초기영국소설 중간 요점

1. English Novels and Daniel Defoe

 Rise of English Novel (Moll Flanders: text that shows early stage development of english novel)
- Novel: prose narratives that proliferated in Britain during 18C
- “a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism.”
= realistic, probable, plausible character & Plot Defoe does not use “novel”, but rather “history”… what are the expectations when we use the term “novel”?
- Not widely accepted as distinct literary form until early 19th C
 How did English novel come into being? : started off as wide range of distinct literary form
 Why did expectation for prose fiction shift? : intellectual, social changes… such as empiricism

 Empiricism
- Empiricism: idea that we can know the world only through our direct experiences
stimulated by experiemental science: developed in 17, 18C (e.g. John Locke, David Humen) / Compared human minds as a blank paper that experiences build on
- stories - natural/probable occurrences take place
No supernatural or improbable events: No miracles, suspension of physical rules of nature, no magic.
Instead of unreal/improbable, we now have actual/familiar world of common sense experience -> Led people to focus on everyday lives

- Novel <-> romance from Middle Ages / early Renaissance

Ordinary people were presented in former works but not as protagonists
Early english novel banishes characteristics of Epic/romance
Protest happens against normality, rational, empirical, actual of early novels (ex. Gothic)

 Literacy and Print Culture

- literacy rose in the 17C, 18C – men 60%, women 50% -> large readership that included middle / lower classes
 Increasing demand for secular/contemporary printed materials -> resulted in great popularity of novels
- Didn’t need classical education to read and enjoy (but not prestigious as a literary genre)
- diversity of “novels” during this period

 Rise of Middle Class

- Middle class resourceful due to commerce, trade / power, money still constrained to upper class
- Rise in social status, became gentility themselves -> social status became volatile / fluid
- Though novels celebrated changes positively, they Also criticized collapse of traditional social / moral order
- middle class: most of the recently expanded readership -> Used novel as a platform to address concerns/interests
- Portrays middle-class individuals as protagonists: attempts to attain higher social status through individual efforts (not by inheritance)
- Promotes middle-class myth of social mobility/individualism (e.g. Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders)
 Celebrates Hardwork, ambition, virtue, benevolence in face of social change/ individualism
 Daniel Defoe: strong advocate of middle class myth, but also critical about moral mayhem

 Function of Novels
- Give guidance / instruct morality in readers / Provide them in pleasurable form
Useful guidance/information for young/inexperienced readers & immigrants
<-> Conduct books (explicit moral instructions) / epics (adhered to social expectations from early ages)
- Portray ordinary people undergoing problems in contemporary society
- Moralists concerned about harmful effects of novels on young impressionable readers
<-> Writers tried to counter fears with claims about novel’s morality (justify / defend novels) effort to elevate status of novels, considered to be lower literary genres

 Daniel Defoe : English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer, spy

- Born as Daniel Foe, later changed to “Defoe” -> Social yearning (name of hugher status)
- His life a direct influence on portrayal of protagonists
- Occupies significant place in history of novels (One of the earliest writers of the English novel)
- credited for bringing realism to contemporary prose narratives

2. Moll Flanders (-98P)

 Title page and preface -> Presented as true story
- Experimenting with telling “realistic” story about the everyday world: historicity vs. probability
 Made readers engage with historical authenticity/realism

- summary of protagonists’s life => promotion for text (attract reader’s attention)
- justification for criminal biography: moral instruction
- borrows conventions from different literary genre
 details of Moll becoming notorious criminal: criminal biography
 Moral: “liv’d Honest, and died a Penitent” → spiritual autobiography

The world is so taken up of late with novels and romances, that it will be hard for a private history to
be taken for genuine, where the names and other circumstances of the person are concealed, and on
this account we must be content to leave the reader to pass his own opinion upon the ensuing sheet,
and take it just as he pleases. The author is here supposed to be writing her own history, …she gives
the reasons why she thinks fit to conceal her true name, (37)
 “Supposed to be writing her own history”:
- Claims to be editor to Moll’s history (no reference to writer, supposedly based on actual history of character)
 Stresses factual veracity of text: highlights difference b/t history <-> novels/romances (i.e. inconsistent use of term “novel”)
 How does Defoe complicate such claim in this passage?
- By mentioning Moll’s concealment of her real name / Suggests Moll may be taking liberties with the truth → leaves it to the opinion of readers

