Scarica Riassunto Moll Flanders e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! Section 1: Moll Flanders is born in Newgate prison to a mother who is a convicted felon, when Moll is six months old her mother is transported to America as punishment for her crime leaving her infant daughter alone, her earliest childhood memory is of wandering with a band of gypsies at the age of three. She separates herself from the gypsies in Colchester where she is taken up by the town magistrates as a charity case. They place her with a nurse (honest and kind woman) and provides Moll with a fairly good upbringing and gives her a rudimentay education. When Moll reaches the age (eight years) at which she is supposed to seek employment as a servant she protests tearfully that she would rather stay with her current mistress. She could earn her keep doing needlework explaining that she wants to be "a gentlewoman”, the childish innocence of this unreasonable ambition amuses her mistress and neighbors to no end and she actually becomes something of a local celebrity. She is allowed to continue in her current situation and several rich ladies begin to act as her benefactors occasionally giving her money and clothes. When the nurse dies Moll goes to live with one of these prominent families. She continues her education alongside the daughters of this family learning to sing, dance, and speak French. Analysis: The narrative begins with the disclosure that "Moll Flanders" is not the heroine's true name but rather an alias given her by "some of my worst Comrades" in crime, Moll's mother receives her sentence as a "Favour", the expected punishment would have been execution. Moll begins as an orphan and her life will in fact be defined as one of profound isolation, the basic aloneness of human beings was a favorite theme for Defoe. On the rare occasions when she does find fellowship Defoe does not allow Moll's interpersonal relations to become the focus of the novel, Moll's solitary and unpropitious start in life also initiates her remarkable self-sufficiency. That she divides herself from the band of gypsies at the age of three is an index of the power this heroine will have to steer and direct her own life. While Moll is often at the mercy of circumstances, her lack of affiliation also gives her a kind of freedom and it forces her to rely on her own judgment and cunning to make her way in the world. Section 2: Moll is growing into a very beautiful young woman and she becomes vain of her appearance, the two sons of her adopted family begin to notice her (eldest son is of a worldly and dissolute character, He flatters and flirts with Moll and eventually seduces her and they become regular lovers, he gives her quite a bit of money in exchange for her sexual favors). She believes that he means to marry her and so she is bewildered when the younger brother, Robert makes her a marriage proposal as well. Robert, captivated by Moll's beauty, wants to wed her immediately and without regard for the certain disapproval of his family and friends. Because he makes no secret of his desires his mother and sisters start to treat Moll gruffly and even begin to talk of turning her out of the house. Moll consults with the elder brother about how to handle the situation. Moll feels herself bonded to the elder brother indissolubly, she realizes that if she marries the younger brother she will have been nothing but a prostitute to the elder. The family's concern over their younger son's attachment to Moll becomes increasingly obvious and they interrogate her repeatedly about his advances and her own intentions. She first claims that Robert is not serious and then declares that she would never marry him against the family's wishes. Robert presses his family for their consent believing that then Moll will marry him. She begins to see the true contours of the situation and when the mother eventually consents she agrees to marry Robert, the older brother arranges things so that Robert is in too much of "a Fuddle" on his wedding night to know that his bride is not a virgin. Moll has no love for Robert and continues to cherish a flame for her first lover, her husband dies after five years and their two children are sent to live with Robert's parents. Analysis: The situation in which Moll eventually finds herself (in love with one brother but compelled to marry the other) is the stuff of tragedy Defoe gives the plot a fairly comic treatment, up to this point Moll has had nothing to reproach herself with except a childish ignorance. When she warns her younger readers the mischief to which she refers is not immoral sexual behavior but rather the credulousness that will allow a woman to be the dupe of a more sophisticated man, she admonishes herself for her lack of attention to practical matters not for the fact that she yielded to temptation but for the fact that she failed to secure her own interests as she might have. Desire and emotion are in fact conspicuously minimized in this novel which distills human existence to its economic and materialistic bottom line. She matures into a pattern in which her first reactions to events quickly resolve into stoic and pragmatic courses of actions, yet the gap between the narrator and the protagonist remains important throughout, serving to reinforce the conditional morality that the book so often propounds. She presents her own responses and motivations frankly and unabashedly as when she confesses that she was too pleased