Moll Flanders: Moll Marries the Plantation Owner Summary & Analysis

It is nothing but cowardice and fear of being “an old Maid” that brings many women to marriage, Moll says, and this is “the Woman’s Snare.” Still, in Moll’s current circumstance, the thing she needs most in the world is a husband. Of course, she has next to nothing of value—only £460 in her bank, some expensive clothes, a gold watch and some jewelry, and £40  worth of linen. She moves in with the friends of an acquaintance, who start a rumor that Moll is their cousin from out of town and that she’s worth at least £1,500. Moll soon has her choice of suitors, and she picks out a handsome plantation owner without much difficulty.  

The plantation owner courts Moll and frequently professes his love to her. He promises to love her forever, and Moll pretends to doubt his sincerity, claiming he only loves her for her fortune. One day, the plantation owner visits Moll in her room. He takes off his diamond ring and uses it to write upon the windowpane: “You I Love, and you alone.” Moll takes the ring. “But Money’s Virtue; Gold is Fate,” she writes. He takes the ring back. “I scorn your Gold, and yet I Love.” She writes again: “I’m poor: Let’s see how kind you’ll prove.” The plantation owner promises to love Moll even if she is poor, but Moll can tell that he doesn’t really believe she is poor. 

One day, Moll asks the plantation owner how and where they will live if they are married. She has heard he owns an estate in Virginia, but Moll does not wish to be “transported.” He openly and easily speaks to Moll of his affairs and finances. He has three Virginia plantations, he says, which provide him a comfortable living of about £300 a year. But, he says, that number will obviously go up if they are married. As for Virginia, he would not dream of making Moll live there unless she freely chose to.

Moll tells the plantation owner that she has learned the actual value of her fortune, and it is not quite £500. He seems unconcerned. It is true he expected more, but he does not regret his “bargain.” The only difference, he says, is now he won’t be able to keep Moll as well as he had hoped. They get married, but the plantation owner says nothing of Moll’s fortune and does not ask for the money, until Moll decides it is time for her to bring it up herself. The plantation owner asks Moll to tell him plainly if she has nothing; he will not feel cheated if she is poor. After all, she did write on the glass that she was poor, so he should expect it. 

Moll gives the plantation owner £160, and a few days later, she gives him about 100 more in gold. A week later, she gives him £180 and £60 in linen. At last, Moll tells him that is all she has—her entire bank. The plantation owner is so relieved that Moll has any money at all that he never complains about the sum. “And thus,” Moll says, “I got over the Fraud of passing for Fortune without Money, and cheating a Man into Marrying me on pretence of a Fortune.” However, Moll adds, a fraudulent marriage is the most dangerous thing a woman can do, and it opens her up to a host of problems and ill treatment. 

In short time, the plantation owner begins to talk of returning to Virginia alone. Life there is pleasant and inexpensive, he says. Moll is thankful that he accepted her fortune, and she knows that he is only looking to save money because of her, so she agrees to go to Virginia. The plantation owner is overjoyed. He may be disappointed with his wife’s fortune, he admits, but he isn’t disappointed with his 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.  

Moll and the plantation owner’s trip to Virginia is long and dangerous. Their ship is hit with two big storms, and they are even 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 tells old stories of England. Mother claims that very few people come to the Colonies of their own accord as Moll did. Most people are brought to the Colonies by shipmasters and are as “Servants, such as we call them,” Mother says, “but they are more properly call’d Slaves.”  Other people are transported from Newgate Prison or other places after being found guilty of a felony that is otherwise punishable by death.

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, felons are encouraged to stay in the Colonies and they’re even allotted land on which to plant and live. “Hence Child,” Mother says to Moll, “many a Newgate Bird becomes a great Man.” In fact, some of the Colonies’ most important magistrates and officers are “burnt in the hand,” Mother adds. She shows Moll a small brand burned into the inside of her palm.

Mother begins to tell Moll terrible stories of Newgate Prison, which, she says, is a dreadful place that “ruin’d more young People than all the Town besides.” She claims more “Thieves and Rogues” are made by Newgate than by all the criminals in England. During one story, Mother has occasion to tell Moll her name, and Moll is instantly struck. Mother notices Moll’s change in demeanor and asks if she is all right. Moll assures her she is just overcome with sadness by her story, and Mother tells Moll not to fret. Her story may be sad, but she ended up in a good family. After her Mistress died, the Master married her, and together they had the plantation owner and his sister. Mother’s husband is dead now, but he gave her a good life. 

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 with her half-brother the whole time. Moll has never been so unhappy, and she wishes Mother had never told her the story—it isn’t a crime to lie with one’s brother if one knows nothing about it. Moll fully expects to lose her husband; the plantation owner is a good man and will never agree to live with his sister as his wife. Moll doesn’t know what to do, and she takes a moment to remind the reader that she is in a foreign country with no way to return home.

Moll lives “in open avowed Incest and Whoredom, and all under the appearance of an honest Wife.” The sight of the plantation owner makes her sick to her stomach, but she thinks it is best to keep the truth hidden from him. Moll conceals the truth for three years, but she has no more children with the plantation owner. One cannot expect any good to come from “the worst sort of Whoredom,” and Moll’s life indeed becomes most difficult. The plantation owner grows unkind and frequently argues with Moll. She reminds him that he made a promise to return to England if Moll didn’t like Virginia, and says that she would like to go back as soon as possible.

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 the plantation owner, and she gives every excuse and illness not to. At last, the plantation owner grows so angry that he refuses to return to England as he promised. To do so would be death to their finances, he says, and no reasonable wife would ask a husband to do something that would harm their estate. Moll knows he is right; he knows nothing of the terrible truth, and her desire to return to England now must seem very unreasonable.

