Lori Keeton's Reviews > Moll Flanders

Moll Flanders has a story of survival to tell. In Daniel Defoe’s early novel of 1722, he presents a woman of low class, born to a thief and left an orphan who when she is young wants more out of life than to be sent to servitude. She wants to be a gentlewoman which to her means an independent woman. Brazenly, Moll meets each plight of her life with grit and does anything she can to survive and occasionally flourish. 17th century women like Moll knew the importance of attaching themselves to a man. She realizes how to use her beauty to get what she wants from men. She never marries for love and sadly leaves behind all of her children. So many times she is “undone” or “ruined” by the simple fact that her current husband or lover has died or disappeared leaving her with nothing. Moll is not ashamed at any length she chooses to go in order to survive. Even when it means she must scheme and deceive using her feminine wiles in order to snag a man with wealth. She is a woman with wit and smarts that help her escape trouble many, many times. I definitely believe that Moll was one lucky woman. Every instance of trouble or ruin she encounters, Moll never takes time to mourn her losses or the loss of those she robbed but is already looking to the next possibility that would bring her back up in the world. Moll knows her vices but also understands her necessities. Does she meet with some pretty unbelievable circumstances? Yes! She certainly does. Does she make some choices in her life that are questionable? Of course. Do her actions demonstrate her as a criminal like her mother or as a woman doing what is necessary to live in a society that diminished her worth and gave her no other choice? That’s for the reader to determine.

I was not without secret reproaches of my own conscience for the life I led…yet I had the terrible prospect of poverty and starving.