It is true that the original of this story is put into new words, … written in language more like one still in Newgate than one grown penitent and humble, as she afterwards pretends to be.
The pen employed in finishing her story, … to put it into a dress fit to be seen, and to make it speak language fit to be read.,… an author must be hard put to it wrap it up so clean as
not to give room, especially for vicious readers, to turn it to his disadvantage. (37-38)
- claims to facutal veracity complicated by editors altercations (more clear language) -> not transparent/direct account of her experiences
- Complications of novelists: be historically correct / but avoid immorality -> moral necessity of selectiveness
 Tension existing between reality (factuality) <-> moralism (immoral events)
 “pretends” : suggests Moll’s penitence might be a pretense -> another tension/contrasiction in the novel

A work from every part of which something may be learned, and some just and religious inference is drawn (40)
- Adheres to moral justification of novel: moral instruction (repent, penitent…)
- questions he casts in preface becomes guides for readers / Makes us reflect on reader’s role
- Editor: hopes reader will be “more pleased with moral than fable, … with the end of the writer than with the life of the person written of” (38)
 concerned about effects on “vicious readers”

 Formal Realism in Moll Flanders

- Realism: one of the novel’s defining characteristics -> Influenced by rise of empiricism
- literary techniques novel employs to imitate reality : Experimenting with how to tell a “realistic” story
1) Presents text as true story 2) uses factual details as evidence for text’s truthfulness
- Ian Watt: employs term “formal realism” (imitates human life) to refer to such literary techniques
Banishes supernatural/improbable, instead provided actual and common sense world that imitates reality

“The narrative method whereby the novel [imitates human life] may be called its formal realism; …to a set of narrative procedures which are so commonly found together in the novel,
and so rarely in other literary genres, that they may be regarded as typical of the form itself. Formal realism, the novel is a full and authentic report of human experience, details of the
story as the individuality of the actors, the particulars of the times and places of their actions, details”
- Narrative procedures: literary convention. Not the actual historicity of novel, but imitation of human life
 Common denominator of early english novels (convention gets mocked/parodied later ex. Gulliver’s travels: imaginary travel narrative)
- beginning of Moll Flanders (43) – mantains claims to story’s historicity (names & geographical features)
 does not completely fulfill criteria of formal realism; complicated by Moll’s concealment of her name
- Nonetheless other various examples in text to illustrate Defoe’s use of formal realism in Moll Flanders
 66, elder brother
 67, Moll: yearning and desires, dressing for the role she aspires to acquire someday -> fixation, leads to financial ruin
 Emphasis on circumstantial details
- Enables Defoe to address crucial concern of this period : what constitutes a gentleman (or in Moll’s case, a gentlewoman)

 Gentility in 18th C britain

- Transitioned from agrarian society to a commercial one -> Resulted in rise of “middle class”
- traders, merchants, manufacturers: commercial success allowed them to lead leisured life <-> landed gentry: underwent financial difficulties
- Mobility between upper<-> middle classes -> Led latter to gain interest in how to become a proper gentleman (or gentlewoman)
- Factors other than birth taken into account -> middle class marrying their way into higher society/ buying status
- Members of middle class didn’t simply pursue wealth -> interested in style of high life (imitating gentility) => reflected in Moll
 What causes Moll to aspire life higher than drudgery of going out to service? How does Moll’s understanding of what it means to be a gentlewoman change throughout this week’s reading?

 Moll’s Desire to Become a “Gentlewoman”

 Gentilty: not being a servant, earing money for herself -> Does not have clear idea of what it means to be gentlewoman
- Raised “as mannerly and as Genteely as if had been at the dancing school” in a country parish (46)
- Develops “aversion to going to service” (46), converses with teacher about becoming a gentlewoman
- Flattered by attention she receives for expressing such desire (51) -> becomes known as the little gentlewoman (ironic, since unlikely to happen)
- Invited to a home of lady (more comfortable living situations, education): more substancial education than in parish
 more sophisticated idea of what a gentlewoman is

