Moll Flanders
"The first account that I can recollect or could ever learn of myself was that I had wandered among a crew of those people they call gipsies, or Egyptians; but I believe it was but a little while that I had been among them, for i had not had my skin discoloured, as they do to all children they carry about with them; nor can I tell how I came among them or how I got from them" (Defoe 12). This passage from Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders suggests the destitute condition of a young girl in England born without family, friends, or home, who later is compelled to live by hook or crook in a cruel materialistic society that justified her poverty through a insensitive capitalistic system. Defoe is credited with the writing of Robinson Crusoe, an eighteenth century work embodying the idea of Rousseau's Noble Savage who thrives best apart from corrupt society. Edgar Rice Burroughs capitalized on this idea in his Tarzan of the Apes series. Of more singular importance, however, is this of Defoe's containing his view of the mistreatment of women and their lack of opportunities for social mobility. In eighteenth century England, the average woman had little choice but to marry a wealthy gentleman because she was not educable and no employment opportunities existed for her. As early as 1719, Defoe published a pamphlet called "The Education of Women, " and within it declared"To such whose genius would lead them to it, I would deny no sort of learning." Defoe's Moll Flanders was published in 1722, and at the time the reading public considered it scandalous to portray a young woman who rises to the middle and upper class through various marriages, theft, and prostitution. Moll, however, sought only the privilege that she felt women of her time deserved, clearly a social station she felt not solely designed the male gender. Much like many feminine heroes, though somewhat more calloused in her approach, Moll, as her name suggests, took advantage of every fortunate occasion upon which she could better herself both socially and financially. Defoe's caricature, though equally not as brazen as Swift's "A Modest Proposal" or Gulliver's Travels, both of which were published in the same era, parallels to the rise of the British middle class and its corresponding capitalist views regarding enterprise and mercantilism. In the narrative, Defoe takes pains to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude through his treatment of time, plot, space, properties, prose style, space, setting, and characterization.
First of all, as time was treated rather generally prior to the eighteenth century, Defoe now places both time and setting within a specific point of reference, that is, within the eighteenth century England of poverty and impoverishment, as well as specific locales such as London, Ireland, and Virginia. Thus,the social context of the rising middle class applies, all of which add to the sense of accuracy of detail. In discussing plot, Defoe also deviates from the traditional use of "old plots" of legend and history, as employed by Shakespeare and Chaucer, and created knew ones for Moll Flanders, the result of which not only adds a freshness and a new interest for the middle cl;ass readers but also enhances reader imagination by a closer approximation to actuality. Certainly, Moll's "thievery" and "whoring" adventures advance her materialistic philosophy , as represented by what Max Weber terms "the rise of capitalistic mentality," or Puritan rewards on earth as a new historical application that increases the reality of the novel.To achieve his goal of verisimilitude, the author describes properties such as watches, linens, trunks, and damasks which emphasize the materialistic valuation that Moll places upon all objects and emotions, which further add to the reality of everyday items seen and used by the eighteenth-century middle-class readers. Thus, easily recognizable objects add to the representation of reality.
By writing Moll Flanders as an autobiographical, chronological narrative, Defoe thus increases verisimilitude by creating a "one-to-one" correspondence between characters such as Moll and the governess. In this sense, a closer, personal intimacy is established and a more accurately depicted reality approached, quite the contrary to the earlier ornate style of pre-eighteenth century writing, which stood aloof from individual communication. Space and setting are also elements which Defoe masterfully employed to heighten verisimilitude. By naming Jones' Street or the "Exchange," the sense of reality of place emerged in the minds of the readers. The settings in Liverpool, London, Lancastershire, and Virginia also contributed to the desired effect. last, characters such as Moll herself are no longer viewed as "general types,' but as specific individuals, with problems, as Moll's reflected the rising middle-class aims, and even with direct name implications, clearly not evidenced earlier, that is, Moll: an eighteenth-century woman-thief; and Flanders: her homeland; and Mrs. Betty: an unmarried state. In this way, eighteenth-century application was enhanced toward reality, as the names still carry those connotations.
Defoe unities of Moll Flanders' plot and theme through the sociological and historical implications of the middle class rise to power under commercialism and the pervading Puritan ethic that divine rewards came to men in the form of wealth for earthly deeds. In this line , Moll does correspond to the "moral drama" from which she always repents, as before her alleged persecution, and also the Puritan -capitalist work ethic that rewards her in the future, despite her whoring and stealing. Thus, Defoe's novel represents the merging thought of the middle class capitalist as he works to obtain security and salvation through materialistic mean, much like the dilemma in in the witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690's. In terms of organization, the cumulative effect of the chronological narrative also unifies the structure , as Moll works to become independent and ultimately achieves that status. In essence, Moll Flanders is the first novel to praise the middle class!
Defoe uses irony in the fact that Moll's philosophy of materialism through vice enables her at last to enjoy the "Puritan benefits" of a God-given salvation in her final adventure in Virginia. Just as it is ironic that Moll wished to be a "gentlewoman" who , in reality, was a"prostitute,"though Moll's conception was to be merely "self-sufficient," Moll subsequently became both, out of necessity; however, the double irony is that she did finally obtain "original" independence, a goal which enabled her salvation. Defoe's use of irony here shows not only a severe criticism of an ensuing modern capitalistic world, and the consequences of those for those who lust for money as security and salvation, and the previous traditional world of faith, but also the irony of a one-sided religiously orthodox code that placed divine rewards in the hands of cold-blooded businessmen. This situation, in both instances, occurred to Moll, as she strove for wealth and consequently procured salvation.
Defoe also equates Moll's concept of morality with that of the middle class entrepreneur during the eighteenth century, a period in which materialism formed the basis for all security and virtue. Almost every vice that she committed was rewarded by either pounds sterling or material items such as watches and linens. The fact can be evidenced by her first reward of money by her first lover, as well as her concluding statements of her monetary gains or losses following the loss of every husband. To her, existence was necessary by any means, first of all, and when she no longer could sell her body, she turned to stealing. Yet, one must not be too critical of her because she was born family-less and destitute. As Defoe has pointed out, the education of woman was non-existent then, and what other alternatives opened themselves to her? Her continual drive for wealth formed her own morality in which she, in reality, did finally attain her earlier goal of being self-sufficient, that is, "a gentlewoman."Thus, Moll's concept of material checks and balances maintained her existence. Years later, in 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin published Vindication of the Rights of Women, and for that, is regarded as the founder of British and American feminism; however, Defoe's Moll Flanders predates Godwin's work by more than half a century. In her closing remarks, Moll says, "We are now grown old; I am come back to England, being almost seventy years of age, my husband, sixty-eight, having performed much more than the limited terms of my transportation; and now, notwithstanding all the fatigues and all the miseries we have both gone through, we are both in good heart and health. My husband remained there some time after me to settle our affairs, and at first I had intended to go back with him, but at his desire I altered that resolution, and he is come over to England also, where we resolve to spend the remainder of our years in sincere penitence for the wicked lives we have lived" (301).
Works Cited
Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. New York: The New American Library, 1964.