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The Gentleman
After Moll is sent to Newgate Prison for theft and is sentenced to death, the Minister comes to see her in her cell. He quotes scripture and asks Moll to repent, which she does sincerely for the first time in her life. While Moll has long since considered much of her “wicked” life a sin, the Minister helps Moll to see the true error of her ways, and she gives herself over to the mercy of God. The Minister is so moved by Moll’s genuine remorse that he convinces the authorities to reduce Moll’s sentence to transportation to the American colonies, and Moll’s life is saved. The Minister even tries to get Moll’s sentence commuted altogether, but he is told to quit while he is ahead. The moment Moll repents with the help of the Minister is “the best part of [Moll’s] Life, the most Advantageous to [her], and the most instructive to others.” The Minister represents piety and forgiveness, and he underscores the importance of morality and penitence in Defoe’s novel.
The Minister Quotes in Moll Flanders
The Moll Flanders quotes below are all either spoken by The Minister or refer to The Minister. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Moll in Newgate Prison
Quotes
This may be thought inconsistent in it self, and wide from the Business of this Book; Particularly, I reflect that many of those who may be pleas’d and diverted with the Relation of the wild and wicked part of my Story, may not relish this, which is really the best part of my Life, the most Advantageous to myself, and the most instructive to others; such however will I hope allow me the liberty to make my Story compleat: It would be a severe Satyr on such, to say they do not relish the Repentance as much as they do the Crime; and that they had rather the History were a compleat Tragedy, as it was very likely to have been.
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The Minister Quotes in Moll Flanders
The Moll Flanders quotes below are all either spoken by The Minister or refer to The Minister. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Moll in Newgate Prison
Quotes
This may be thought inconsistent in it self, and wide from the Business of this Book; Particularly, I reflect that many of those who may be pleas’d and diverted with the Relation of the wild and wicked part of my Story, may not relish this, which is really the best part of my Life, the most Advantageous to myself, and the most instructive to others; such however will I hope allow me the liberty to make my Story compleat: It would be a severe Satyr on such, to say they do not relish the Repentance as much as they do the Crime; and that they had rather the History were a compleat Tragedy, as it was very likely to have been.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