 education
- Moll not being born into genility but saying she’s not lesser than gentleladies in education and skills
- Education: important for gentility, acquirable (<-> inheritance)
What consists a gentlewoman: Birth(mere chance, pure luck), natural abilities, education, fortune
 radical in its implications: Sees birth as irrelevant (challenge to higher society’s ideaology/dissolution of traditional belief: birth determines skills/innate qualities)
 According to Moll, what makes someone a gentleman or gentlewoman?
- Naturally gifted and received education of a gentlewoman
- early implications of her vanity (superiority complex on skills and beauty)
- Yet lacks money: “If a young woman have beauty, breeding, wit, sense, manners, modesty, … yet is she have not money, she’s nobody”
- Money- Marriage requirement: marriage system built to be disadvantages to women
 Reason for seduction by elder brother
 What motivates Moll in engaging in this illicit friendship with the elder brother? What are some of the passages we can look together to explain her behavior?
Money, vanity, gentility…

 Moll’s marriage to the younger brother

- Opportunity to “marry a gentleman of a good family, in good circumstances, and with the consent of the whole house” (98)
 Becomes gentlewoman through marriage
 Although she achieves social yearnings, the moral compromises -> Defoe is acknowledges people to achieve their yearning, but for what cost?
 Start to hear both voices from the character (moll as a narrator, editor intervening -> what lesson can be learnt?)

 Moll’s Moral Reflections (Morality in Moll Flanders)

- Morally compromises herself in the process of attaining a higher social status
 Moll’s story meant to be a tale of moral instruction/ cautionary tale (be aware while you pursue social desire)
- Feels incredibly guilty for having married Robin (102)
 How does she justify immoral actions? What does she claim she learned from previous actions? Do her reflections support moral claim of the novel?
- Not conventionally repentant: meant to be a retrospective viewpoint on sins/actions -> but hear smug satisfaction from character(narrator)/editor
- Inconsistencies in her narration / Morality (different from what was promised in the preface)
- Relationship with older brother -> memento to all women : warning about dangers of excessive vanity/moral destruction-> but also teaches about negotiation

3. Week 3•Economic individualism & side effects • network of female accomplices • predicament women face in 18C England • instructions that novel imparts to its reader
 Moll’s continued attempts to become/immitate gentility (achieve social mobility)
① Makes extravagant purchases (104)
- Her second husband: “a land-water thing, a gentleman-tradesman”
 He looks and acts like a gentleman, but is he really?
 not denying a tradesman can be gentleman, but criticizing extravagance/vanity pursued by tradesman (superficial appearance) -> leads to financial ruin
② Makes awkward literary attempts (125): imitate style of gentile romance (polished literature of upper class)
Two middle class characters trying to write heroic couplets but is clumsy & childish
Novel: popular with middle class readers since it did not require high class education
③ Goes to the American colonies (i.e. Virginia): Indication that british empire was expanding
opportunity for lower classes to make their fortune -> economic utopia for lower class people, but is this entirely true? (what are the problems?)
- Moll’s attempts of chasing gentility challenged and dismissed by Defoe

 Economic Individualism (ex.Moll) : novel concerned with daily lives of ordinary people, due to ① rise of empiricism ② rise of individualism
- Individualism: values autonomy of individual, acknowledges his/her political, religious, and economic rights
- Reason: less rigid social order, democratic political system (i.e. Bill of Rights- 1688 Glorious Revolution), rise of capitalism/economic specialization
- Moll’s attempts to achieve highest economic rewards (relentlessly pursuing money) -> economic individualist
- What might be negative consequences that result from her pursuit of money?

 Side effect: weakening of communal & personal ties

①repeated references to Moll’s isolation & alienation from society (99, 110, 156)
②Mint: densely populated place; society of isolated individuals living in same place & share goals / but not interact with each other
③her roles as wife/mother: cannot reap benefits from emotional connection with family (ex. Cutting ties with Robin’s family)
- incestuous relationship with her half-brother – ironic due to her desire to find family / attain financial security

 Moll’s Network of Female Accomplices (women who house Moll, counsel for her relationships)
 - Not completely alone as Moll repeatedly argues -> A network of female companions/accomplices
 In this week’s reading, Moll engages in a close relationship with a series of women. In what ways do they help her overcome her misfortunes?
And what might be the limitations of their relationship?

