"Moll Flanders"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Defoe wrote "Moll Flanders" as a realistic interpretation of his socioeconomic and moral theories, but in fact, he unintentionally created an ironic indictment of the immorality of capitalism as it pertained to middle-class women pursuing upward mobility in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. The author points out that Defoe contends in this novel that the pursuit of upward mobility by the middle class is a moral imperative and, furthermore, that the methods of gaining upward mobility are not limited to those historically seen as virtuous. The paper concludes that the irony in "Moll Flanders" exists not because Defoe intended it, but because history has so substantially changed what are considered moral and acceptable ways for a woman to better herself in society.

From the Paper:

"Moll Flanders' many outlooks on life completely conform to Daniel Defoe's outlooks, discounting the probability that she was created as an ironic commentator on the events, which occur to her, and, furthermore, Defoe was well acquainted with consciously writing irony and it appears that he was made quite aware of the fact that it wasn't his literary strength. Moll says at one point, "marriages were here the consequences of politic schemes, for forming interests, carrying on business, and that love had no share or but very little in the matter" (46). Defoe himself "defended commercial marriages on the grounds that building a business was more worthy than marrying for lust." Much that Moll expresses coincides with Defoe's point of view as clearly as their shared view on marriage."

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