1 Paper V: Unit I Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders Contents 1. Background 2. Major Themes 3. Chapter Analysis 4. Overview 5. Character Analysis 6. Stylistic Devices 7. Study Questions 8. Suggested Essay Topics 9. Suggestions for Further Reading 10. Bibliography STRUCTURE 1. Background 1.1. An Overview of Novel The novel is the most popular literary form of the last 250 years. Novels are indeed ubiquitous and provide both intellectual stimulation and emotional satisfaction. The novel is also an especially important and influential form. To the extent, for example, that we see society as complex and interconnected or view human personality as the product of early childhood experience, we are—whether we realize it or not—registering the impact of such writers as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, Henry James and Virginia Woolf. 1 2 This overview of novel is an introduction to the form of the novel and, in particular, to the English novel tradition. No prior knowledge of the texts or authors is assumed. The course has an unusually wide sweep, beginning in the 1740s and closing in the 1920s. In distinguishing the novel from other forms, we might note two of its most striking features. The first is the novel’s preoccupation with social values and social distinctions. A great novel often seems to describe an entire society, creating a vivid image of the relationships among whole classes of people. It’s no wonder that novels are frequently described as the forerunners of modern ethnographies and social histories. Equally important to our ongoing definition of the novel form is its interest in human psychology. Whereas plays and films are often forced to concentrate on externals—how a character moves or speaks—novels are free to probe the inner recesses of both mind and heart. By the end of a novel, we may have developed a deep sympathy and, perhaps, some kind of identification with the characters. In addition to examining human communities, then, the novel explores the nature of consciousness itself. To define the novel in these ways is to recognize its relationship to larger social forces. The rise of the novel through the 18th and 19th centuries coincides with major historical developments—urbanization and democratization, industrialization and globalization, to name a few. These developments heighten conflicts between established elites and the growing middle class. They also raise urgent questions of personal identity, social responsibility, and moral virtue—the very sorts of questions that turn up in so many of the greatest English novels. That the novel provided compelling responses to such questions is evidenced by its enormous and enduring popularity. No form could have established itself so quickly and so powerfully without addressing the deepest needs of its audience. The English novel tradition is not the only one to concern itself with the relationship between society and the self. Such concerns can also be seen to dominate the French, Russian, and American traditions. Yet if the English tradition shares much with its Continental and American counterparts, it also possesses a number of distinguishing features. Perhaps the most obvious aspect of the English tradition is its virtual obsession 2 3 with courtship, love, and marriage. Almost all of the greatest English novels of the 18th and 19th centuries are love stories, and some of the great Modernist novels of the early 20th century are dominated by issues of love and marriage. Another distinguishing feature of the English tradition, especially as it unfolds in the 18th and 19th centuries, is its striking preference for comedic plots. Unlike the works of Flaubert, Tolstoy, or Melville, the overwhelming majority of English novels from this period end happily. By the close of a novel by Fielding or Austen or the early Dickens, each of the characters has found his or her proper place in society. These characters not only end up where they belong but also get what they deserve. Virtue is rewarded, and vice is punished—which is to say that a larger sense of poetic justice prevails. As the 19th century moved on, English novelists began to experiment with other sorts of endings. By the time Thomas Hardy published Tess of the d’Urbervilles in 1891, the old conventions and forms had become increasingly untenable. For about a century, it had been possible for English writers to imagine a satisfying resolution to social conflicts. By the time we get to Hardy, after decades of industrialization and the reorganization of English society along modern lines, that possibility had vanished. In tracing the emergence and consolidation of various approaches to stories and storytelling, we will, of course, fashion a story of our own. The last large movement in that story will focus on the great modern novelists of the 1910s and 1920s. Like their 18th- and 19th-century predecessors, these writers were responding to larger social forces, including those associated with the horrors of the First World War. Yet even as modern novelists create disturbing images of social fragmentation, they deepen our understanding of the individual personality, fashioning character studies of unsurpassed emotional complexity. Thus, one can see why the novel remains a form of unrivalled popularity and undeniable importance. 