Daniel Defoe Moll Flanders 1722 Study Questions Millennium

Daniel Defoe Moll Flanders (1722) Study Questions Millennium I p. 172

STUDY QUESTIONS 1. Why is Moll Flanders a fictitious autobiography? • Because the story is told in the first person by Moll herself in her old age, when she has repented of her former criminal ways. 2. Where is the novel set? • It is set in London and in the English counties. 3. What does Moll represent? • The heroine of the novel represents a new, economically independent type of woman, who is able to look after herself in a hostile world. 4. What are the similarities and the differences between Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe? • Like “Robinson Crusoe”, “Moll Flanders” is a fictitious autobiography. In both novels, in fact, the story is told by a first person narrator. However, unlike “Robinson Crusoe”, which relies on the fascination of the exotic, “Moll Flanders” is set in London and the English counties. Just as Robinson is the prototype of the commercial hero, Moll Flanders is the personification of a new, economically independent type of woman. Both Robinson and Moll are alone in facing a hostile world and it is only by relying on themselves that they are both able to solve their problems and achieve success. Although in both novels Defoe shows a didactic aim and moral concern, money is the real driving force behind his universe.