with her first lover's attentions to resist him. Section 3: Moll suddenly finds herself a wealthy widow alone in London and still Young and Handsome, she is courted by several men before she marries a tradesman→ his extravagant expenditures soon cast them into poverty, he is arrested and then escapes from prison and flees to France. She decides to dress as a widow and begin a new life under the assumed name "Mrs. Flanders”, she soon finds herself among a miserable company of men and does not feel inclined to return any of their attentions. Moll reflects on the extreme disadvantage women are at in the marriage market, she gets help from an acquaintance who carries her into the country where they cultivate the public misinformation that Moll has a fortune of 1500 pounds. Moll then finds herself courted by a plantation owner and tricks him into saying that he would marry her even if she were penniless. Once they are married he bears the news that she is actually poor, he expresses the wish to move to Virginia where his plantations are, and where his mother and sister live (Moll agrees). The whole family is getting along well in America and Moll was happy but while her new mother-in-law is telling some stories she suddenly realizes that the woman is actually her own mother by birth and that she has inadvertently married her half-brother. Appalled in this moment of recognition she hesitates to reveal her discovery to her husband, she knows only that she cannot continue in the marriage. She insists on being allowed to return to England but her husband refuses. They quarrel regularly and begin to be on very bad terms and finally Moll confides in her mother-in-law/mother who recommends that she bury the whole thing entirely and continue to live as before. She finally tells her husband/brother the whole story, Moll once again demands to go to England and he is in no condition to resist. After eight years in America she sails for home and she and her husband consider their marriage effectively dissolve. Analysis:The disappearance of Moll's second husband to France is the first of several occasions when Moll will find herself with a Husband and no Husband, Her solution to this problem is to close the door on her past and assume a new identity. She embraces the same strategy for dealing with her incestuous marriage and she will continue the practice throughout her life becoming increasingly adept at molding her disguises and personas to her own advantage. Section 4: Moll arrives safely in London but finds that some of her possessions have been destroyed in transit. She does become the platonic companion of a Gentleman whose company she particularly enjoys and he turns out to be a fairly wealthy man and Moll finds out that he is in fact married but that his wife has gone mad. This gentleman inquires into Moll's financial situation offering to assist her if she is in need, Moll hesitates at first to accept any money from him despite the urging of her landlady but she does take his money. He invites her to move to London with him but then he falls ill. She nurses him for five weeks and after a journey to Bristol in which they are forced to sleep in the same room their reserve falls away and they become lovers. Moll has several children by this man and he dutifully supports both her and them. She saves her money knowing that her prosperous situation may not continue indefinitely. Because of the imperative to secrecy Moll lives a fairly solitary life except for the company of her lover, after six years in this happy but unhappy Condition Moll's lover falls ill. For months she has little news of him→ finally he explains that he has had a religious experience in which he repented of his sinful and adulterous conduct. Giving her a final sum of money he resolves to see her no more. Moll plays on his guilt and pity to extract some further payments from him on the agreement that he will then be released from all further obligation. Analysis:Moll's relationship with this Gentleman is governed by a conflict: she seems reluctant to become his mistress but also at some level desires that outcome, Moll has learned that being a wife is more secure than being a mistress and she knows that there is no chance of marrying this man as long as his mad wife is still living. Yet his generosity and loyalty make him a likely candidate for an affair and this assessment is confirmed when he promises to take care of her and her children. For the six years that they are together Moll enjoys financial stability She is wise enough to save money while she is enjoying such prosperity. Moll's concerns are not unfounded: after finding himself on the brink of death her lover repents of his adultery and deserts Moll. Still the relationship is a relative success especially since marriage for Moll has been equally uncertain. Interestingly the moral valence of the situation is not in the fact of committing adultery but rather in having the common sense to secure oneself against some change of circumstances, the woman who does not protect herself against that possibility is justly ruined. Section 5: She has 450 pounds to her name but at forty-two years old she is aware that her assets of personal beauty are in decline. She knows what she wants but says she does not know how to attain that end. Moll again allows people to think she is richer than she is, she meets and befriends a woman who carries herself like a gentlewoman and who encourages Moll to move to the North