Rating: 
Summary: Moll Sins But Does Not Repent
Review: It is a shame that for most Americans the only knowledge that they have of Defoe's MOLL FLANDERS is that which was taken from the various movie and television adaptions. The screen Moll focuses on the superficially glitzy part of what Defoe meant to be the edifying tale of a street trollop who uses her wits unrepentingly to enrich herself without worrying about the consequences. The transition of Moll from page to screen leaves out the feeling that life was, for her, one long debit page with the cost of an item to be balanced by its functional use.Moll did not start out as an unregenerate guttersnipe. At the book's start, Defoe is careful to portray her as the innocent lamb cast adrift in a sea of unscrupulous men. The world of Moll Flanders, the England of the 17th century, was not one designed to harbor any illusions that innocence could long remain that way in the face of ubiquitous lechery and poverty. Moll is seduced, then abandoned, and at the ripe age of 16,must fend for herself. The only coin that she retains to provide herself with the necessities of life is the one that she sits on. MOLL FLANDERS is unique among fallen from virtue women tales in its structure and incessant theme that to survive in an immoral world, one must be more immoral than everyone else. The novel itself is not divided into chapters. It is simply one very long series of vignettes, extending over many years, that portray Moll as the most infamous flat character in English literature. Moll's story can be summarized thusly: Moll steals, Moll eludes the law, Moll has innumerable (and unnamed) children, Moll commits incest (unknowingly) with her brother, Moll gets caught and is imprisoned. Throughout all of this, Moll changes not a whit. Her primary defense against a very nearly nonexistent conscience is her powerful sense of rationalization. One day, she sees a young child with some valuables hanging about his clothes. She pickpockets them, telling herself that the loss of these trifles ought to alert his parents that they could just have easily has suffered the loss of that child. Moll glides through life, usually coming out on top. As she gains reknown for her ill-deeds, she takes the time to compare her lot with those other poverty-stricken women who chose a life of virtue over crime. Moll cackles at their foolishness. The only time in the novel that she shows any remorse occurs when she is finally caught. At Rhett Butler said to Scarlett O'Hara in GONE WITH THE WIND, 'You are not sorry you committed wrong, but you are very sorry you got caught.' The question that modern readers have to grapple with is the intent of Daniel Defoe in presenting a woman whom today we would call a whore-grifter. Despite the tight focus on Moll, all that we learn of her after 300 pages of whoring is that she enjoyed her life with a gusto and cared not a fig about the consequences to her or to anyone else. Morality, Defoe seems to imply, is infinitely elastic, and its ultimate use is to justify the taking of material objects that rightfully belong to others. Moll, then, is the ancestor of Madonna's 'Material Girl,' one who blithely assumes that the bill for immorality need never be paid. Perhaps Defoe's inner lesson about Moll is that this elasticity of morality does result in an inevitable, if unwanted, payoff after all.
Rating:
Summary: Moll Flanders could be a character of today
Review: Moll Flanders was written by Daniel Defoe, the same author of Robinson Crusoe. Although the settings are different, we can see many similarities between the stories, like the implicit criticism of british society of the XVII/XVIII centuries and the importance that society gave to exterior looks. Moll Flanders can be divided in two parts. In the first one, Moll, being poor, is raised in a foster home, and, being pretty, catches the attention of the elder son of the family whose house she lives in. It is when her misfortunes begin. Misled and deceived by this elder son, she has to leave the house and be on her own. When she was a child, she wanted to be a "dame of society", and that's what she desperately tries to become, looking for a rich man who will support her financialy. To catch the eyes of such men, she has to pretend she is very rich herself, and then all she manages to have are false "gentlemen", trying themselves to marry a rich woman. Even then, she is able to find a man she loves (more than one, in fact), but through a series of bad luck she always looses everything. The second part of the book is where Moll Flanders transforms herself in a successfull thieve. This is a fun part, where she describes her struggle to accomplish the thefts without being caught and thrown to infamous prison Newgate. And then, the ending seemed a little too sudden to me. Defoe's book is a stinging critic to his society, and that's why he chose to write in a female first-person, self centered (there are almost no other names in the course of the story) and desperate to get to the high level of society, showing that everybody could be affected by hypocrite puritanism and moralism. Grade 8.5/10
Rating: 
Summary: thought-provoking
Review: Moll Flanders: Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu'd Variety for threescore years, besides her childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore, five times a Wife (Whereof once to her own Brother) Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv'd Honest, and died a Penitent by Daniel Defoe has been an interesting read. This is a true story taken from Moll Flander's own memoirs. This book is a story of wickedness until the last fifty of three hundred pages when 'Moll' finally becomes penitent. It then becomes a story of forgiveness and God's mercy no matter what a person's past life or background has been. Moll is a clever woman who, although wants to be honest and pure, cannot become so because of the society she lives in and what it has reduced her too. This, however, does not exempt her from responsibility for her actions, it just serves as a catalyst and partial cause of her circumstances. The bulk of the book serves as a warning that once a sin is set in motion it is very difficult, if not impossible, to stop. It is a lesson for those who are willing to read the book. I give it a lower rating because the story, although quite thought-provoking, became dull at times and was a little too graphic. Another note worth mentioning is that there are no chapters or separations in the book. It is written without any quotation marks so that dialouge is written as 'he said' 'she said.'
Rating:
Summary: Tasty
Review: The'plot structure of Moll Flanders is conventional: it's the usual plot about a deviant who, in the end, regenerates oneself and kowtows before conventional morals - Moll's ultimate fate being no different from that of the late Sex and the City foursome. However, what a different between Defoe's ironical ending - when Moll and her "Lancashire husband" settle down in Maryland to enjoy a comfortable old age out of her looting as a street criminal - and the dull Victorian-like endings of so many of our popular culture fictions - which by the way, lack entirely in genuine conviction about the values they intend to upheld!Moll Flanders is a healthy beast - someone who accepts her world as it's and makes the best out of it.It's this matter-of-fact attitude which makes most of the novel's charms, and makes today's readers refreshed! Read, and enjoy!
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