"Moll Flanders"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the character of Moll Flanders in Daniel Defoe's book by the same name, uses physical disguise to change her identity and behavior as well as mask her feelings of having done wrong in her life. The paper explains that, by putting on the costume of her choice, Moll was capable of stealing money, climbing up the social ladder and reaching a very comfortable economic status. The paper also shows how Defoe uses masquerade in "Moll Flanders" as a means to teach a moral lesson to the reader.

From the Paper:

"Moll Flanders plays many different roles in different stages of her life by simply putting on different types of clothing. Through clever disguises and changes in her behavior and her tone of voice, Moll is able to act out many identities according to the situation she is in at the time such as a whore, a wife, a thief, a felon, and the ever so remorseful penitent woman. Later on, she pretends she is a beggar, a rich woman, and even plays a man at one point. For Moll, the function of clothes is not merely a way for her to cover herself and keep her warm. In Orlando, Virginia Woolf writes "clothes have more offices than to merely keep us warm. They change our view of the world and the world's view of us" (14). Depending on the clothes being worn, it is possible to conclude what the sex or gender of a person is, what profession they are in, and from what is very clear in Moll Flanders, social status and wealth."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Castle, Terry. Masquerade and Civilization: the Carnivalesque in Eighteenth-CenturyEnglish Culture and Fiction. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1987. Retrieved 25 May 2008. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=e1uwbUxKsLIC&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dqMasquerade+and+Civilization:+the+Carnivalesque+in+Eighteenth-Century&ots=jT9px7Mizf&sig=gfRy2-M7ClYGUmhxsOrG92eMT1w#PPP1,M1
• Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. Oxford New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.
• Lavender, Catherine. "On Gender Bending". Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928). 1997. College of Staten Island of The City University of New York. 28 May 2008. http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/orlchg.html
• Maddox, H. James. "On Defoe's Roxana" ELH, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Winter, 1984): 669-691. Retrieved 20 May 2008. http://www.jstor.org/pss/2872779
• Wexler, Ashley. "An Emerald and a Fox": An Analysis of Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders. 1999. Watermarks. Retrieved 22 May 2008. http://www.llp.armstrong.edu/watermarks4/aw.html

More papers on "Moll Flanders":

• Analytical Essay # 32009 : "Moll Flanders - Metaphorical Analysis"
• Analytical Essay # 57931 : "Daniel Defoe's "Moll Flanders"
• Comparison Essay # 101315 : "The Synthesis of Moll Flanders and Roxana"

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