Poverty and Morality
At its core, Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders serves as a sort of cautionary tale and moral guidebook for readers. Protagonist Moll Flanders lives, for the most part, a life of crime. Moll is a thief and a prostitute, and when she isn’t actively breaking the law, she is lying and deceiving nearly everyone she meets. She is married five times, has an incestuous relationship with her brother, and gives birth to several children, all…
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Gender and Society
Just as Daniel Defoe draws a parallel between poverty and morality in Moll Flanders, he likewise implies that Moll’s circumstances and subsequent life of crime are closely related to her gender. As a woman in 17th-century England, Moll has very few options in life. She does not enjoy the same freedoms and privileges as men, such as access to education or the right to own personal property. A woman’s choices are limited to…
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Identity
In the preface to Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe immediately draws attention to identity. He concedes that it may be difficult for readers to believe his story, as many of the characters’ names and circumstances are concealed, but Defoe offers no solution to this problem. In the opening pages, the novel’s protagonist, Moll Flanders, says she must conceal her identity because of her criminal history— “after which there is no Occasion to say any…
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Sex and Money
Much of Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders revolves around sex and money. In 17th-century England, personal wealth is the very foundation of social status and importance. In Moll’s experience, “if a young Woman have Beauty, Birth, Breeding, Wit, Sense, Manners, Modesty, and all these to an Extream; yet if she have not Money, she’s no Body.” That is, all the virtues in the world add up to nothing if they’re not accompanied by wealth. Of…
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