Moll Flanders: Sinner or Saint

A detailed Summary of Moll Flanders: Sinner or Saint

There are many reasons why Daniel Defoe's classic novel Moll Flanders is still studied today. One of the reasons that it is still so widely studied is that there are significant reasons to doubt the sincerity of Moll's repentance at the end of the novel. Her conversion is attained rather easily, perhaps too easily. Moll herself is supposed to be narrating this text after her conversion, yet her newfound morality is not apparent in her discourse. It seems, at times, that Moll is telling this story to entertain her audience rather than reform them. However, she repeatedly claims to be warning the readers of the horrors of criminal life. This claim appears at several points over the course of the novel, but it is more concentrated during the preface, the opening, and after Moll's conversion. By connecting clues offered at the novels beginning with evidence found after Moll's supposed repentance, one can find significant reason to question the sincerity of Moll's repentance.

Defoe offers many clues about how to read this book in the preface. The preface suggests that this book is supposed to be a moral text, yet it also hints that morality could be a shroud under which a smutty novel is h

It is unlikely that Moll finishes the novel in the good grace of God. Her penitence seems hollow. Defoe's warning in the preface and Moll's pseudonym coupled with her post-reform actions provide a strong case against her supposed penitence. The evidence in the text points to the idea that perhaps Moll asks the reader to follow her words, not her example, even when she is supposed to be reformed. Although it is unclear why Defoe would imply a false reform in Moll Flanders, this issue is certain to provide a worthy topic of debate for scholars to ponder for years to come.

Not only does Moll live off of her ill-gained fortune, she apparently lives in luxury. She "put a guinea into [the hand of the Boatswain]" (Defoe, 394). This is a clear case of bribery. She bribes this person to get access to the captain of the ship to buy extra "Conveniences". Indeed she meets the captain and orders

One example of behavior uncharacteristic of a remorseful soul is Moll's testament of Money after her release from Newgate. She takes "a private drawer" with her "Bank of Money" to America (Defoe, 389). The money that she takes is ill gained. In fact, when Moll pools her money with her Lancashire husband, she remarks that "a worse gotten estate was scarcely ever put together" (Defoe, 392). A truly reformed criminal should try to return his/her booty to the proper parties and, failing that, give it to a worthy cause. Furthermore, she, on pages 421-422, gives one of her stolen gold watches to her son. This is hardly the act of a penitential woman. If I gave my mother a gift of stolen goods, she would have me drawn and quartered!

Brandy, Sugar, Lemons, &c. to make punch, and treat our Benefactor, the Captain; and abundance of things for eating and drinking in the voyage; also a larger Bed and Bedding proportion'd to it...we resolv'd to want for nothing in the Voyage. (Defoe, 397-398)

The first case of doubt lies in the preface. Defoe states that after Moll's repentance, she "liv'd...to be very old; but was not so extraordinary a penitent as she was at first" (Defoe, 42). This seems to be a slight contradiction. How can one be less of a penitent than one was previously? If one goes back on some of what made him/her a penitent, does that not return him/her to the status of sinner? In additi

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Approximate Word count = 1558
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English