Identity Theme Analysis

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 more about that,” Defoe writes. There is thus a sense of mystery surrounding identity in the novel, and Defoe neglects to give many of the characters names. Characters are often identified instead by the roles they fill in Moll’s life—such as mother, husband, or brother—and if their names are known, they are rarely used. Even Moll’s own name describes what she is, not who she is: “Moll” is 17th-century slang for a low-class woman of ill repute, and “Flanders” is a reference to the Women of Flanders, once known as the best prostitutes in England. Plus, that name matches only 12 years of her long and varied life. Identity in Moll Flanders cannot be boiled down to one’s name or even one’s role in society, and through the novel Defoe underscores the complexity of identity and ultimately argues that one’s identity is constantly changing and evolving.

Moll changes her name several times throughout the book, adjusting as her life changes, which suggests that identity is not static but rather changes with the circumstances of one’s life. Moll is an orphan, and after the nurse who cares for her dies, she goes to live with a wealthy lady and her family in Colchester, where Moll is known as Mrs. Betty. Betty, a reference to the chambermaid in Alexander Pope’s famous poem The Rape of the Lock, is a generic name used strictly by Moll’s Colchester family. After Moll’s second husband, the linen-draper, leaves her deep in debt and without the means to obtain a legal divorce, she finds it necessary to again change her identity. “Upon these Apprehensions the first thing I did,” Moll says, “was to go quite out of my Knowledge, and go by another Name: […] Mrs. Flanders.” Moll’s only choice, she realizes right away, is to move where no one knows her and assume a false name. After several failed marriage attempts, Moll is forced to enter a life of crime to support herself, and it is during this time that Moll’s criminal friends give her the name Moll Flanders. “For it was no more of Affinity with my real Name, or with any of the Names I had ever gone by, than black is of Kin to white, except that once, as before I call’d my self Mrs. Flanders,” Moll says. In other words, Moll’s new name has next to nothing to do with her previous identities, but because Moll is entering into a new life of crime, she likewise needs a new name to go with it.

Moll is not the only character whose identity changes throughout the novel, and many of the characters are not who they appear to be, which also suggests that identity is not static or easy to understand. For instance, Moll thinks her second husband, the linen-draper, is a wealthy gentleman, but he turns out to be just another poor merchant. “Well, at last I found this amphibious Creature,” says Moll, “this Land-water-thing call’d, a Gentleman-Tradesman.” Despite being of low social status, the linen-draper lives as Moll’s aristocratic husband for two years before finally exhausting much of Moll’s money. Her description of him as an amphibian highlights the way his identity shifts to match his environment, just as a creature like a frog can belong equally on both land and water. After Moll marries her third husband, a wealthy captain who owns land in Virginia of the American colonies, she finds out that he is really her half-brother, born after Moll’s biological mother was exiled to the colonies as punishment for petty theft. “I look’d upon him no longer as a Husband, but as a near Relation, the Son of my own Mother,” Moll says. Just like Moll’s second husband, her third husband turns out to be someone else entirely. Moll’s fourth husband, James from Lancashire, has “the Appearance of an extraordinary fine Gentleman; he was Tall, well Shap’d, and had an extraordinary Address,” Moll recounts; however, this is all just appearance. Like Moll’s, James’s real identity is that of a penniless fraud looking for a wealthy spouse.

The true identity of Defoe’s protagonist is never revealed, and she asks that readers refer to her simply as Moll Flanders. “[S]o you may give me leave to speak of myself under that Name,” Moll explains, “till I dare own who I have been, as well as who I am.” This explanation of Moll’s identity suggests that she isn’t the same person she was in her earlier years, and again implies that personal identity more generally is always shifting.