Moll Flanders: Moll and the Gentleman Summary & Analysis

Moll’s return trip to England is smooth, and they reach the coast of England in 32 days, but a series of rough storms sends them off course to Ireland. After 13 days, they return to sea, but rough waters again blow the ship off course. The ship makes port in Wales, far from its intended destination, but Moll refuses to get back on the water. The ship sets sail for Bristol with Moll’s belongings, and she heads for London. She arrives weeks later and is told the ship was tossed by considerable weather on its way to Bristol and lost much of its cargo. Without her belongings, Moll is reduced to around £300 in her bank with no hope for more.  

Moll decides to go to Bristol anyway, but she stops in Bath along the way. Bath is a “Place of Gallantry” and is “full of Snares,” and since Moll is still a young woman, she decides to take her chances there. But, Moll says, Bath is where men go to find a Mistress, not a Wife, and she has little luck finding a suitable man. She befriends a landlady, who lets Moll lodge at her house. The landlady does not “keep an ill House,” but she doesn’t have “the best Principles” either. Moll is sad and a bit lonely living in Bath, but it is inexpensive, so she stays.

Moll tells the landlady that she lost 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 goods for her to the port in Bristol. The landlady takes pity on Moll and reduces her rent to an even cheaper rate, and then she introduces Moll to a gentleman. The gentleman believes Moll is a widow, and she knows that he has a mad wife, whom he left under the care of her family so he wouldn’t be accused of “mismanaging her Cure.” 

The gentleman treats Moll with the utmost respect, honor, and virtue, and even though he occasionally visits her in her room, he never offers more than a kiss. One day, he asks Moll how she manages to live and cover her expenses, and she assures him that she manages well enough while she waits for goods from her family in Virginia. He tells Moll that he asks not because he is curious, but because he wishes to help her, if she needs it. Moll says she is not looking for his assistance, but he makes her promise that if she should find herself in need of money, she will ask him for help as freely as he has just offered it. 

The next day, the gentleman calls Moll to his room while he is still in bed. He tells Moll to empty her purse. She has three and a half Guineas, and he asks if that is all she has. Moll says no, and he tells her to go to her room and fetch all her money. She returns with six more Guineas and some silver, which the gentleman places, without counting, into a drawer. Then he gives Moll a key and tells her to open a wooden box on the table. The box is full of gold, and the gentleman pushes Moll’s hand into the box, forcing her to pick up as much as she can hold. Then he dumps the drawer with Moll’s six Guineas into her lap and tells her to take her money to her room.

The gentleman begins to spend lots of money on Moll, buying her new clothes and lace, and he even hires her a maid. His kindness is a gift, the gentleman says, and he does not wish for Moll to pay him back. Soon, he falls ill, and Moll cares for him for five weeks with as much attention as a loving wife. Once he is better, the gentleman presents Moll with 50 Guineas for her care and tells her he has the sincerest affection for her. He claims he will always preserve her virtue as if it were his own, and even “if he was naked in Bed with [her],” he would not violate her virtue. 

Moll soon has reason to go to Bristol, and the gentleman offers to travel with her. When they arrive at the Inn, the innkeeper only has one room with two beds. When they’re alone in the room, the gentleman tells Moll that he has occasion to prove to her that he can lie with her without violating her virtue. He climbs into bed with her and holds her all night long, without the least inappropriate touch. They return to Bath and live together for two whole years, until, after a bit too much wine, Moll offers to give him her virtue for one night. He takes her immediately, and with that, Moll becomes, in her words, his “WHORE.”

Both Moll and the gentleman regret their decision, but there is no going back, so they continue their sexual relationship. Moll is soon pregnant, and the landlady helps her to find a midwife and nurse. As Moll gets closer to giving birth, the landlady convinces the Parish Officers that there is a woman “Lying Inn” at her residence, but the woman’s husband is a wealthy man from London and has covered all expenses. The Parish Officers are satisfied, and Moll saves as much of the gentleman’s money as she can. She gives birth to a handsome boy, and the gentleman relocates both Moll and the baby to London.

Moll lives in London at the height of her wealth, and she wishes nothing more than to be the gentleman’s wife. Moll knows marrying the gentleman is unlikely, and she also knows that men only keep mistresses for so long, so she continues to hide money away in her bank whenever she can. Moll admits that from the moment she met the gentleman, she vowed to “let him lye with [her] if he offer’d.” She needed his help and “knew no other way of securing him.” So, “as Poverty brought [her] into it, so fear of Poverty kept [her] in it,” and she lives six years with him. During this time, Moll has two more children, but, sadly, both children die. 

One day, Moll comes home to a letter that says the gentleman has again fallen ill. He is at home with his wife’s family, and it isn’t appropriate for Moll to come to him. Time passes without word, so, out of curiosity, Moll disguises herself as a servant and goes to his house and inquires as to his condition. A maid tells her the gentleman is suffering with pleurisy and a fever, and he isn’t expected to live. Moll returns home and soon learns that his condition is slowly improving. She writes him several letters, and after much time, he finally writes back.

The gentleman writes that being so near death has made him genuinely reflect on the time he has spent with Moll, and he now sees the sin they have committed. He encloses £50 so Moll can return to Bath, and he says he can no longer see her. She is free to take their child or leave him; if she leaves the child, the gentleman says, he will care for the boy. Moll is heartbroken. She is aware of their sin herself, and she has often thought it would have been a lesser offense to stay in Virginia as her brother’s wife. And all this time, Moll has been married to the linen-draper too, which means she has been living as a “Whore and an Adultress” since he left.  

Moll has no intention of returning to Bath, but she doesn’t know what to do about the child. The thought of leaving him causes her pain, but so does the thought of trying to care for him on her own and being unable to, so she leaves him. She again writes the gentleman and asks him to send her £50 more, so she can go back to her family in Virginia, even though she has no intention of leaving England. He agrees, and Moll again finds herself alone. With the additional £50 from the gentleman, she has nearly £400 in her bank, including some silver, clothes, and linen.

Now, Moll isn’t the same woman she was when she set out alone for the first time 20 years ago. She is 42 years old now, and the years have been hard on her. She has no friends and no one to advise her, which is one of the worst conditions a woman can find herself in. Moll says “woman,” she points out, because men are their own advisers, and they don’t have to worry about “being wrong’d and deciev’d.” A woman alone with no adviser is like “a Bag of Money, or a Jewel dropt on the Highway.” Moll wants to settle down to a quiet life, and if she had a husband, she would be true and faithful. But, Moll says, vice comes in “always at the Door of Necessity, not at the Door of Inclination.” 

Moll lives as frugally as she can and decides to move to the North Country, where a neighbor talks her into moving again to Liverpool. There, Moll must decide what to do with her money. She considers the bank, but she has no one to help her, and she doesn’t trust “Bank Bills” and “Talleys.” Still, she worries she may be robbed or murdered for her gold, so she decides to go the bank anyway. Moll tells the man at the bank her situation, and he directs her to a second banker, who he is sure will be able to help Moll manage her money and affairs.