 The Predicament of Women in 18C England

① Women having to exist in a society where predatory male behavior (sexual/financial) is prevalent towards women
② not allowing women any viable avenues to capitalist ventures -> cannot earn money or expand funds
(women confined to the domestic sphere <-> men: public sphere, earn money to rise in social status)
③ Inequality of marriage market (121)
Problematic bc marriage: institution that subordinates women’s choice to men
Unfair conditions women find themselves in marriage markets
Making accusations to men who made unfair system: if men are willingly accepting women who can’t think for herself, it’s a disservice to them as well
④ wife’s subordination to husband (property rights transferred to husbands)
 Moll safeguards her property from male appropriation -> keep independence& security
- Example of power men held over their wives: Husband’s threat to send her to a madhouse (140)
 Marriage: only means to gain respectability/ gentility that she ardently desires & only legitimate union with man (reputation)
 Network of female alliances: Made necessary by difficulties Moll faces as a woman
- Moll Flanders hailed as a proto-feminist novel
 Defoe: sympathetic towards women in this time, unique portrayal of female protagonist overcoming such predicaments

 Alternative Conduct Manual -> stark contrast to typical conduct manuals

- Conduct manual: “text intended for inexperienced young reader/ ethical, Christian-based code of behavior, normally includes gender role definitions. Primary aim is to define Protestant
scheme of life/morals/behavior, to encourage ideal conduct in white, generally middle-class children, young men, or young women”
- Radical lessons- deviate from convetional ones (ex.64 Warns dangers of excessive vanity&moral destruction, but also teaches about negotiation)
- What kind of lessons or instructions do you think Moll Flanders imparts to its readers? How do they compare with those of the conduct manual?

 Instructions to help device strategies for survival in a male-dominated world, giving an upper hand to women in a relationship
- Works as practical lesson & conduct book for survival for women to overcome desperate circumstances
- Friendship with other female characters for survival

4. Week 4
 Defoe’s Innovation of Existing Fictional Forms novel: new literary form (18c~) - Not entirely new: Defoe drew from preexisting traditions
 conventions of (non)fictional forms: picaresque narratives, spiritual autobiography, conduct materials)
- Developing characters that were not the norm back in 18C

 Picaresque Narrative : (16th C Spain (“picaro” = rogue)~)

Similar to novel: realistic (predecessor to this novel)
Different: Picaro- episodic in structure, has one-dimensional characters
- Early English novel has greater coherence/character development (not typically seen in picaresque narrative)
(ex. Moll: moves from one environment to other to survive, problematic picaro that survives hostile world with wits
But also complicated character with depth not seen in picaro genres)

 Spiritual Autobiography : non-fiction prose, prominent in 17C (protestant writing)

- Narrates how believer moves from state of sin -> deliverance
- narrative pattern: [rebellion, punishment, repentance, deliverance]
repentance of shallow repentance-sin => big deliverance => repentance => religious conversion
 Defoe employs this to bestow coherence on text’s episodic plot
- lead reader to having virtuous life + emphasis on the individual
 Enables character development (e.g.Moll) that we cannot see in picaresque narrative
- Spiritual autobiography: precursor to early English novel

 Moll Flanders as Spiritual Autobiography

 How does Moll Flanders adhere to (and deviate from) structure & content of the spiritual autobiography?
- Her original moral sins: vanity, sexual deviance, emotional adultery…
Vanity: rise above her original social status, to be more desirable than ladies of higher class -> makes her vulnerable to seduction from older brother
 Habitual sin as a way of “spritual hardening”

 P. 70-71 “now I repented heartily my easiness with the eldest Brother, not from any reflection of conscience. But from a view of the happiness I might have enjoyed…”
- Has just been put on the path of moral destruction
- regrets relationship with elder brother only because she couldve engaged in a guiltfree relationship with robin
- “repentance, conscience”: not sincere -> early stages of spiritual autobiography
 P. 168 “I exchanged the place of friend for that unmusical harsh sounding title of Whore…”
- Talks about repentance, but praying to god only alleviates their guilt and lets them indulge in sexual desires freely
 P. 176-177 the bath gentleman repenting for his prior sins after near-death experience
- Significant change in behavior suggests he reached true peitence
- Dire situations leading to repentance & conversion (ex. Him in his deathbed, Moll in newgate prison)

 Moll Flanders vs. Spiritual Autobiography (deviations from spiritual autobiography)

