Characters of Moll Flanders:
Moll Flanders is the narrator and protagonist of the novel. She is a beautiful lady who is determined to survive and do well in her life. She is not a wicked person but remains ready to sacrifice morality in favor of prosperity. Moll's mother was a prisoner facing execution but was spared for being pregnant. She gave birth, then was allowed to leave for the American colonies as an alternative to execution. Moll was raised by a pious widow Nurse who took good care of Moll during her early childhood but then dies. Moll is then adopted by the Mayor and his wife. The Mayor’s wife is a generous lady who takes Moll in as a favored maid. The Mayor’s eldest son is a smart young man who seduces Moll but soon gets bored of her and decides to leave her. Robert or Robin is the Mayor’s youngest son who falls in love with Moll and marries her. Robert and Moll become parents of two children but then Robert succumbs to death. Moll then marries a Draper who is a gentleman but terrible at his business. He gets bankrupt and runs away from the country while his child from Moll becomes a ward of the state. Humphrey is a man from the American colonies whom Moll meets at Mint. He marries Moll and takes her to America where she meets Humphrey’s old mother. Humphrey and Moll become parents of three children one of whom dies during the birth. Moll’s mother-in-law is a mighty cheerful, good-humored old woman who develops a good relationship with Moll. When Moll’s mother-in-law tells her about how she had to leave England and settle in America, Moll comes to know that she is the daughter of her mother-in-law, and a half-sister of Humphrey, her husband. She then leaves her husband and returns to England where she meets the Gentleman of Bath and becomes his maid and then mistress. He gets a spiritual vision and decides to leave Moll. She then meets a grave gentleman whose wife had cheated on him. He falls in love with Moll and asks her to marry her but she insists that he should get a divorce from her wife first. She then meets James, a man from Lancashire. He is a poor man who pretends to be a rich landlord. Moll falls in love with him and marries him. However, their marriage fails and they divorce each other. Moll then becomes a thief and is helped by the Governess, an unprincipled woman who manages the affairs of many whores, deals with the problems of unmarried mothers, and also eventually has a pawnshop and deals with thieves. Moll learns that her mother left a plantation for Moll before she died. Moll returns to America to take care of her fortune. Moll takes the help of a Quaker to get control of the plantation without letting Humphrey know about her return to Virginia. She meets her son Junior Humphrey and reveals to him that she is her mother.
Summary of Moll Flanders:
The story begins as Moll introduces herself as a person who leads a life of Debauchery and Vice. She says that she is going to share her private history which is full of wickedness and corruption, yet, the readers who are willing to read her story with a virtuous purpose will find great spiritual and moral merits in it. Moll then says that she is using a pseudonym (Moll Flanders) to avoid any controversy as some legal matters of criminal significance are still pending on her real name in the records of Newgate Prison and Old Baily in London.
She then begins her story and informs that she was born in Newgate Prison where her mother was kept for stealing a few pieces of fabric. Her mother was sentenced to death but she “pleaded her belly” (that is, asked to be spared due to her pregnancy) and her sentence was commuted to transportation to the American colonies. Her mother was transported to Virginia when Moll was 6 months old. She was then raised by a widowed nurse who took good care of her. When Moll was 15 years old, the nurse died. The Mayor took notice of her and she became a maid-servant of the Mayor’s wife who was a generous lady. At Mayor’s house, Moll got the same education and treatment as the daughters of the Mayor and his wife. Both the daughters of the Mayor were jealous of her because Moll was exceptionally beautiful. The Mayor’s eldest son got infatuated with her and seduced her by giving compliments and gifts to her. However, after sexually exploiting her for some years, he got bored of her. The Mayor’s younger son Robert was unaware of Moll’s relationship with his elder brother. He fell in love with Moll and proposed to her to marry him. His elder brother convinced Moll to marry Robert. The Mayor’s wife was against this marriage yet, Robert married Moll and they remained married for a few years during which they became parents of two children. Robert died after that and Moll was forced to leave the house while Robert’s family took charge of the two children from the marriage.
Moll then met a draper or a tradesman who was a gentleman and always treated Moll with respect. They married and the Draper continued to spend money on Moll. Soon he became bankrupt He broke out of jail and left the country, leaving Moll free to marry again. Moll was then helped by one of her widowed friends. During the same time, she also became a friend of a young girl who was in love with a ship captain. The captain was a proud man who though used Moll’s friend but didn’t wish to marry her. With Moll’s help, her friend succeeds in marrying the captain and turns him into a humble and obedient husband.
Meanwhile, Moll meets Humphrey a gentleman from Virginia, America. She tries to impress him by pretending to be a rich lady. Humphrey realizes that Moll is a poor woman but he falls in love with her and proposes to her to marry him. Then he takes her to Virginia where she meets his old mother who is a former transported convict. Moll and Humphrey lead a happy married life for many years and become parents of three children one of whom dies. Moll develops a good relationship with her mother-in-law. One day, her mother-in-law reveals the circumstances in which she was forced to leave England and her six moth’s old daughter whom she gave birth to in jail. Moll realizes that she is the daughter of her mother-in-law and unknowingly, she has married her half-brother. When Humphrey comes to know about this, he becomes too depressed and tries to commit suicide. Though Moll saves Humphrey, she decides to leave America and returns to England.
