Moll’s Mother Character Analysis in Moll Flanders

Moll’s mother was a convict in Newgate Prison at the time of Moll’s birth. Mother is sentenced to death for stealing a few pieces of fabric, but because she is pregnant, her sentence is commuted to transportation to the Colonies. When Moll is six months old, Mother is deported to Virginia, where she is sold as an indentured servant. Mother later marries her master, who is a good man and gives her a good life. They have two children, the plantation owner and Moll’s sister, and operate a successful plantation. After her husband dies and the plantation owner marries Moll, Moll comes to live on Mother’s plantation, not knowing that they’re at all related. Mother tells Moll stories of her early life, at which time Moll discovers she is Mother’s daughter and has married her own half-brother. When Moll tells Mother the truth, Mother suggests Moll keep her secret and live as man and wife with the plantation owner. Mother stands to lose just as much as Moll if their secret gets out, as the scandal of their incestuous family is sure to ruin everyone’s reputation. Mother supports Moll when she decides to tell the truth anyway, and she promises to leave Moll money in her will. Mother helps Moll return to England and later dies an old woman on her plantation. In her will, Mother leaves her plantation to Moll, which allows Moll to live a very comfortable and happy life with James.

Moll’s Mother Quotes in Moll Flanders

The Moll Flanders quotes below are all either spoken by Moll’s Mother or refer to Moll’s Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

The Pen employ’d in finishing her Story, and making it what you now see it to be, has had no little difficulty to put it into a Dress fit to be seen, and to make it speak Language fit to be read: When a Woman debauch’d from her Youth, nay, even being the Off-spring of Debauchery and Vice, comes to give an Account of all her vicious Practises, and even to descend to the particular Occasions and Circumstances by which she first became wicked, and of all the progression of Crime which she run through in threescore Year, an Author must be hard put to it to wrap it up so clean, as not to give room, especially for vicious Readers to turn it to his Disadvantage.

Related Characters: Moll Flanders, Moll’s Mother

Related Literary Devices:

Page Number and Citation: 37-8

Explanation and Analysis:

Had this been the Custom in our Country, I had not been left a poor desolate Girl without Friends, without Cloaths, without Help or Helper in the World, as was my Fate; and by which, I was not only expos’d to very great Distresses, even before I was capable either of Understanding my Case, or how to Amend it, nor brought into a Course of Life, which was not only scandalous in itself, but which in its ordinary Course, tended to the swift Destruction both of Soul and Body.

Related Characters: Moll Flanders (speaker), Moll’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 44

Explanation and Analysis:

Moll’s Mother Character Timeline in Moll Flanders

The timeline below shows where the character Moll’s Mother appears in Moll Flanders. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Moll’s mother was a criminal, convicted of a felony for stealing three pieces of fabric, and she... (full context)

...wife. He promises that his house in Virginia is very nice and well furnished. His mother lives there, as well as his sister, and they are his only living relations. (full context)

...robbed by a pirate. Finally, they arrive in Virginia, and Moll finds the plantation owner’s mother delightful. She often tells Moll stories of the Colonies and their people, and she even... (full context)

No one thinks anything of a felon in the Colonies, Mother says. Felons are usually bought by planters, who keep them until their sentences expire. Afterward,... (full context)

Mother begins to tell Moll terrible stories of Newgate Prison, which, she says, is a dreadful... (full context)

Moll knows without a doubt that she is looking at her own mother. By now, Moll has two children with the plantation owner, and she has been sleeping... (full context)

Moll complains frequently and openly that she wants to return to England, and even Mother tries to dissuade her, but Moll won’t listen. She hates the idea of sleeping with... (full context)

In the meantime, the plantation owner enlists his mother to get an explanation out of Moll. Mother presses Moll, who finally tells Mother that... (full context)

Mother promises not to tell Moll’s secret to the plantation owner, but neither Mother nor Moll... (full context)

It is one thing, Moll argues, for Mother to confirm Moll is her daughter, but her secret will hardly be believed if it... (full context)

Mother and Moll agree to keep their secret for a time. Mother tells the plantation owner... (full context)

...down. She further makes him promise not to divulge her secret to anyone, except his mother, without Moll’s consent or permission. Again, the plantation owner agrees that Moll’s demand is reasonable... (full context)

Moll tells the plantation owner that they are brother and sister. Mother, Moll says, is her mother as well. The plantation owner grows pale, and Moll must... (full context)

...is dead, but she badly wants to return to England. Finally, the plantation owner and Mother both agree to send Moll back to England. They decide that in due time, the... (full context)

...her fortune at sea, which indeed cost Moll nearly £500. She has written to her mother and brother in Virginia, Moll says, and she is waiting for them to send more... (full context)

Living together in Dunstable, Moll tells James all about Virginia. Her mother is still living there, Moll says, but her husband has been dead many years now.... (full context)

The first thing Moll does is inquire about her mother and her brother—or husband, depending—and she learns that though her mother is dead, her brother... (full context)

According to rumors, when Moll’s mother died, she left her estate to her Moll, to be collected if she ever made... (full context)

...to a whole new country if she wants, but Moll is torn. She wants her mother’s estate, but she doesn’t want James to know about her past with her brother. And,... (full context)

Humphry comes to visit Moll again, and he brings with him the will of Moll’s mother, which leaves Moll a plantation on the York River. The plantation has been kept in... (full context)

...the plantation where she lives. Moll immediately tells James all about her past with her mother and her brother, as well as Humphry and her plantation. James responds with good humor... (full context)

Moll Flanders

Moll’s Mother Character Analysis

Moll’s Mother Quotes in Moll Flanders

The Preface Quotes

Moll’s Childhood Quotes

Moll’s Mother Character Timeline in Moll Flanders