Moll Flanders

by

Daniel Defoe

Summary
Analysis
One day, as Moll is walking through the shopping district in London, she looks in the window of an apothecary’s shop. On a stool sits a package wrapped in white cloth. The apothecary’s apprentice is standing on the counter, reaching for something on a high shelf, and his servant is beside him, her back to the shop. Moll slips in the door, snatches the package with little thought, and exits without being seen. She walks quickly through the streets without stopping, and feels “Horror” fill her soul. She rests for a bit, and then continues walking, not returning to her lodgings until nearly nine o’clock at night. 
Presumably, Moll steals the package because she doesn’t have any money. She takes the package with little thought, as if she is compelled to do it because she knows she may starve otherwise. Moll resorts to shoplifting in a moment of absolute desperation, which suggests she is not innately immoral or depraved; she is simply poor and likely hungry.
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Back in her room, Moll opens the package and finds it full of valuable linen and lace, various silver mugs and spoons, and money totaling 18 shillings and six pence. As Moll goes through the contents of the package, she is struck with fear. She is a thief, and such things can get her sent to Newgate and hanged. Moll goes to bed, but she can’t sleep. She reflects on her sin, but she knows that she won’t starve now. Still, she has sincerely repented the sins of her life only to be “driven by the dreadful Necessity of [her] Circumstances” to thievery. Moll falls to her knees and prays to God for deliverance.
Moll seems sincerely remorseful for stealing the package, and she also appears to regret the way she has been forced to live in the past—multiple illicit affairs, “whoredom,” and abandoned children—which all point to Moll’s moral fortitude. Sinning and vice aren’t easy for Moll, and she truly regrets her choices, but she has had to choose between staying moral and staying alive.
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The next day, Moll goes out walking in the street and encounters a young girl walking home alone. Moll notices a handsome gold necklace around the girl’s neck, so she offers to see her home safely. The girl agrees, and Moll leads her into an empty alley, where, pretending to fix the girl’s shoe, Moll slips the necklace from the girl’s neck without her noticing. Moll turns the girl in the direction of her house and leaves her. As she walks, Moll reflects on her crimes. She isn’t too concerned with the girl. After all, Moll didn’t hurt her, and she indeed taught the girl’s parents a valuable lesson about leaving their daughter unattended. 
The fact that Moll steals indiscriminately even from children complicates her claim that she isn’t innately immoral. Moll could choose to target an adult, but she steals whatever is available, even if she must take from a child. Moll rationalizes her choice to steal from the child, and even tries to tell herself that she is helping the child in the long run by teaching the parents a lesson. Moll’s rationalization suggests that she is morally bothered by her decision to rob a child. 
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As Moll walks, a man runs past her and throws a package into the street. He tells her to leave the package in the gutter and continues running. Within moments, a second man runs by yelling: “Thief!” and Moll watches as the first man is caught, arrested, and carried off. When the commotion dies down, Moll retrieves the package from the street and goes back to her room. Inside the package, Moll finds pieces of expensive silk and velvet, along with various pieces of gold and diamond jewelry. Days later, Moll finds occasion to steal two more diamond rings from a shop window, but she doesn’t know how to turn her loot into money. Much of what Moll has stolen is too expensive to simply sell on the street, so she decides to go see the midwife for advice.
The arrest of the thief right in front of Moll underscores the danger she is in of going to Newgate and being hanged if she continues to steal. Just as the threat of immorality isn’t enough to keep Moll from stealing, neither is the threat of death, which further emphasizes just how desperate Moll is. She isn’t stealing for the fun of it; she does it to survive.
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Luckily for Moll, the midwife happily receives her and reveals that she also works as a pawn broker, so she can help Moll turn her goods into money. Moll moves into the midwife’s house and tries to survive on only quilting work, but it isn’t long before Moll steals again. While having a drink in a bar, Moll steals the silver cup she drinks her ale from. When she returns home to the midwife and tells her what she has done, the midwife begs her not to take the cup back. The punishment for theft is harsh, the midwife reminds Moll, and they will hang her without thought. The midwife melts down the silver cup so no one will recognize it, and Moll tells her that she is running out of money and isn’t a very good thief.
