Moll Flanders

Daniel Defoe’s picaresque novel Moll Flanders saw the light of the day in 1722. Of course, meticulously speaking, it cannot be called a novel in the strictest sense of the term. The credit of being the first 'proper' novel goes to Richardson's Pamela which was published a couple of decades later in 1740. Moll Flanders is somewhat deficient in psychological exploration and reads more like a narrative. Hence it would be better to call it a ‘rudimentary’ novel. However, the objective of this paper is

Misfortunes of The Famous Moll Flanders and Company by Daniel Defoe reflects many of the ideologies upheld by eighteenth-century social culture, the book also invokes some startling theories. The most disturbing and widely respected synecdoche was that members of the middle class are morally inferior to those in higher classes. While Defoe does allude to the immorality of Great Britain’s middle class, at several points within the

Among countless disparities present in 17th century England, one of the most prevalent differences was in gender roles. As a woman, Moll seemed to be troubled with more burdens and pressures than men. What remained constant was having females be subordinate, no matter if they were in a position of poverty or prosperity. This is why in Defoe’s novel, Moll Flanders, the protagonist would have experienced greater difficulty if she had been male. Nothing controlled a community more than money so when

In Daniel Defoe’s “Moll Flanders” we follow a woman named Moll throughout her life. She encounters several serious situations, gets married five times, and has many children that she leaves in the care of their fathers or paternal grandparents. As a society, the first emotion that comes to our minds when we recognize these behaviors in a woman is disgust, after all, how could a woman leave her children? However, if a man did the very same some readers wouldn’t give it a second thought. Defoe’s story

‘Moll Flanders’ did not start off as your typical story for a Victorian era novel. The Novel ‘Moll Flanders’ pushed the envelope and ultimately was a novel that assisted women in the progression of femininity writing. There were undoubtedly other authors who assisted with this progression as well for instance, Mary Wollstonecraft who publish later than this work, which could lead one to assume this work aided her in doing so, so that in the future she would be able to publish her works which are

and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders. As one of this period may see his novel as a place of sentiment with quick witted humor and a good adventure novel, others and literary critics today see it as a critique itself on the sexism of the time period. This was later confirmed to be the intended purpose in his work essay, his goal was to show women in a different light, “to make them understand the world”(p.292). In his fictional tale of the life of moll flanders, Defoe sheds light on several

Moll Flanders: Fact or Fiction? Although Daniel Defoe endeavors to portray Moll Flanders as an autobiography and convince readers that the sordid affairs of Moll actually occurred, readers can find through the reading of his work that Moll Flanders is undoubtedly a completely fictional character. It can be evidenced in the preface and mainly in the dichotomous nature of Moll that she could not possibly be a real person and is just a fictional character. Defoe betrays the credibility of Moll as

The Incredible Journey of Moll Flanders      Abandoned by her mother at the age of six months Moll Flanders does not have any of the requirements expected for her life journey to be a very good one. Her first memory is that of "wandering among a crew of those people they call gypsies, or Egyptians;" (9). But already as a child of about eight or ten she is aware of herself as an individual ready to shape her own life: "...for alas! all I understood by being a gentlewoman was to be able to work

The novels Tom Jones and Moll Flanders share a commonality, and showcase it in very similar ways. That commonality is the pursuit of wealth, but at the same time it is also a discrepancy, which is shown through how the story’s title characters set out to obtain it, and their views regarding it. Before we can divulge what our characters’ view “wealth” as, we must grasp an understanding of the term itself. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines wealth as “the value of all the property, possessions, and

and not one of love. Moll Flanders, the title protagonist of Daniel Defoe’s 1722 novel, must rely on her resources to achieve financial and economic desires in a male-centered society that is set-up to fail women. Moll is shown as a capitalist who must barter goods and services in order to gain wealth since she does not have the option of inheritance like a woman who is born into a wealthy family would