Moll Flanders key quotes Flashcards
Preface, ‘she is made…’
‘She is made to tell her own tale in modester words than she told it at first’
Process of revision; consideration of audience; ethics of the novel (truth, purpose, effect)
Preface, ‘we must be content…’
‘We must be content to leave the reader to pass his own opinion’
Interesting ‘his’ - main novel readers female
Ethical questioning
‘we’ - who?
Preface, ‘more the moral…’
‘More the moral than the fable, with the application than the relation; with the end of the writer than the person written of’
Could be a satire of realism and its hidden ideological centre
Moll justifies false name
‘I will speak under than name till I dare own who I have been, as well as who I am’
Moll excusing crimes due to birth
Had no access to ‘an honest, industrious behaviour’ as a child
How will she be a ‘gentlewoman’?
A ‘gentlewoman’ by ‘her finger’s end’
Defines as ‘does not go to service or do housework’ - does not consider social reputation
Importance of physical work; but also suggests her autonomy
How did the first brother catch her?
‘Baited his hook’ on her ‘vanity’
Moll on function of beauty
Beauty can make ‘as good a market’
Moll’s reaction to first brother’s money gift
More ‘confounded and elevated’ by the ‘money than the love’
After first time having sex
‘Thus I finished my own destruction at once, for being foresaken of my virtue and modesty, I had nothing left to recommend me’
Moments of Narrative Awareness
‘Of whom I have made some mention in the beginning of the story’
‘It concerns the story in hand very little to enter into the particulars…’
‘I have often observed since, and leave it as a caution to the readers…’
‘I am but a very indifferent monitor’
Why did she ‘repent’ of actions with the brother?
‘not from any reflection of consciousness, but from a view of the happiness I might have enjoyed’
Moll of her relations with first brother
‘your dear whore’
‘can you transfer my affection…bid me love him’
Marriage night to second brother
Lies about having sex - ‘conversations’
‘As fame and foes….’
‘As fame and foes make an assembly, I was here wonderfully caressed’
