The Incredible Journey of Moll Flanders

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The Incredible Journey of Moll Flanders

Abandoned by her mother at the age of six months Moll Flanders does not have any of the requirements expected for her life journey to be a very good one. Her first memory is that of "wandering among a crew of those people they call gypsies, or Egyptians;" (9). But already as a child of about eight or ten she is aware of herself as an individual ready to shape her own life: "...for alas! all I understood by being a gentlewoman was to be able to work for myself, and get enough to keep me without that terrible bugbear going to service..." (13).

Moll´s first very frightening experience is that of being "cast off the ship" when she is turned out of doors to the wide world before reaching the age we call lawful. She is very ironic when she says: "Now I was a poor gentlewoman indeed..." (18). At this time, when individualism was beginning to be seen as something worth aimimg at, Moll is aware that for a woman life is much more limited than for a man. This novel, written as an autobiography, was composed by a man, but I think he has managed well to convey to us a woman´s experiences and thoughts. Moll wants to shape her own life, but she does not always reach her goal. As a young woman she is seduced by a man who does not keep his promise to marry her, and then she marries his brother and lives in a marriage that is not at all a happy one.

When left a widow, she keeps thinking of the next step, of her next station in life. As it is very difficult for a woman in this society to live alone, she is "...resolved to be married or nothing, and to be well married or not at all." (65). She has a very strong notion that a woman should not be kept for a mistress if she has mon...

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Moll´s life journey could very well have ended with her being executed, but she is lucky enough to be sentenced to transportation. The novel The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders takes us again to Virginia, where Moll and her Lancashire husband start a new life as planters. She meets her son ( a very moving event), and she inherits a farm from her mother. When we leave Moll and her husband they are living a quiet life in England, "...where we resolve to spend the remainder of our years in sincere penitence for the wicked lives we have lived." (376). To a modern reader Moll seems to be a "survivor" in a society not yet prepared or able to care for all its members. She tries, and ultimately manages, to be the captain of a ship, that is not easily steered.

Work Cited:

Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. Penguin Popular Classics, 1994.

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