Moll Flanders

Content Warning: This section contains references to incest and death by suicide.

Moll Flanders is an exceptional character—she is one of the prettiest, most intelligent, and resourceful women to be found—as she says in her own words throughout the narrative. She is arrogant and deceitful, as well as lawless and unethical. She is both a charismatic hero and villain of the story. She embodies all of the ironic juxtapositions that appear in the novel: she is both wife and sex worker, shameless and repentant, naïve and cunning; she is both faithful and treacherous; both businesswoman and thief. In short, Moll Flanders is a jumble of contradictions, a character made real by her circumstances and choices. Her impoverished beginnings and subsequent financial fluctuations, compel her to grasp any opportunity that will keep poverty at bay.

The alias “Moll Flanders” perhaps refers to Moll’s penchant for stealing valuable Dutch “Flanders lace,” or it could indicate a connection to the savvy Dutch traders of the time. England and the Netherlands engaged in a series of wars over trade rights and colonies during the period when the novel is set. At the time of publication, those wars were only a couple of generations removed. Moll’s knack for business and for taking advantage of unforeseen opportunities associates her with this prolific period of trade. It also serves to distance her from her real, presumably English, name.

The name also shields her from discovery: “They all knew me by the name of Moll Flanders, though even some of them rather believed I was she than knew me to be so” (214). This keeps her out of Newgate for many years. It also allows her a great deal of agency; she is able to move between places, jobs, and husbands by keeping this name separate from her actual person. Indeed, the novel itself is, in part, a tale of female agency: Moll moves freely from town to country, from nation to nation, from husband to husband with alacrity. Her ability to maintain such agency is due in part to her alias, in part to her resilience, and in part to her disregard for following the law. The fact that everything that grants Moll agency is deemed illegal or immoral by her society suggests that female agency and legitimacy are mutually exclusive in 18th-century society.

Moll also boasts authority in several senses of the word: she is an authority on marriage and survival; she is in control, for the most part, over events (and over her husbands and lovers); and she is the narrative voice behind the book itself. Her authority extends to advising young ladies in search of good husbands, and she makes it clear that she intends her narrative to be instructive—even if this claim is not fully reliable. As her Lancashire husband puts it, as they make their way to the new world, “’I’ll always take your advice’” (292). Moll’s ability to navigate the fortunes and misfortunes of her long and adventurous life certainly lends her the credibility and the authority to offer it.