Moll Flanders begins with a simple introduction by the
protagonist herself, Moll, who writes that she cannot reveal her real name as
revealing her true identity would incriminate herself in England, as she is now
a wanted criminal there. Moll then dives right into her childhood as well as
her sophisticated upbringing, despite her lack of good fortune. As she matures,
she is discovered by the eldest brother of the family, who soon moves to “woo”
her. Unfortunately, he does this in a way that is questionable to Moll. Oddly
enough, the man pays her after she gives his virginity to him, which confuses
her. He continues to pay her, going as far as to say the following on page 25.
“However as he press’d me to speak, I told him, I had no
Reason to question the Sincerity of his Love to me, after so many Protestations,
But—and there I stopp’d, as if I left him to Guess the rest; But What my Dear? Says
he, I guess what you mean; what if you should be with Child, is not that it?
Why then, says he, I’ll take Care of you, and Provide for you, and the Child
too, and that you may see I am not in Jest, says he, here’s an Earnest for you;
and with that he pulls out a silk Purse, and with an Hundred Guineas in it, and
gave it me; and I’ll give you such another, says he, every Year till I Marry
you.”
Looking past Defoe’s mastery of the run on sentence and his
tendency to capitalize every other noun, we can see that here the brother is
paying Moll for her services once again. Now, to me, the fault falls on both
sides of the coin. Yes, the brother is a
scumbag. Plain and simple. This is even more evident when he later tells Moll
that she should marry the younger man so he can have an easy out for his expensive
situation with her. But it’s here in the novel where I started to feel less
sympathy for Moll. Moll doesn’t argue with the eldest brother, nor does she
stop him. She continues to take his money as she slowly comes to realize what
the reality of their situation is. It’s here in the novel where I believe Moll’s
true colors begin to show; a woman who is willing to sacrifice her own morals for
the sake of material fortune. In conclusion, the elder brother is certainly a
jerk, but Moll’s going along with it speaks volumes about her character.
The capitalization of nouns and other words was a result of the print setter's work -- not the author. You may have been kidding, but it's worth remembering that there were many hands involved in making an eighteenth-century book.
ReplyDeleteAs we discussed last week, at the end of the Colchester episode we might blame Moll for selling herself, but she does get a very handsome price for her "goods."