victorian age, she is characterized by restless and pityless individualism. According to the victorian age every individual should be self centered, individualistic, almost selfish in order to gain, indeed Moll's aim is self assertion and material benefit.