Unlike Moll, the midwife is a hardened criminal. In addition to being a prostitute, the madame of a brothel, and a procuress, the midwife is also a pawn broker who can turn jewelry and silver into spendable money. The midwife has clearly been at her life of crime for a long time, and this again illustrates the limited options of women in society. The midwife isn’t married, and she certainly isn’t independently wealthy, so she must piece together several illegal jobs to provide for herself.
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The midwife sets Moll up with a “Comrade” and experienced thief, who teaches Moll to shoplift and pickpocket without getting caught. Moll puts her new skills into practice, and it isn’t long before she grows rich. At one point, Moll and her comrades have 120 gold watches between them. Moll has over £200 saved in her bank, but she continues to steal. “As Poverty brought me into the Mire,” Moll says, “so Avarice kept me in.” Before long, two of Moll’s comrades are arrested and sent to Newgate Prison, where one is sentenced to death and hanged. The other comrade is granted a reprieve, but watching a comrade hang is traumatic for Moll, and she vows to stop stealing.
Moll and the midwife refer to their criminal acquaintances as “Comrades.” They aren’t exactly friends, and they never have names, which helps them to maintain their anonymity. With 120 watches and 200 pounds saved, Moll is no longer stealing just to stay alive; now Moll is stealing to get rich, which again suggests she isn’t as moral as she pretends to be. Moll decides to stop stealing because she’s scared of being hanged and isn’t as poor as she once was—her decision seems to have nothing to do with morals. 
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Not long after, Moll wakes in the middle of the night to sounds of yelling and distress. Part of the neighborhood in which she lives is engulfed in flames, and the midwife tells Moll that the commotion of the fire is the perfect opportunity to rob the surrounding houses without notice. Moll agrees and manages to steal some silver from a nearby house, and when she returns to the midwife with their booty, she tells Moll to go out and get more. She runs out to a new house, which she finds even more lucrative, and she returns with a considerable amount of gold jewelry and a purse containing £24. 
Moll’s stealing spree during the fire again suggests that her moral compass is faulty. She doesn’t need the money to survive, and she preys on fire victims, who are already under stress and in danger of losing all their valuables. In Moll’s defense, however, she only seems to run into the fire to steal because the midwife tells her to. Still, Moll doesn’t at all object to stealing from victims, and she appears to relieve them of their goods easily enough and with no thought as to the moral implications.
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Moll admits the “inhumanity” of her actions during the fire and tears spring to her eyes; however, she can’t force herself to make amends. Moll is quite a bit richer than she was before, and she quickly forgets all about her vow to stop stealing. Moll enjoys great success as a thief, but since the hanging of her comrade, she is leery of shoplifting, which is incredibly risky. As such, Moll sticks mostly to pickpocketing and lives with the midwife, who encourages Moll to keep stealing and introduces her to new comrades, including a couple. The couple isn’t married, but they work together and sleep together, and Moll pulls off a few jobs with them.  
While Moll does admit her actions during the fire are immoral, she doesn’t admit this until after the fire, when she has had time to reflect on what she has done. Even then, she doesn’t repent or feel remorse. She knows stealing is wrong because society tells her it is wrong, but she doesn’t seem to innately appreciate this. Moll’s primary worry is getting caught, not behaving morally. Again, Moll is no longer stealing just to stay alive; she is stealing to get rich.
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One day, the comrade couple asks Moll to break into a house with them, but she refuses. Breaking into houses is something Moll won’t do, so they go ahead without her. The couple are arrested and hanged, and Moll, having so narrowly escaped joining them, again grows hesitant to continueas a thief. The midwife tries to talk Moll out of quitting and tells her about a nearby house where she knows some illegal lace from Flanders can be found. If Moll were to tell the police about the fabric, the midwife says, they would certainly give her a reward.
Moll clearly doesn’t think her actions during the fire count as breaking into a house. In Moll’s mind, her crime is worse if she forces her way in; however, if she just wanders in and doesn’t break a window or a door, she considers the crime less immoral—or at least less risky. While the midwife’s plan to call the police about the illegal lace isn’t stealing, it is still immoral, as she is willing to give up someone else just to make a little money. 
