Moll Flanders By Daniel Defoe Essays - Films, Picaresque Novels

Moll Flanders By Daniel Defoe Moll Flanders is a story about the fall and rise of a beautiful woman who was born in Newgate Prison. Her mother was saved from the gallows because "she pleaded her belly", and soon after Moll was born, her mother was shipped to the clonies to work out her sentence. Left behind, Moll was raised for three years with a band of traveling gypsies. Moll worked her way out of that, disgusted that England didn't have orphanages, and she was allowed to live with a "nurse." At a young age she decided she didn't want to be a servant, but a gentlewoman. Her defination of a gentlewoman was a woman who worked and supported herself, not, in fact, a wealthy woman. Moll's nurse, and a wealthy matron of the town, found entertainment in this, and Moll was allowed to sew for people to earn her keep. After many years of seamstress work, and handouts from wealthy gentlewomen, Moll was able to buy her own clothes and live quite well with her nurse. After her nurse died, she lived with the wealthy matron and her family. She was their servant, but also treated very kindly. Moll learned what the daughters learned, french, dancing, singing, and how to read and write. Her talents and beauty surpassed theirs, but she would never have the same advantages, as she was poor and of low social standings. The elder brother made Moll his mistress, much to protests at first, but won her over with proclamations of love and promises of marriage once he came into his inheritance. The younger brother, Robin, professed his genuine love of Moll and his plans of marrying her. After weeks of unbalance and uneasiness of this, their marriage was approved; Moll being payed off by the elder brother, and because she wanted stability. Robin died five years later, Moll gave her children to Robins parents, and she went off to start her new life. She sought to marry rich, so that she may be supported, and be a gentlewomam. Deception landed her a tradesmen, or a draper, that spent all her money, his own money, and money he didn't have. Debts accumulated, and he was arrested for debt and put in "a sponging-house" (a place of confinement for debtors). He instructed Moll to take what she could fom his shop and their home to try and pawn for money. His escape left her alone again, and without bothering for a divorce, she started again. In London, she helped a woman get a man, so inturn, asked for aid back. The seaman Moll chose owned a plantation in Virginia, which the two, after marriage, moved to. Moll enjoyed the company of this man, and they got along well. His mother, who lived on the plantation too, befriended Moll. One day, Moll's mother-in-law was telling Moll about her past; about how she had a child in Newgate, but was allowed transportation to the colonies after the child's birth. Moll discovered that this was her long-lost mother, and after a struggle with the decision to say anythig about it or not, she confronted her mother. The thought of sleeping with her husband, now her brother, repulsed her, and seeing their children was even worse. Moll convinced her brother to allow her to go back to London, and he sent her with money and her belongings. The two corresponded ater that, but as sister and brother. Moll returned to London, and took up residence in Bath. There, under the pretense that she was awiting money from Virginia, she met a married man, whose wife "was distempered in her head." Moll cooked and served this gentlman's meals and kept him company, as he helped her out financially. The two became friends through a sickness he had, and one night, after too much wine, the two went to bed together. This evolved into a six year relationship, as Moll had a child with him. He furnished her and the child in an apartment in London, and all was well until he became ill. After this, he broke off ties with her by sending her money for the child. Moll was now forty-two years old. Moll then met her soon to be 4th husband, Jemmy. And, althought their relationship was founded under the pretense that both were wealthy, a true love resulted. When the truth of their poverty did suface, Jemmy tried to leave, but couldn't; he couldn't bear to be away from her. The two did part