Consequences Of Morality In Moll Fanders By Daniel Defoe

Early novelists often found themselves defending their work’s morality to readers. Although they made arguments that the characters were too extreme to be something people would try to mimic and that the characters actions would show us how to avoid immoral behavior, many times the author only seemed to only add these comments in order to convince the reader that their piece was worth reading, as opposed to showing as much moral commentary as they described. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe is a great example of an early novel that claimed to be a moral story, but really did not have the high moral resolution Defoe made the readers expect. He initially addressed the story’s morality throughout the Preface. He began by saying the language of the …show more content…
This makes it seem like the book should have a negative ending, considering that Moll is one of the characters that partakes in a lot of immoral behavior, yet her consequence is not really a punishment in the long run. Defoe mentions the character’s outcomes on page 5, “there is not a superlative villain brought upon the stage, but either he is brought to an unhappy end, or brought to be a penitent”. This is meant to reassure the reader that all characters who display immoral actions will be punished for it or regret it, yet Moll does not seem to truly regret her actions. Her consequence leads her to have a happy ending, where she just says she regrets her previous wicked life, although she never stopped her wicked ways earlier and continued to try and gain money, lying to her husband up until the last page. On page 266 she describes her circumstances as, “In a Word, we were now in very considerable Circumstances, and every Year encreasing….” This shows that Moll’s punishment of being sent to America allowed her to finally have a decent amount of money. Throughout the rest of the novel, it was rare that Moll ever found herself to be in “considerable circumstances” and she never was able to better her status continually over years. While her last line on page 267 says she plans to repent, “where we resolve to spend the Remainder of our Years in sincere Penitence, for the wicked Lives we have lived” we do not get to see if she actually feels guilty about her former actions. Since she finally has money, there is no reason for her to continue her wicked lifestyle in America, which leaves the reader to question if she would have not repented if she never got