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Moll goes to the police and tells them about the illegal lace, which is indeed valued at nearly £300. Moll negotiates a £50 reward and steals a piece of lace worth about eight or nine pounds when no one is looking. Moll divides her profits with the midwife and goes back to work. She decides to lift a gold watch off a woman on a crowded street, but as Moll grabs the watch, it doesn’t at first release from the woman’s arm. Moll is worried the woman will discover her attempt, so, just as the watch breaks free, Moll screams at the top of her lungs that someone has tried to pick her pockets. Someone tried to grab her watch, Moll lies. The woman, standing nearby, is shocked to discover that she has been robbed. Her watch is missing, the woman says. 
Again, Moll’s behavior is far from moral. Moll’s neighbors will likely get into trouble for having illegal lace, and since the punishment for stealing a even bit of fabric is death, the consequences are probably severe. Moll easily gives her neighbors up for 50 pounds and a piece of lace, which isn’t the behavior of an innately moral person. Moll claimed earlier that she wasn’t a good thief, but that is obviously changing. Her quick thinking helps her pull off a robbery and avoid being caught. Moll is officially becoming a seasoned criminal.
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Suddenly, there are cries from elsewhere in the street, and as the crowd parts, Moll watches as a young man is arrested as the alleged pickpocket. Moll continues down the street, the woman’s watch in her pocket, and decides it is best not to steal anymore for a while. In the meantime, the midwife tells Moll a bit of her own story. The midwife was born a pickpocket, but she was arrested and ordered to be deported years ago. She bribed officials to send her to Ireland instead of the Colonies, and she lived there for years, working as a “Midwife and Procuress.” She left Ireland before her sentence was up, and upon returning illegally to England, she thought it best if she didn’t return to pickpocketing.
The young man who is arrested as the pickpocket is obviously innocent, but he will likely be sent to Newgate and hanged. Moll knows this, and she lets it happen without a thought. Again, Moll’s actions don’t seem like those of a moral woman, since at this point she doesn’t need to steal to survive. Defoe seems to suggest that small, necessary acts of immorality (like the ones Moll once committed out of desperation) can grow into larger ones over time. According to the midwife’s story, she began working as a prostitute (a “Midwife and Procuress”) because it wasn’t safe to steal, which again underscores the limited options available to women.   
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Moll marvels at the midwife’s history. Moll herself has been a thief for over five years and Newgate doesn’t even know her name. By this time, Moll is well known among the other thieves in town, and they give her the name Moll Flanders. This new name has nothing in common with Moll’s former name, except that she once went by the name Mrs. Flanders years earlier while hiding at the Mint. Moll’s success as a thief means that she is the envy of the other thieves, and she worries they may inform on her to the officials at Newgate. To ease Moll’s fears, the midwife helps Moll to disguise herself as a man and introduces her to a new male comrade
Moll’s new name and identity as a man illustrate Defoe’s argument that one’s identity evolves over time. Moll’s name is again associated with sex and money, which underscores the intricate connection between sex and money, and it also identifies Moll as a prostitute herself. Moll isn’t a prostitute (yet) quite in the same way the midwife is, but Defoe implies that Moll’s past behavior with men essentially makes her a prostitute all the same. 
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Moll and the male comrade work several jobs together. They stick mostly to robbing distracted shopkeepers, and Moll’s comrade never once suspects that she isn’t a man. One day, Moll’s comrade notices a preoccupied shopkeeper turn his back on several pieces of valuable silk. Moll tells him it isn’t a good idea, but the comrade won’t listen. He snatches the fabric and runs down the street with the police in hot pursuit. Moll runs back to the midwife’s house and slips inside, a group of concerned citizens chasing her. When the citizens bang on the door and claim a male thief has run inside, the midwife assures them there is no man there. If they want to come in and look, she says, they will have to bring the constable. 
