1. Briefly describe at least five episodes which illustrate Moll’s pseudo-repentance. 2. Show that Moll’s ambition to become a gentlewoman is not a mere whimsical desire. 3. Show how Moll’s conscience, a weak and faltering guide, is overcome on crucial occasions by external pressures or inducements. 4. Trace the gradual […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsCritical Essays Themes of Moll Flanders
Greed The major recurrent theme in the novel is that of greed — a greed which leads Moll to prostitution, thievery, and moral disintegration. Moll sees people as commodities — her relationships with them as business transactions. Although she is in love with the eldest brother, she has few qualms […]
Read more Critical Essays Themes of Moll FlandersCritical Essays Characterization in Moll Flanders
Moll’s vanity and greed are the main focus of the characterization in the novel. Quite early in her life she has an all-consuming desire to become a gentlewoman, a fact which was almost impossible for a lower-class woman because of the rigid class lines in England in that period. In […]
Read more Critical Essays Characterization in Moll FlandersCritical Essays Structure of Moll Flanders
Moll Flanders is characterized by its episodic quality. Events follow events spasmodically with little or no transition. Incidents are arbitrarily held together with such weak transitions as “I had now a new scene of life upon my hands. . . .” or “At length a new scene opened.” The phrases […]
Read more Critical Essays Structure of Moll FlandersCritical Essays Use of Defoe’s Experience
Many of the descriptions given in Moll Flanders are tautly drawn because of Defoe’s personal experience with poverty and imprisonment. They are vivid and accurate accounts seemingly based on total recall of incidents and people he met. Later his confinement in Newgate Prison provided him with detailed encounters with thieves […]
Read more Critical Essays Use of Defoe’s ExperienceDaniel Defoe Biography
Early Life One of three children, Daniel Defoe was born to James Foe, a butcher, and his wife Alice, in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, London about 1660. It seems that Defoe’s name went through various spellings: Foe, Faugh, DuFoo, Du’Foe, DeFoe, DeFooe, Dukow (a sexton’s error) and Daniel […]
Read more Daniel Defoe BiographyCharacter Analysis The Governess
The governess was a pickpocket, midwife, and procuress before Moll met her. As a midwife she was kind to Moll. Later she became a pawnbroker and Moll’s partner in crime, pushing her into deeper and deeper criminal activities. She later became remorseful and discontinued her criminal pursuits; but she remained […]
Read more Character Analysis The GovernessCharacter Analysis Moll’s Son
This son was born to Moll of her marriage to her brother. He was loving toward Moll and only too happy to give her her inheritance as well as many gifts. He was a prosperous plantation-owner who was overjoyed to see his mother.
Read more Character Analysis Moll’s SonCharacter Analysis Bank Clerk
Moll described the bank clerk as “a quiet, sensible, sober man; virtuous, modest, sincere, and in his business diligent and just.” When his wife ran away with another man, the bank clerk divorced her and married Moll. They lived together contentedly for five years. When he made a bad investment […]
Read more Character Analysis Bank ClerkCharacter Analysis Jemmy
Jemmy was Moll’s Lancashire husband. Although he deceived her into believing he had property because he thought she was wealthy, he actually loved her. He was an attractive, good-natured highwayman who landed in prison at the same time as Moll. She later arranged for him to be transported to Virginia […]
Read more Character Analysis Jemmy