Defoe's "Moll Flanders"

Paper Summary:

The paper describes how "Moll Flanders" focuses on an individualist female heroine who breaks all the norms concerning the proper attitude and role of a woman in society. The paper discusses how Moll, the female character, pays a very high price for escaping the sphere of domesticity to which women are tied.

From the Paper:

"Eighteenth century literature is naturally conventional about gender roles in the patriarchal society. Remarkably, Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders focuses on an individualist female heroine who breaks all the norms concerning the proper attitude and role of a woman inside society. However, it is obvious that the female character pays a very high price for escaping the sphere of domesticity to which women are naturally tied to. Moll Flanders does not play her traditional role as a woman but, in exchange for her independence, she leads the life a villain. The full title of the novel sums up Moll's immoral and sinful life: "[She] was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (whereof once to her own brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia..."(Defoe, 1) In Moll's troubled and base destiny, Defoe envisages the fate of the female character that does not comply with her pre-established social role."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. New York: Wordsworth Classics, 1999.

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• Analytical Essay # 58591 : "Moll Flanders"

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