Moll Flanders Term Paper

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Moll Flanders

Daniel Defoe's Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders is a compelling look at one woman's unending pursuit of true love. First published in 1722, the novel offers insights into the manners and mores of an entire age and society, while at the same time probing into the actions, beliefs, and hopes of one particular individual. Whether the motivations of the title character are unique to herself, a set of personal quirks and eccentricities, is left to the reader to determine. The feelings and attitudes of one person are not always representative of the emotions and behavior of the entire human race. Notwithstanding, Moll Flanders' enduring popularity is, it seems, a signal that Moll's adventures do indeed continue to strike a chord, playing upon themes that are universal. Stripped of those characters and incidents that are specific to the world of the Early Eighteenth Century, the story of her life seems possible even today. While at times a bit outlandish, or overly dramatic -- a sort of Georgian soap opera -- Moll Flanders' life story is not a mere exaggeration, but rather an illustration, blown up to immense proportions, of aspirations and needs that we all share, and that we all instantly recognize. Moll's unending pursuit of true love is as much a prime, motivating force in her own life, as it is in the lives of millions, and perhaps billions, of people in the "global village" of the Twenty-First Century. And her progress from adolescent girl, to adult woman, and on through to mature matriarch are phases through which most women pass. We may not be a Moll, but each of us knows someone who is

Moll Flanders begins her quest for love as so many of us do -- as teenagers intoxicated by the first draughts of attraction. Moll is easily swayed by the attentions of her guardian's elder son. She mistakes the lusts of a virile and privileged young man for the passion that accompanies true love. As she herself describes it, "But that which I was too vain of was my ruin, or rather my vanity was the cause of it. The lady in the house where I was had two sons, young gentlemen of very promising parts and of extraordinary behaviour, and it was my misfortune to be very well with them both ..

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Moll had been placed in that house because of her express wish "to become a gentlewoman." Dazzled by what she believed to be the good life of a woman of that class, the young Moll Flanders hoped to be able to learn the bearing, deportment, and attitudes of just such a woman. Yet, whether she was successful or not at this attempt "to play the lady," her guardian's elder son cleverly led her to believe that she was the epitome of grace, character, and of course ... physical beauty. Like so many teenage girls today who dream of being able to date a mature man -- anyone eighteen or over -- Moll firmly believed that she had achieved something special by attracting the attention of such an obviously worldly man as the elder of the two brothers. It was the kind of conquest that makes a young girl feel like a woman; an experience that is so frequently mistaken for love, simply because love itself is "just so grown-up." Naively not noticing that the elder brother knew "as well how to catch a woman in his net as a partridge when he went a-setting," Moll Flanders affirmed the conviction that it was her own special charms -- in this case her success in passing herself off as a gentlewoman -- that had drawn the young "gentleman" to her.

At that age, it is easy to think that every woman is something unique, and especially important to every man.

Yet Moll did not remain a teenager forever. As time passed, she did "grow up," but perhaps not as completely as she thought. Again, as a young adult, she allowed herself to be lured by surface appearances. The dream of being gentlewoman-in-love manifested itself in her marriage to a "gentleman" draper. The term "gentleman" is here in….....

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