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Moll and the Gentleman
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
The banker is a kind man. Moll tells him she is a widow from America, and he quickly agrees to help her. He seems like an honest man, and he advises Moll as to her financial options, such as lodging her gold in the bank and drawing bills from a cashier as she sees fit Or, she can invest in stock, which will gather her interest and make her more money. As the banker advises Moll, he slips in details of his own life. He has “a Wife, and no Wife,” he says, whom he wouldn’t mind seeing hanged. “I am a Cuckold,” the banker says, “and she is a Whore.”
The banker’s condition of having “a Wife, and no Wife” mirrors Moll’s own state with the linen-draper—she is legally married, but for all intents and purposes, she doesn’t have a husband. A “cuckold” is a word that describes a man whose wife is unfaithful, a point made clearer by the banker’s claim that his wife is a “Whore.”
Themes
Literary Devices
The banker’s wife ran off and had two children with a linen-draper’s apprentice. The banker tells Moll that his wife “is a Whore not by Necessity, which is the common Bait of [Moll’s] Sex, but by Inclination, and for the sake of the Vice.” He asks Moll what he should do to get justice, and she suggests getting a divorce. It won’t be difficult, Moll says, if the wife has really done as the banker says. The banker admits that he would like to marry again, and then he asks Moll if she would have him. “No,” Moll replies sternly. She has come to him for help with her finances, and she is appalled that he has been so forward.
Here, the banker, too, implies that women are often forced into performing sex for money and security, which is why he calls it the “Bait” of Moll’s gender. His wife, however, is a “whore” because of desire and not need, which suggests she is innately immoral; whereas Moll, who is a “whore by necessity,” does it to survive and is thus not innately immoral. The banker’s forwardness is again evidence of their sexist society. He is more concerned with making Moll his wife than in helping her with her problem, proving her point about how vulnerable women without advisers are.
Themes
The banker takes to flattering Moll, which she rather enjoys, but she knows the best way to secure him is to appear standoffish. It is most important, Moll says, to “preserve the Character of [her] Virtue,” even if the virtue itself has already been sacrificed. Moll promises to come back the next day to conclude talking about her business, and when she returns, the banker professes his affection for Moll and promises to marry her as soon as he has obtained a divorce from his wife. He asks Moll to sign a contract obliging her to marry him after his divorce, but Moll refuses, as she will soon be leaving for Lancashire with a friend.
Moll’s comment again reflects the importance of a woman’s virtue in a sexist society. Only virtue has worth (other than money, that is), so Moll must fake it, even though she has been married several times, has many children, and even trades sex for money and security. The banker is again forward with Moll—he barely knows her but wants her to sign a marriage contract. She seems virtuous and has a bit of money, and that is enough for him.
Themes
Moll tells the banker that she will leave her money in his hands while she travels, and he agrees. Moll has been in Lancashire for about six weeks when she meets the Irishman. According to Moll’s friends, the Irishman is very rich—his estate is valued at £1,000 to £1,500 yearly—and he is very handsome. He is tall and shapely, and he speaks often of his estate in Ireland. He never asks Moll about her own fortune, but he promises to give her a £600 dowry if she agrees to go with him to Ireland.
With an income of 1,500 pounds per year, the Irishman is seriously wealthy, and he is willing to give Moll a dowry, instead of the other way around. The Irishman seems too good to be true, which suggests that he probably is. His fortune is in Ireland, and he can easily lure Moll to Ireland on the pretense of money, and by the time she discovers the truth, she’d be trapped there.
Themes
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