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Moll and James in America
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Moll Flanders, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Poverty and Morality
Gender and Society
Identity
Sex and Money
Summary
Analysis
Over the next year, James and Moll build up their plantation with much success. They build a large house and buy more servants, and then Moll writes the midwife and asks her to take Moll’s remaining bank in England—£250 or so—and spend it on supplies and send them to Moll and James’s plantation. When the supplies arrive, James is caught off guard and is little nervous. How will they pay for all this, he asks, without running into debt? Moll smiles and tells him it is all paid for. “Who says I was deciev’d, when I married a Wife in Lancashire?” James asks. “I think I have married a Fortune, and a very good fortune too,” he concludes.
Moll finally spends her bank, which suggests she is finally secure in her life and no longer needs to worry about losing everything and being put out on the street. James’s comment is clearly meant to be lighthearted, but it also carries an element of truth. James obviously loves Moll, but he still bases at least part of her worth on material wealth.
Themes
The next year, Moll goes to see Humphry on her plantation to collect her earnings, and she learns that her brother has died. She tells Humphry that she will likely marry her friend, who owns the plantation where she lives. Moll immediately tells James all about her past with her mother and her brother, as well as Humphry and her plantation. James responds with good humor and suggests they invite Humphry for a visit. They live an easy and pleasant life for the next several years, until Moll is nearly 70 years old. Her sentence is long over, so Moll and James return to England, where they vow to live “the Remainder of [their] Years in sincere Penitence, for the wicked Lives [they] have lived.”
Moll seems to wait for her brother to die before she tells James and Humphry the truth. His death seems to release Moll from obligation in a way, and she is free to move on, even though their marriage wasn’t legal; it’s as if the change in her circumstances changes her ability to be truthful as well. However, while Moll’s sentence is over, James isn’t supposed to ever return to England. Moll claims they live their lives in “sincere Penitence,” but they break the law the moment they go back to England, and this further casts doubt on the sincerity of Moll’s remorse, leaving open the question of her true moral character.
Themes
Literary Devices