Obviously, Moll is dressed as a man, so her comrade and the concerned citizens looking to turn her in as an accomplice all believe they are looking for a man. Moll’s slick actions and ability to disguise herself are more evidence that she is becoming a hardened criminal. She isn’t just stealing to survive anymore. For Moll, theft is now her career, and she is very good at it. Or, she is very lucky, which means her luck will have to run out at some point. 
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Soon after, a constable knocks on the midwife’s door, and she allows him inside. He looks the house up and down for the man the citizens witnessed running in, but he finds nothing. When he gets to Moll’s door, he finds her inside, wearing only her nightclothes and surrounded by mounds of embroidery and quilting. Assuming Moll has been hard at work all day, he closes the door and goes downstairs. There is no man, the midwife says again, and if there was, he is long gone now. The constable agrees and leaves.
Presumably, Moll is in her underclothes because she has just ripped off her male disguise. Again, it is Moll’s quick thinking—evidence of her skill as a thief—that keeps her out of Newgate and in business. Moll appears to easily lie and deceive her way out of trouble, which further indicates that her long history of immoral behavior has made it easier and easier for her to continue acting immorally.
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After the excitement with the constable, Moll refuses to let the midwife dress her up as man again. The male comrade is arrested and agrees to inform on Moll for a reduced sentence. He tells the police his accomplice is a man named Gabriel Spencer, which is the false name Moll gave him at their first meeting. The police look everywhere for Gabriel Spencer but come up emptyhanded. The authorities accuse the male comrade of lying about his accomplice to get his sentence reduced, and they punish him severely.
While it isn’t explicitly stated, the reader can infer that the male comrade is hanged for his crimes. Just as she did with the young man in the crowd, Moll must know her comrade is going to die, but it doesn’t even seem to cross her mind. This selfishness implies that Moll’s moral character is continuing to deteriorate.
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The male comrade’s arrest makes Moll increasingly uneasy, so she decides to leave town for a while. She goes back to Lancashire, where she stays for over a month at a boarding house. Moll tells the landlady there that she is waiting for her husband to arrive from Ireland, and after some time, she pretends to receive word that his voyage has been delayed. Moll returns to London, where the midwife promises not to make her dress up as a man anymore. Plus, the midwife points out, Molls works best alone.
Moll isn’t uneasy because her comrade is dead; she’s uneasy because she doesn’t want to join him. Moll’s trip to Lancashire underscores her oppression as a woman in a sexist society. As an unmarried woman, Moll must come up with an elaborate story just to get out of town for a few days. A single woman is bound to draw negative attention.
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Moll has almost £500 in her bank, which she could live on for quite some time, but she has no intention of retiring just yet. She goes on a job with a new momrade and manages to lift a large piece of quality damask fabric from a shop and hand it off to her comrade without drawing any attention. They leave the store and go in opposite directions, and Moll watches as this comrade is arrested, too. Moll sneaks into a nearby shop and even buys some fabric to look like a regular shopper. The comrade is taken to Newgate, where she claims the damask was originally stolen by a woman named Moll Flanders. 
The fact that Moll won’t retire even when she has the means to again proves she isn’t stealing just to survive. If Moll were truly concerned about her morality, she would steal only the bare minimum, but instead she goes to excess. With the arrest of her latest comrade, the authorities at Newgate now know her name. Ironically, Moll was just bragging that no one at Newgate even knows her name. Moll was arrogant, and now she is paying the price.
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In time, Moll’s name is known at Newgate and Old-Baily, but they don’t know her face. Moll’s comrade is eventually deported, and Moll again grows paranoid. Soon, however, another fire breaks out, and Moll attempts to rob another house in the chaos. Just as Moll is about to enter a house, a featherbed comes flying out of a window overhead and falls directly on top of her, pinning her to the ground. Her bones are not broken, but she is bruised and banged up, and she must wait for someone to lift the bed before she can limp away.
Again, it is remarkable that Moll won’t “break” into a house, but she will walk in through an open door in the middle of chaos. Moll appears to think the crime is somehow less if she doesn’t have to use force, which may be a symbolic echo of the way she didn’t originally choose to be a criminal; she just did it because it was the only door open to her. The featherbed, meanwhile, seems to be a sign that Moll should stop breaking into house.
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