Moll Flanders

• Group Members:•Tami Villa•Winni Choe

Moll Flanders

• Written in 1722 by Daniel Defoe

• Picaresque• Morality Tale

Literary significance and criticism

• As a picaresque, Moll is a lower class character who travels among the wealthy and exposes their vanity and shallowness.

• As a morality tale the novel can be read two different ways. On the one hand, the story of Moll could be classically tragic

• As a woman whose crime is self-reliance and lack of Christian obedience

Daniel Defoe

• Born 1660• Died 1731• Also wrote

Robinson Crusoe• Founder of the

English Novel• Wrote over 500

books, pamphlets, journals, poems.

Main Characters

• Moll Flanders• Moll’s Nurse• Moll’s first lover• Moll’s first

husband• Moll’s second

husband• Moll’s brother and

third husband

• Moll’s second lover• Moll’s fourth

husband• Moll’s fifth

husband• Moll’s Governess• Moll’s son and

nephew, Humphrey

Plot of Moll Flanders

• Childhood• 1st Lover • 1st Husband• 2nd Husband• 3rd Husband• 4th Husband• The Governess and the Banker• Criminal and Prisoner• America and England

Childhood

• Mother in Newgate jail; pled her belly; gave birth to Moll; transported to America.

• Raised by Gypsies, and a foster mother.

• Considered herself a Gentlewoman Sewed and mended to support herself.

• Left on her own when she was 15.

1st Lover

• She became a ladies maid to a family with three girls and two sons;

• The oldest son became her lover & paid her for her ‘services’;

• Moll is jilted by her lover & given a final ‘payment’;

1st Husband

• Moll finds out her lover’s brother wishes to marry her;

• The youngest son became her first husband;

• Moll marries for the first time & has two children before her husband dies;

2nd Husband

• Draper• Acts like a Gentleman• Spends all Moll’s money• Runs from debt collectors and

abandons Moll to face the bill collectors

• Ends up hiding in France

3rd Husband

• Owner of a Plantation in Virginia• They have three children together• Discovers he is actually her half

brother• Returns to England to try yet

again for a new life

4th Husband

• Banker• He divorces his current wife to

marry Moll• They live happily for a few short

years until his death

5th Husband

• James, her ‘Lancashire’ husband• They marry, after having tricked

the other into thinking he/she was a wealthy gentleman/lady

• They separate and go their separate ways in crime; meet again in prison; begin a new life together in America

The Governess

• Moll’s landlady and midwife while she is married to the Banker.

• Initiates Moll into the criminal world of London.

Themes in Moll Flanders

• Capitalism• Video Clips

• Morality• Video Clips