Even though Moll knows the plantation owner is right, she can no longer look at him as her husband, and she vows to be rid of him. Moll asks him to let her return to England alone; that way, he can remain on the estate and work. She brings the idea up repeatedly until the plantation owner explodes in anger, asking her what kind of “unkind Wife” and “unnatural Mother” looks to leave her family. Moll doesn’t want to see the plantation owner or their children ever again, but she knows he will never let her go, and she cannot think of leaving without his consent—“as any one that knows the Constitution of the country I [am] in, knows very well,” Moll says. 

Moll and the plantation owner fight all the time, and their life together grows increasingly tense. She refuses to go to bed with him, and he accuses her of being “mad.” He tells Moll that if she doesn’t change her behavior immediately, he will “put [her] under Cure; that is to say, into a Madhouse.” Moll is terrified. If the plantation owner puts her into a Madhouse, she will never get back to England, and any word she speaks of the truth will not be believed.

Months pass, and Moll and the plantation owner find themselves in an explosive argument. He pushes Moll so far that she nearly tells him the truth outright, but she thinks better of it. The argument begins with the plantation owner calmly pointing out Moll’s urgent desire to return to England. She treats him more like a dog than a husband, he says, and she doesn’t treat the children much better. While he isn’t very fond of violence, he finds it is necessary now, and he will certainly resort to such means in the future to “reduce [Moll] to [her] Duty.”

Moll is furious. She tells the plantation owner that she will be returning to England and that she has good reason to treat him and the children the way she does. Moll tells him he is not her lawful husband, and she says the children aren’t lawful either. The plantation owner looks as if he has a stroke. He grows cold but sweaty, and then he vomits. He takes to his bed, where he burns all night with fever. The next day, Moll apologizes to the plantation owner for sending him into such a state and begs him not push her for an explanation, which, she says, will only make things worse.

In the meantime, the plantation owner enlists his mother to get an explanation out of Moll. Mother presses Moll, who finally tells Mother that the secret “[lies] in [Mother] herself”; Moll has only suppressed it out of respect for her. It is in Mother’s best interest, Moll says, not to insist. Mother, however, persists, and Moll agrees to tell her—provided she doesn’t tell the plantation owner without Moll’s permission. She agrees with hesitation, and Moll tells her the entire story, beginning with her own birth in Newgate Prison. She tells Mother that she is indeed her daughter, and Mother is shocked. Moll’s story seems at first unbelievable, but she soon takes Moll in her arms. Mother laments Moll’s unhappy circumstances and the horror of having three children—two living, one dead—with her own brother. 

Mother promises not to tell Moll’s secret to the plantation owner, but neither Mother nor Moll knows what to do. They don’t know how the plantation owner will receive the truth, but they are both convinced that if the truth gets out publicly, it will ruin the entire family. Mother wants Moll to bury the secret and continue living with the plantation owner as husband and wife until a better opportunity arises to tell him the truth. She promises to provide for Moll and, upon her death, to leave money for Moll to separate from her son. Then, if Moll wishes to leave after Mother is dead, she will have the means to do so. Moll refuses; it is impossible to continue living as her brother’s wife, and she can’t believe Mother is asking her to. 

It is one thing, Moll argues, for Mother to confirm Moll is her daughter, but her secret will hardly be believed if it comes to light after Mother is dead. And, Moll adds, the plantation owner has already threatened her with the madhouse. Moll suggests Mother help her convince the plantation owner to send Moll back to England with an adequate amount of money and an understanding he will later join her. Then, in Moll’s absence, Mother can tell him the truth in any way she sees fit. In the end, Moll and Mother can’t reconcile their difference of opinions. Moll insists she cannot sleep with her brother, and Mother insists she cannot convince her son to allow Moll to return to England alone.

Mother and Moll agree to keep their secret for a time. Mother tells the plantation owner that she doesn’t know Moll’s secret, but she believes it is serious, and he shouldn’t cause Moll undue stress with threats of violence and the madhouse until they can discover what the secret is. He agrees—he wasn’t serious about the madhouse anyway—and he begins to treat Moll better. His kindness returns, and he doesn’t quarrel with her. Moll begins to think she can live long-term this way, expect she can’t stomach going to bed with him. She resists him as much as she can, and when she must relent, she is awkward and uncomfortable. Moll decides she must tell him the truth. 

Moll tells the plantation owner that she will reveal her secret if he will make her a few promises in writing. He immediately agrees and grabs a pen, and Moll tells him to write the following: that he will not blame her, insult or injure her, or make her suffer in any way. He agrees that is reasonable and writes it all 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 and writes it down. She then makes him promise that he will receive her secret with composure, and after he agrees, she begins to talk. 

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 get him a glass of rum to calm him. After he composes himself, he tells Moll that he has a solution that does not involve her going back to England. Moll says that isn’t likely, since she can’t see how she can possibly stay, but he promises to “make it easie.” In the following days, the plantation owner grows depressed, and Moll thinks he is beginning to lose his mind. He even makes two attempts on his own life, and if not for Mother catching him and cutting the rope, he would be hanging dead.

The plantation owner falls into a long consumption, and Moll knows he is dying. She supposes she can stay in Virginia and marry again once he 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 plantation owner can claim Moll has died in England, and he can marry again if he likes. In the meantime, he urges Moll to correspond as his sister. So, after eight years in Virginia, Moll leaves her brother—as she may now call him—and boards a ship to England.