Weaving a Maze of Identity: Moll Flanders, Feminine Identity, and Men
This 6-page undergraduate paper considers Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders, especially examining the thesis that one of the defining characteristics of Moll Flanders’ life was her relationships with men and her attitudes towards them. This paper shows Moll’s "evolution" in her ideals pertaining to men. Briefly, this paper argues that in many ways, Moll Flanders can be defined by her relationships with men as she moves from naive victim of seduction to criminal to repentant and good wife. Her web of relationships interweave her moral, personal, and financial developments, as Moll takes on the financial status, name, and lifestyles of the men she associates herself with. Moll takes great pains in her narrative to suggest the ways in which instability within marriage eventually push her to poverty and crime. However, as much as Moll can be defined by relationships, it becomes clear that she also manipulates views of her relationships. Small clues in the text suggest that her own disguises and deceptions, as well as her avarice, not only affect her relationships but also her lifestyle and her life of crime. Moll, it becomes apparent, uses her relationships with men to define herself through them. That is, in having the narrative power to define her relationships with men, Moll defines herself very consciously, thus escaping the role of the passive woman defined by men. Ultimately, Moll’s identity is not only defined by herself, but that identity remains a mystery, wrapped by many layers of narrative disguises.
