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 course, Moll is a poor orphan and doesn’t have any money, so she must find alternative means to security. Additionally, according to Moll, it is necessary “for all women who expect any thing in the World to preserve the Character of Virtue.” In other words, a woman’s worth is based on purity and virginity, which Moll finds difficult to feign after five marriages. Broke and without a husband, Moll turns to crime to survive, and she spends 12 years as a “whore.” For Moll, sex is a sort of currency, both in her marriages and in her career as a prostitute, and she uses it to secure her place in society. Through Moll Flanders, Defoe highlights the intricate relationship between sex and money and ultimately argues that women like Moll can rarely separate the two—and that society’s expectations for women’s wealth and virginity are thus an impossible standard.
From the moment Moll falls in love for the very first time, there is a definite connection between sex and money, which suggests the two are inseparable. When the older brother, the son of the wealthy lady who takes Moll in, kisses Moll, he throws her down and kisses her “most violently.” He only stops when he hears someone coming, at which time he professes “a great deal of Love for [her], […] and with that he put five Guineas into [her] Hand, and went away down Stairs.” This is one of Moll’s first romantic encounters with the older brother, and she is already, in effect, paid for it. Moll’s relationship with the older brother grows sexual and he promises that he will one day marry her, but Moll doubts it. By way of convincing her, “he pulls out a silk Purse, with an Hundred Guineas in it,” and gives it to Moll. “I’ll give you such another,” the older brother says, “every Year till I Marry you.” Again, there is a direct connection between money and sex implied in the older brother’s promise of marriage. Of course, the older brother has no intention of marrying Moll, and he gives her even more money when he finally admits it. “I here offer you 500 £, in Money, to make you some Amends for the Freedoms I have taken with you,” he says to Moll. He has taken Moll’s virtue by having a sexual relationship with her, and he makes it clear that the going rate is 500 pounds.
Later, after Moll turns to prostitution, sex becomes currency in a more literal way, which further highlights the connection between sex and money in the novel and in 17th-century England more generally. After the death of Moll’s first husband, Robin, she moves to a place where no one knows her and changes her name. Moll dresses up “in the Habit of a Widow, and call’d [herself] Mrs. Flanders.” In London, there is a long association between Flemish women (women from Flanders) and prostitutes, and Moll obviously knows this. By calling herself Mrs. Flanders, Moll implies that she is not opposed to prostitution as a way to secure herself wealth and status. Moll admits that her name is a nickname given to her by her “Comrades”—her friends in crime and, likely, other prostitutes. The name “Moll” is slang for a woman of ill repute, such as a prostitute, which is precisely why they give her that name. Again, in Moll’s case, it’s impossible to separate sex and money if she wants a stable, independent life. From the moment Moll meets the Gentleman, she knows he is just what she needs to lift herself out of her life of poverty. “I resolv’d to let him lye with me if he offer’d it,” Moll says, “but it was because I wanted his help and assistance, and I knew no other way of securing him than that.” Here, Moll explicitly says that without money, she has only her body and sex, which she must use to get what she needs; she literally doesn’t know of any other options for securing stability.
After Moll’s fifth and final husband, the banker, dies, she is ultimately left on her own again. Afterward, Moll works almost exclusively as a thief and a prostitute, until she is finally arrested near the end of the novel and thrown into Newgate Prison. For Moll, sex and money can never be separated, even though society might claim that it’s necessary for women to preserve their virginity. Through Moll’s story, Defoe implies that women like Moll are in an impossible double bind: they must have money and they must preserve their sexual purity, but in many cases, those two apparent virtues are in direct conflict with one another.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Sex and Money ThemeTracker
Sex and Money Quotes in Moll Flanders
It is enough to tell you, that as some of my worst Comrades, who are out of the Way of doing me Harm, having gone out of the World by the Steps and the String, as I often expected to go, knew me by the Name of Moll Flanders; so you may give me leave to speak of myself under that Name till I dare own who I have been, as well as who I am.
I wonder at you Brother, says the Sister; Betty wants but one Thing, but she had as good want every Thing, for the Market is against our Sex just now; and 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, she had as good want them all, for nothing but Money now recommends a Woman […].
Then he walk’d about the Room, and taking me by the Hand, I walk’d with him; and by and by, taking his Advantage, he threw me down upon the Bed, and Kiss’d me there most violently; but to give him his Due, offer’d no manner of Rudeness to me, only Kiss’d me a great while; after this he thought he had heard some Body come up Stairs, so he got off from the Bed, lifted me up, professing a great deal of Love for me, but told me it was all an honest Affection, and that he meant no ill to me; and with that he put five Guineas into my Hand, and went away down Stairs.
My Colour came and went, at the Sight of the Purse, and with the fire of his Proposal together; so that I could not say a Word, and he easily perceiv’d it; so putting the Purse into my Bosom, I made no more Resistance to him, but let him do just what he pleas’d; and as often as he pleas’d; and thus I finish’d my own Destruction at once, for from this Day, being forsaken of my Virtue, and my Modesty, I had nothing of Value left to recommend me, either to God’s Blessing, or Man’s Assistance.
Upon these Apprehensions the first thing I did, was to go quite out of my Knowledge, and go by another Name: This I did effectually, for I went into the Mint too, took Lodgings in a very private Place, drest me up in the Habit of a Widow, and call’d myself Mrs. Flanders.
This Knowledge I soon learnt by Experience, (viz.) That the State of things was altered as to Matrimony, and that I was not to expect at London, what I had found in the Country; that Marriages were here the Consequences of politick Schemes for forming Interests, and carrying on Business, and that
L o v e had no Share, or but very little in the Matter.
He took my Carriage very ill, and indeed he might well do so, for at last I refus’d to Bed with him, and carrying on the Breach upon all occasions to extremity he told me once he thought I was Mad, and if I did not alter my Conduct, he would put me under Cure; that is to say, into a Madhouse: I told him he should find I was far enough from Mad, and that it was not in his power, or any other Villains to Murther me; I confess at the same time I was heartily frighted at his Thoughts of putting me into a Mad-House, which would at once have destroy’d all the possibility of breaking the Truth out, whatever the occasion might be; for that then, no one would have given Credit to a word of it.
Thus you see having committed a Crime once, is a sad Handle to the committing of it again; whereas all the Regret, and Reflections wear off when the Temptation renews it self; had I not yielded to see him again, the Corrupt desire in him had worn off, and ’tis very probable he had never fallen into it, with any Body else, as I really believe he had not done before.