Moll starts living in Bath where he meets a very modest and very friendly gentleman, whose wife was insane. Moll becomes his housemaid and they live a chaste life under the same roof for some years. One day, he returns home after drinking alcohol and makes love with Moll. Moll becomes his mistress then and continues their sexual relationship for some years while she gives birth to his son. The gentleman from Bath then gets ill and when he recovers, he starts worrying for his insane wife and relatives. He starts feeling guilty about making a relationship with Moll and asks her to leave him while he decided to take care of their son.
Moll was forty years old now and found it difficult to live in London as it was a costly place and decided to go somewhere in the north since living there was cheaper. Before going away, she decided to take care of her financial obligations with the help of an honest banker. The banker introduces her to a grave gentleman whose wife was a cheat whom he had caught red-handed with another man. He was looking for a virtuous wife and he found Moll a good woman whom he wished to marry. Moll told him that she will marry him but he first needs to get a divorce from his first wife. The grave gentleman said that he will get the divorce soon and will marry Moll when she returns from the North.
Moll then shifted to Lancashire where she met one of her old friends. Moll again decided to pretend to be a rich lady so that her friend may introduce her to some rich young man and then she will be able to marry a rich man. Her friend introduced her to a rich Catholic family who took good care of Moll. She also met a handsome, rich-looking Irish man named James and fell in love with him. James courted her and she married him. After the marriage, Moll came to realize that James is actually not a rich man, rather just like her, he too pretended to be a rich guy so that he may seduce a rich lady and marry her for her wealth. After realizing that both are poor and none of them have any wealth, they decided to divorce and try their luck elsewhere. However, both loved and appreciated each other.
Moll then decides to return to London but when she returns, she comes to realize that she is pregnant. She takes the help of a midwife who tells her to sell her child to a rich man whose wife is unable to conceive a baby. Moll agrees and sells her child. After getting rid of the pregnancy, she meets the banker who helped her before she left London. She comes to know that the grave gentleman has divorced his first wife and is willing to marry her. Moll ascertains that he may never come to know about what she did in Lancashire and about her child that she sold and marries him. They live a happily married life for five years but then the grave gentleman’s business fails and he goes bankrupt. He fails to control the situation and dies of a heart attack.
Moll becomes lonely and destitute again and she realizes that she is no longer a young and attractive woman who may get a good rich handsome man who will marry her. She tries her luck but fails to get any honest way of rich living and then decides to meet the midwife who helped her in selling her child. The midwife is now working as a pawnbroker and leader of thieves. She recruits Moll and trains her to become a skillful thief. Being a clever woman, Moll soon becomes an excellent and successful thief who uses ingenuine tricks and techniques to steal silver and cloth. Moll always remained careful and never used violence. She was clever enough to always hide her real identity and whereabouts from her colleagues and thus she always succeeded in avoiding being caught while most of her colleagues suffered jail terms. However, her luck fails to save her for long and she ends up in police custody for stealing some silk.
Moll is then sent to the Newgate Prison where her mother gave birth to her. Initially, she remains unrepentant though she regrets being caught. She leads a miserable life in jail. One day, she finds that James too has been imprisoned at Newgate Prison for a highway robbery. This helps her in bearing the burden of her jail term. But when she falls in despair when she is sentenced to death for thievery. During such a time, her Governess sends a Minister to help her during her last days and she starts leading a life of a pious Christian. The Minister gets impressed by the stark change in her behavior and appeals for a reprieve for her from the death sentence. Her punishment is then reduced to transportation to Virginia. Moli comes to know that James too has been given a chance to either accept the death sentence or to be transported to some American colony. She tries to convince him to come with her to Virginia but James is more willing to accept the death sentence than living a life of destitution in some far land. At such a time, Moll gets the news of the death of her mother who has left a plantation farmland to her. Moll then convinces James to go to Virginia with her where they can restart their life again.
After returning to Virginia, Moll finds it difficult to acknowledge herself to be her brother's former wife and the mother of his son, now a thriving young man, because she did not want James to know about her incestuous past. She takes the help of a Quaker who is her trustworthy friend to get hold of the plantation left by her mother in her name. James and Moll start living on a plantation of tobacco near the plantation of Humphrey, her brother, who is now a very old and almost blind man. Moll finds it difficult to avoid meeting her son Junior Humphrey and decides to reveal to him that she is her mother. Junior Humphrey accepts her as his mother and becomes an obedient son while acting as a paid steward of her. They decide not to reveal her identity as Junior Humphrey’s mother either to James or old Humphrey. After some years, old Humphrey dies of old age and then Moll tells James about her past and reveals that once she was married to her half-brother and Junior Humphrey is her own son. James accepts their relationship and says that he is "perfectly easy on that account... For, said he, it was no fault of yours, nor of his; it was a mistake impossible to be prevented." Moll and James then make a good fortune through their plantation and become very rich. At the age of 69, Moll decides to return to London along with James and live there with fake names.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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