① Not solely focused on protagonist’s spiritual conversion/ development
 interested in secular/social/psychological matters
② tension between Younger Moll (commits series of crimes, adultery, bigamy, theft.. other minor illegalities)
VS Older Moll (narrating experiences, retrospective account/wants to present as penitent gentlewoman)
- Because of not having truly converted
- Constant conflict of values in narrative makes her complex character with individual identity - intimately connected with her contemporary society
 What distinguishes Moll Flanders from spiritual autobiography and makes it more like a novel
ex) moral lessons: not corresponding with penitent gentlewoman persona/survival & securing better deal in relationships>sexual virtues
Smug satisfaction over her abilities
Devotes lot of narrative space to Moll’s deviating behavior -> not in allignment with novel’s moral lesson
 Morality and Gentility in Moll Flanders
- Defoe’s use of spiritual autobiography as overarching narrative framework -> helps bestow upon Moll morality&respectability
- A period, where notion of what it means to be member of gentility was in flux: not only birth/ancestry, but also education, nature, wealth, and virtue
- Definition of “complete gentleman” = “Man of Honour, Virtue, Sense, Integrity, Honesty, and Religion”
Inner values/merits: aristocracy used this justification for their social status/advantages
Rising members of middle class used this argument to disrupt social order (examining higher class behavior and pointing out immorality)
But also using it to be included in higher society (that they were virtuous too)
- Honor lacking in not only elder brother, but also Moll
- Traces process by which Moll becomes a respectable gentlewoman who is in possession of both estate and moral values

 P. 67: The older brother being of hereditary gentry but not having inner virtue
- “Honor” used as means of deception, Moll casting doubt on his honor (closely associated with members of gentry)
  P. 82: the older brother promising fake honor – “honor” used very loosely/insincerely
- Moll’s improper judgment: aspires to be respectable middle class woman, but engages in immoral behavior
 why she’s so insistent on proving her morality: bc it Is closely associated with respectability of a gentlewoman
 throwback to second husband (obsessed with outward appearance, not inner virtue-> leads to financial ruin)
Important that Moll gains morality and respectability to benefit her social aspirations (≒ Robinson Crusoe)

[Three types of realism used in Moll flanders: Formal, Social, Psychological]

 Social Realism in Moll Flanders (critical social commentary on 18th C british society)
- Dark realities/anxieties that lie beneath the middle-class myth (individualism/social mobility)
 Side effects Signified by:
①intense alienation Moll feels
②criminal/immoral means of acquiring money for social aspirations (ex. Deception to land financially solvent marriage, fraud, adultery, bigamy, theft, etc.)
- Era of expanding commercialism&imperialism-> Traditional values of community/society/sympathy minimized by individual pursuit for self interest
- Sympathy: proposed as potential solutional for social moral order

 Psychological Realism in Moll Flanders

- Inconsistencies in recollection – mix of vain, guilt, pride… -> reveal her to be “endearingly human”
- Penitent gentlewoman <-> immoral Moll taking great pride in her (immoral) actions
Relentless pursuit of money & self-interest <-> her relationship with Jemy (210) : despite they scam each other, effectionate & loving
 Highlights complexity of identity (constantly changing, evolving, fluctuating according to circumstances of one’s life)
- Note: such inconsistencies interpreted in various other ways; as indications of Defoe’s artistic failure; as instances of irony in text, etc
- Identity flux – not only Moll but various other characters (linen draper, Brother-husband, Jemy)

5. Week 5
 Moll’s Bookkeeping
 What is money to Moll?
- Key component in relationships: money, uniting of funds : due to limitations as a woman (no viable access to enterpreneurial values) -> marriage as investment
- Key component of her identity : ties it to her own identity (“I was reduced to-“, expands/contracts according to her monetary possession)
 Influences her to think about acquiring new identity - Identity not relying on core inner assets, but more on financial worth

 Keeps an account of her possessions throughout text

- Constant numerical figures/values: calculated/tallied constantly
- Moll’s innate ability to count/recognize numbers/think about values they add up to (readers not told when she gets numerate)
- After every adventure/relationship, she catalogues/tallies her properties (even after Jemy left)
- factors for making bookkeeping widespread practice in 18th C: rise of consumersism, materialistic culture, imperialistic expansion, introduction to arabic numbers

 three bills Moll receives for lodging at Governess’s house (223-24)

