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1. Criticism of Moll Flanders Essay
Criticism of Moll Flanders
How should readers interpret the seeming contradictory character that Daniel Defoe presents in Moll Flanders? Is her penitence a construction of
irony? While the question of irony was prominent in the earlier criticism of the 1950s and 1960s, most scholars have moved away from that question,
acknowledging the existence of various types of irony and validating the true reformation of Moll. Critics are now articulating other subtle and
complex authorial strategies in Moll Flanders besides the use of irony, crediting Defoe with more of what it takes to be a "father of the novel." Newer
critical methodologies involving class and gender are also playing a role in establishing Defoe as advocate of...show more content...
David Blewett finds Defoe's work much more unified along several lines, addressing the incorporation of complex ironies that challenge stable
society in such areas as family relations and marriage. Overall, he attributes careful narrative planning to Defoe. In the exploration of Defoe's
narrative strategies, critics such as Maximillian E. Novak, Paula R. Backscheider, and Lincoln B. Faller are illuminating the dimensions of his
language. In his "Realism, Myth, and History in Defoe's Fiction, Novak points out patterns of wordplay and double entendre that convey subtle
meanings and notes manipulations of tense that enable curious blending of past and present. Faller coins the term "trialogue" in recognizing a
dialogue involving two characters and the audience present in "Moll Flanders and "rarely occurring in other literature of Defoe's contemporaries. In
the critical study, "Moll Flanders: The Making of a Criminal Mind, Backscheider calls attention to elements of Defoe's prose style––its realistic,
conversational, oral style.
In examining the use of various Defoe strategies, inevitably, questions will arise over what ideas conveyed are Defoe's and which are Moll's––or other
than Defoe's own. Debate ranges on this topic. Again, Ian Watt presents a starting point: "Defoe's identification with Moll
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2. Moll Flanders Morality
In the novel Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe, author, utilized the story of Moll Flanders to enforce his religious ideas and high morals on his readers.
During this time period, the general notion of morality was correlated with social class and financial state rather than religion; furthermore, people in
higher social standings were depicted as having higher morals because of their financial status. Citizens in lower classes were not only looked down
upon for their lack of money, but, also, they were also considered lesser because of their poor life choices and the way they lived their life. Defoe
made the argument that people made poor decisions and had low morals because of their financial situation and social status, not that their...show more
content...
Moll was hired by one of the ladies in the neighborhood to be a servant after Moll's nurse died. At the lady's house, Moll continued her education
alongside the younger women of the house giving herself "all the Advantages of Education that [she] could have had, if [she] had been as much a
Gentlewoman as they were," elevating her social status within the neighborhood and family (56). Eventually Moll began to understand that "she had
not money," which meant "she [was a] no Body," and that despite all the education and admiration she received, she would not be able to elevate her
social status without money. Moll realized that her only way of becoming a Gentlewoman was through marrying someone with weath. Her morals
began to change after this realization, which is what induced her to participate in an affair with the eldest son of her employers, though his promises of
an eventual marriage were not concrete. He continually paid for her silence and sexual companionship throughout the relationship, and despite it going
against her morals, she admits that she "thought of nothing but the fine Words and the Gold" (64). This statement proves that during her affair with the
Eldest brother, her morals were seriously challenged and altered providing support for Defoe's
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3. Moll Flanders Analysis
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 brings to light societal concerns regarding women in his time period and how
society should address them.
The key issue is the number of children Moll has and leaves behind. In total, she has 12 children by the end of her story; three are dead, seven that are
left with their fathers or grandparents, and two of which are left unaccounted for. Only one does she ever reunite with and not until late in life. To
society, the question remains, why she didn't try her best to bring up and support her children from her first husband. Scholars question whether it was
due to her own abandonment as an infant and lack of a motherly figure to teach her how to love her own children, they were nothing more than a
happenstance of sex, or if it was because she was never able to feel secure of her own basic needs and thus couldn't think to take care of another's.
Firstly, Moll was born in a prison because her mother was a convicted felon. After six months, her mother was transferred to a
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4. Moll Flanders Morality
Sweeping generalizations made against a subgroup of the population have never favored well within a historical perspective. Countless wars and
revolutions were fought to discredit generalizations because they are often either societal racism, sexism, or other maliciously conceived fallacies.
While the Fortunes and 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...show more content...
As an infant, her life path was quite distorted. Moll states 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 gypsies," a group of individuals that were widely looked down upon by the general public as
thieves and sinners (45). ] It is important to note, all of the misfortune that were recounted in the former were not at the hand of Moll herself but
instead at her mother's, yet her status in society was lower because of them. In fact, Moll's lot in life had been damaged long before she could even
develop a moral standing. In a lucky twist of fate, Moll found herself in the care of a local parsonage where she was placed in the care of a woman
who taught her how to make a living for herself as a seamstress. Individuals living in the middle class during the eighteenth century often had outside
pressures placed upon them that kept their social mobility stagnant; these outside pressures, coupled with societal stereotyping, often lead to great
resentment towards their oppressors. For society to say that Moll was placed in the middle or lower class because of her inferior virtue is unfounded,
and this theme is reflected in Defoe's writing about Moll's early beginnings.
It is indisputable that Moll's moral standing changes drastically to reflect the stereotypical immorality of her class, however, after some reflection, it is
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