1.2 Introduction to the Author Daniel Defoe was born in 1660 in London, England. He became a merchant and participated in several failing businesses, facing bankruptcy and aggressive creditors. He was also a prolific political pamphleteer which landed him in prison for slander. Late in life he 3 4 turned his pen to fiction and wrote Robinson Crusoe, one of the most widely read and influential novels of all time. Defoe died in 1731. Early Life Daniel Foe, born circa 1660, was the son of James Foe, a London butcher. Daniel later changed his name to Daniel Defoe, wanting to sound more gentlemanly. Defoe graduated from an academy at Newington Green, run by the Reverend Charles Morton. Not long after, in 1683, he went into business, having given up an earlier intent on becoming a dissenting minister. He travelled often, selling such goods as wine and wool, but was rarely out of debt. He went bankrupt in 1692 (paying his debts for nearly a decade thereafter), and by 1703, decided to leave the business industry altogether. Acclaimed Writer Having always been interested in politics, Defoe published his first literary piece, a political pamphlet, in 1683. He continued to write political works, working as a journalist, until the early 1700s. Many of Defoe's works during this period targeted support for King William III, also known as "William Henry of Orange." Some of his most popular works include The True-Born Englishman, which shed light on racial prejudice in England following attacks on William for being a foreigner; and the Review, a periodical that was published from 1704 to 1713, during the reign of Queen Anne, King William II's successor. Political opponents of Defoe's repeatedly had him imprisoned for his writing in 1713. Defoe took a new literary path in 1719, around the age of 59, when he published Robinson Crusoe, a fiction novel based on several short essays that he had composed over the years. A handful of novels followed soon after—often with rogues and criminals as lead characters—including Moll Flanders, Colonel Jack, Captain Singleton, Journal of the Plague Year and his last major fiction piece, Roxana (1724). In the mid-1720s, Defoe returned to writing editorial pieces, focusing on such subjects as morality, politics and the breakdown of social order in England. Some of his later works include Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business (1725); the nonfiction essay "Conjugal Lewdness: or, Matrimonial Whoredom" (1727); and a follow-up piece to the 4 5 "Conjugal Lewdness" essay, entitled "A Treatise Concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed." Death and Legacy Defoe died on April 24, 1731. While little is known about Daniel Defoe's personal life—largely due to a lack of documentation—Defoe is remembered today as a prolific journalist and author, and has been lauded for his hundreds of fiction and nonfiction works, from political pamphlets to other journalistic pieces, to fantasy-filled novels. The characters that Defoe created in his fiction books have been brought to life countless times over the years, in editorial works, as well as stage and screen productions. 1.3 Introduction to the Novel Considered one of the great English novels, Defoe's book follows Moll Flanders as she struggles to avoid the deadly poverty of 17th-century England. From a prison-birth to final prosperity, Moll reckons love, theft and prostitution in terms of profit and loss and emerges as an extraordinary character. This vivid saga of an irresistible and notorious heroine - her high misdemeanours and delinquencies, her varied careers as a prostitute, a charming and faithful wife, a thief, and a convict - endures today as one of the liveliest, most candid records of a woman's progress through the hypercritical labyrinth of society ever recorded. Moll Flanders, published in 1722, was one of the earliest English novels (the earliest is probably Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, published in 1688). Like many early novels, it is told in the first person as a narrative, and is presented as a truthful account, since at that time the idea of a long, realistic work of fiction was still new. It is not only an extremely entertaining and action-packed story, but also gives a valuable and lively picture of 17th century society. Although Moll is an exceptional character because of her ingenuity and extraordinary life, the problems that Moll faces are firmly rooted in her society. As the daughter of a transported convict, she begins life at a great disadvantage: she lacks the support system of family and friends which all children need, and which was particularly necessary for women, since their access to employment was limited.