- difference levels of comfort/accommodation provided according to bills/ governness giving Moll option to fit in with financial situation
1) Formal disruption/interruption in continuous narrative that has no chapters: contours of text change
2) Contributes to formal realism of novel: documentary evidence of the bills Moll has
- Governness: no bias on people’s status, objective with bill, no judgement or mistreatment on rich/poor
<-> Moll: social snob (money influenced her life/relationships, everything is commodified)

 How does she respond when the governess gives her the bills? How can we explain Moll’s response?
 Relieved by bills she receives (<-> 219: sick with worry/reflections, first time acting this way)
- 220: “every word this creature said was a cordial to me…”: provides solution, solves Moll’s conundrums
- Stability/order of itemized accounts -> regain sense of order over her disrupted(fractured) life/narrative (was in verge of collapse)
- resolve inner conflict Moll feels over thought of aborting/abandoning her unborn child
 Inconsistencies that derive from Defoe’s innovation of various fictional forms (criminal biography, spiritual autobiography, adventure narrative, realistic…)
 Moll’s relationship with Governess (important role in Moll’s narrative/life)
 Both compassionate <-> cold-hearted
- takes care of Moll (mother figure) <-> tempting her to abandon her child (temptress, leads to path of moral wrongdoing)
- 235: “careful and tender” of Moll like her mother <-> would not care if she’s executed
- Inconsistent like Moll, but not exhibiting the complexity of character that we see in Moll due to early English novel’s psychological realism
- Psychological realism: mode of narration that focuses on character’s interiority and explores reasons behind their behavior
 Readers not gaining information of governess’s inner state

 Functions as Moll’s mother (231): nurses Moll back to health, recomposes her
 Different models of motherhood and family: Moll (234) vs. the Governess (235)
- helps redefine notion of family: biological, emotional ties <-> economic ties
- Moll: it is the mother’s role to provide proper care to children, and to not do so is murder
<-> Governess: denies emotional connection between biological mother&her child -> biological mother does not entail proper care

 Correct considering Moll’s relationship with bio mom: reunited, but family quickly disintegrated / limitations to emotional connection
 Closer relationship with governess based on Money
- Moll’s abandonment of her children: object of much criticism
 Makes sense when we consider Moll’s vision of what constitutes a family + economic burden children place on their parents

6. Week 6
 Moll’s criminal career (Moll’s sudden(?) turn to crime)
- Moll’s husband dying: punishment for immoral actions
- Moll not viable in marriage market, no acquaintance, dire circumstances ->resorts to thievary
 Variety of protagonist’s life: common tactic used to attract readers
- Editor: preface- infinite variety of book: multiple performances/roles/locations Moll adaopts
 Earlier instances in the text in which Moll oversteps the boundaries of law
- Illegal concealment/confiscating of assets after her husband’s bankrupcy, bigamy, …
 Becomes progressively more criminal to the point she considers
- In great agony for abandoning her child -> killing a child in order to steal a necklace (257)

 Moll Flanders & Criminal Biography (Borrows conventions from another popular genre)
 Criminal biography: Very popular in 18C England, Often contains confessions, dying speeches, and/or letters that criminals wrote in prison
- Read by a wide range of readers: not only lower laboring classes but also elites, but still viewd as vulgar production
 Similarity: moral ambiguity in the text
- Typical of criminal biographies to include both repentance and celebration of criminal’s career

 Moll Flanders VS Criminal biography (deviation from conventions)

1) Fascinatingly detailed description of Moll’s skills as a thief- ex. 266 pickpocketing scene, detailed lesson/instruction on craft of thievary
2) Embarks on criminal career more associated with male thieves
- typical female narrative: “fallen woman” (lose virtue by seduction -> prostitution, mistress, cheating, murder…)
 Moll starts out this way but then follows typucally male career -> becomes skilled & famous
- Constant fluctuations in her mind- reflects on her criminal past

7. Week 7
 Moll’s Spiritual “Hardening” : narrative within framework of spiritual autobiography
- Falls into a state of sin-> repentance -> spiritual deliverance
- Constant fluctuation between sin and repentance

