Moll Flanders

Moll admits to vanity and expresses arrogance frequently throughout the novel. These are ostensibly flaws, but how do these traits serve her? How do they hamper her? If she leverages these traits to her benefit, what does that suggest about whether they are flaws at all? About a society in which negative traits can yield positive results?

Why are none of the husbands or lovers regularly referred to by their names? Do these various men have specific characters? How might they be compared or contrasted to one another?

How much is Moll’s success—in marriage, lovers, or thievery—due to luck? How much is due to resourcefulness? That is, how much agency does Moll have to make her own choices?

What role does Mother Midnight, to whom Moll refers as her governess, play in Moll’s fortunes and misfortunes? Is her penitence credible? Why or why not?

Does Moll have justification for embarking on her career in thievery? Why is it important for her to distinguish herself as one of the best in the trade? How does the crime for which she is eventually caught compare to her previous adventures? What does her experience at Newgate suggest about the justice of the justice system?

All of Moll’s sexual relationships are motivated in one way or another by her need for financial and material security. What does that fact illustrate about the underlying similarities between sex work and marriage in the 18th century? In what ways is marriage a form of sex work, and in what ways is sex work similar to marriage?

Moll bears many children over the course of the book. Why does she not share their fates, apart from the ones who died and the ones with whom she is reunited? What does this say about Moll’s relationship to motherhood? About motherhood and its relationship to socioeconomic status?

Why does Moll suffer such guilt when she sees her Lancashire husband led to Newgate prison? Why does she decide to reunite with him? If he is the husband that she cares for most sincerely, what traits connect her to him, and what do they reveal about Moll?