Moll Flanders: Moll in Newgate Prison Summary & Analysis

Alone and miserable in Newgate Prison, Moll repents her past crimes, but doing so gives her no satisfaction. She knows she is only repenting because the ability to continue her sins has been removed. Moll doesn’t sleep for days, and the other women give her a hard time and try to take advantage of her. Soon, the midwife comes to visit Moll and offers her much comfort, but she can’t help Moll any other way. She has tried to bribe the witnesses, but Moll is most likely to be sentenced to death. The prison chaplain comes to visit Moll and give her spiritual counsel, but he brings her little comfort.

Soon, word spreads around the prison that three highwaymen were brought in the night before. Out of curiosity, Moll goes to investigate and discovers that one of the men is James, Moll’s husband from Lancashire. She is shocked and doesn’t at first know what to do. He doesn’t seem to recognize Moll, and she is thrown into deep thoughts about her love for him. She grieves for him, as he will surely be hanged, and Moll soon learns that she will certainly be tried for her own life. Learning of her impending death, Moll again tries to repent, but she is still unable. 

The midwife tries to bribe the jury, but she is unsuccessful, and they indeed will try Moll for felony burglary. When Moll learns of her fate, she cries with the midwife, and that night, Moll begins to pray. Moll hasn’t prayed since the death of her last husband, but she repeatedly begs the Lord to have mercy on her. The midwife seems even more concerned than Moll—and she seems a great deal more penitent, too—and she gets to thinking about all the comrades she has seen hanged over the years. For years, the midwife has sat back and let others steal for her, and now she will be forced to watch Moll die. 

Moll is arraigned on Thursday for stealing two pieces of silk worth £46 and tried the next day. She pleads not guilty, but she isn’t optimistic. The witnesses testify first and maintain that Moll entered the house and would have stolen the fabric had she not been detained at the door. Moll listens as they all recount the truth, and then it is her turn to plead her case. She insists she broke nothing and stole nothing. She did not break a door to enter, and it cannot be positively concluded that she intended to steal the fabric. The Justice is unconvinced, and Moll is found guilty and sentenced death.

Upon hearing her sentence, Moll begs for her life and reiterates that she broke nothing and took nothing. The Justice says nothing, and Moll’s sentence stands. The midwife is inconsolable. She vacillates between anger and mourning, and she appears to be “as any mad Woman in Bedlam.” The midwife again repents for the sins she has committed, and she is devasted by their misfortune. For Moll, there is nothing before her but death. The names on the death warrant will come soon, and the execution will take place soon.  

The midwife sends a minister to see Moll, and he begs Moll to repent and see the error of her ways. He praises Jesus and quotes scripture, and then he kneels before Moll and prays. For the first time, Moll is moved to repent. She thinks back on her life with disgust and hate, and she thinks about Eternity. With the highest sincerity, Moll asks forgiveness for her sins and reflects upon her life of crime. Moll interrupts her story and tells the reader that she is not fit to read “Lectures of Instruction,” but she hopes her story causes others to “make just Reflections” on their own lives.

The minister asks Moll to confess as much as she is able or willing, and he promises to comfort her and assures her that what she says will remain in secrecy. Moll tells him everything, and she repents and begs for mercy. The minister visits again the next day and explains to Moll what it means to be forgiven. Divine forgiveness and mercy occur when one who is sincerely repentant and desirous of forgiveness asks for it. If they are willing to accept that forgiveness, they shall have it.  Moll again expresses her remorse and desire for mercy, and the minster is so moved by her sincerity that he promises not to leave her until the very end.

On Wednesday, Moll’s name is on the death warrant. The minister tries to comfort her, but he leaves that night and does not return until late the next day. When he finally arrives at the door of Moll’s cell, she is overjoyed to see him. The minister immediately tells Moll that he has received a good report from the Justice serving on Moll’s case, and he has obtained her a reprieve. Moll will be transported instead of executed. The minister reminds Moll not to let her happiness and relief remove the “Remembrance of [her] past Sorrow” from her mind. Moll again interrupts her story. She understands that readers who are “pleas’d and diverted” by the “wild and wicked” parts of Moll’s story with be dissatisfied with this part of her story; however, the reader must know that this is the best part of Moll’s life and is “most Advantageous” to her and “most instructive” to readers.

It is 15 weeks before Moll is ordered to a ship for deportation. In the meantime, she learns that James has been moved to the other side of the prison. James found a way to bribe the witnesses in his case and there is little evidence to convict him. Moll disguises herself and tells the authorities she can provide evidence against the highwaymen in question because they robbed her in Dunstable. Soon, rumor spreads that Moll Flanders will turn in the highwaymen to reduce her own sentence, and she is taken to identify them. When Moll is brought into the room with James, she throws back her hood and reveals her face. She weeps, as does James, and he asks her how she can betray him so.   

James listens closely to Moll’s story, and when she gets to the part in Brickill, where she lied to the police about seeing him leave town with the highwaymen, he is incredibly thankful. He has always wondered who saved his life in Brickill, and he is very glad that it was his very own wife. He says he is now greatly indebted to her and will do whatever he can to deliver her from her current circumstances. James tells Moll a little about his own history, including crimes he pulled in West Chester and Lichfield, and Moll suddenly understands why James wouldn’t go to London with her years earlier.

James says he wrote Moll letters over the years, which she knows to be true. She saw the letters, but she never read them or responded for fear her husband, the banker, would find out. James then tells Moll about his case. They only have one witness against him, which isn’t enough to convict, and he has it on good authority that if he volunteers to be transported, he will be allowed to do so. However, James admits, he would rather be hanged than deported.

Moll attempts to persuade James using “Womans Rhetorick,” which is to say she cries and pleads with him to volunteer for transportation. There is a great deal of money to be made in the Colonies, Moll says, and he can later buy his freedom. James says he doesn’t have much money, and Moll assures him he can start over in America with very little. She claims their shared troubles are enough to convince them both to leave this part of the world and start new. James agrees, and they part with love, just as they did years earlier.