 Motivations behind her Thievery

 Poverty and avarice -> What might be her other motivations behind her thievery?
 Limitations imposed on Women
1) economic motives
- Women denied legitimate routes to capitalist enterprise
- Explains her number of husbands/lovers (only means to invest/expand scarce resource she has)
- Does not willingly become criminal when in stable situations
- Misforturnes/misadventures: brought upon by necessities of female condition
2) intellectual, emotional satisfaction from dexterity & criminal expertise
- Takes great pride in being “the greatest artist of [her] time [who] worked [herself] out of every danger with such dexterity” (280)
- Provides her with a sense of accomplishment and stimulation
- Sense of achievement, stimulation not allowed to women at the time
- Only alternative: needlework – not as fulfilling & empowering
3) independence without having to rely on men

 What might be similarities between being skilled tradesman and skilled thief? : dexterity, foresight, vigilence, industrious, clear calculation of risks/rewards

 Contemporary Anxieties about Trade (new credit-based economy)

- New credit-based economy: wealth no longer based in land/precious metal (i.e. coins), instead conducted with bank notes, financial exchange
- Moll: Puts on many disguises while stealing, not what she appears to be -> Moll’s identity?

 Gender Differences in 18C England -> Masculinity/Femininity mutually exclusive from each other
- Reconceptualization of gender roles in 18th C: More fluid gender identity to biologically grounded (fem/mask: unchangable, natural)
① Sexual division of labor in the 18C
- gradual collapse of domestic economy: unified economic unit based on collective kind of labor (men/women performing together, flexible division of labor)
- Spread of Capitalism -> Family structured along gender: men participated in expanding public world / women confined to domestic sphere
- Men and women assuming distinctly different spheres/ roles (men: political, legal, economic subjects <-> women: mother/wives)
② Shift in scientific ideology
- Before 18th C: female body seen as aberrant version of male body / gener relatively fluid
- Women perceived to be fundamentally/ naturally different from men -> distinction between men/women biologically grounded
 Social convention for genders grounded in biolgical sex
- Women increasingly associated with maternity and sexual Passivity
- Division between Moral Women <-> Prostitute (female sexuality)
 Moll going against gender conventions: accumulating capitalists enterprise (skills, wealth) by embarking in thievery (less than tradesman in reputation)

 Debate on Moll’s Gender Identity : stepping on/surpassing gender boundaries

- Novels: gender differences explored and exposed, interested in how masc/femininity translated into social roles
- Moll as essentially masculine…. Moll accepts none of the disabilities of her sex and indeed…a heroine who so fully realized one of the ideals of feminism: freedom from any voluntary
involvement in the feminine role”
1) negative: lack of maternity, no concern for her children
2) positive: abilities/capabilities of competant tradesman

- Moll as “feminine”: behavior related to restrictions placed on women during this period & biological concerns that continue to affect women today
Desire for fine clothes, etc.
But deviates from conventional gender rules associated w women (ex. Delicacy, emotionality, devotion, passivity…)
<-> masculine (competance, autonomy, rationality, independence) => genders in separate spheres
 Complex character with both masculine and feminine traits

 Moll’s Defiance of Gender Expectations

1) Seems to accept normative categories of femininity by portraying Moll as a wife and mother
 Yet spends more time exploring roles as a whore, mistress, thief, and pioneer
Devotes little space to motherhood (examples?)
 Moll no longer bound norms of womanliness in such roles
2) Released from emotional ties that bind women to families, especially their children
- Lack of maternity, no concern for children, forgets their existence after they leave her custody, describes them as burdensome to new relationships
- Accusable for immorality/inhumanity/unfemininity? -> explainable with high infant mortality rate/custom of sending children away for better care
-> Moll’s actions explainable within range of normal feminine behavior
3) Indulges in her sexual desires (e.g. the gentleman from the Bartholomew Fair [295] – sexually/physically attracted)
- Normal gender roles – female sexual desires detached
 sexuality that not linked to maternity and familial roles

4) Criminal career allows her to escape from domestic sphere

- Becomes financially independent without having to accept gifts from men
 Liberating, no longer object of exchange in patriarchal system
5) crossdressing: “As my governess disguised me like a man, so she joined me with a man, yet he never knew that I was not a man” (281)
- Crosses between social ranks, classes, gender, etc
- Connected to anxieties of trade : fear of things not being what they appear to be
- Is there a Core essence that is tied to her personal space/identity -> or is she just a product of outward activities?
- Dress code in 18th C: enforce difference between the genders, discriminate genders
- Defoe exploring/transgressing different norms of femininity/gender