Alex Kingston as Moll Flanders in The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders
This was a surprising thing to me, and perhaps may be so to others who know how the Laws of Nature works; for he was a strong vigorous brisk Person; nor did he act thus on a principle of Religion, at all, but of meer Affection; insisting on it, that tho’ I was to him the most agreeable Woman in the World, yet because he lov’d me he could not injure me (Defoe 167).
This passage, which occurs after Moll Flanders has slept in the same bed as a man who is seemingly only referred to as the gentleman, relates a view that is consistent throughout the entire text that men are brash and impulsive creatures, challenges the assumption she maintains about the inherent connection between love and sex, and hints toward the disregard Moll has for love and affection in her actions after this moment.
For example, the reason why Moll states that she is surprised by his ability to suppress his nature is because the culture of the time had a large component of victim-blaming, what is referred to sometimes as a boys-will-be-boys attitude, but also because her previous encounters with men did not emphasize her consent and focused heavily on sexual gratification. The passages which describe her tryst with the elder brother of the family she lived and worked for are described in a nonconsensual way, “I stuggl’d to get away, and yet did it but faintly neither, and he held me fast, and still Kiss’d me, til he was almost out of breath, and then sitting down, says, dear Betty I am in love with you” (Defoe 60). Here she struggles while he forces himself physically and also emphasizes his love for her, very different from her interaction with the gentleman. In addition, later on in Moll’s life a large fight occurs between her and her husband after he discovers that she is his sister because she refuses to sleep with him anymore (Defoe 139-40). In contrast, the gentlemen in the passage does not attempt to take her virtue, a very valuable item indeed, because of what the Flanders refers to as “meer Affection” (Defoe 167). This shocked description could be ascribed to her understanding that passionate love goes along with passionate sexual advances as she experienced with the elder brother and with her duty as a wife to her husband, that was also her biological brother.
Furthermore, this passage marks a turning point for the character as the first instance in which Flanders has encountered a character who seems to be purely altruistic without a clear anterior motive. She relates that he did not refrain because of religion, but out of a desire to protect and respect her because of his affection. Whereas the elder brother refused to marry her due to the toll it would take on his status (Defoe 91), and upon hearing about the fact that Flanders was his brother, her previous husband attempted to kill himself twice due to his societally engrained embarrassment, while Moll had been living with this info for at least a month (Defoe 154). The gentleman is not only loving but straightforward and true. Ironically however, later on when the gentleman sends her a letter relating that upon nearing death he wants to be more respectful to his wife; Flanders uses this as a way to get as much money off him as possible (Defoe 179). Therefore, the passage relates her surprise at his affection, but not in a sense that she is perhaps in love with him too, but as a way of making her attempts to steal money from him all the more cruel and deplorable.
Works Cited
Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. London: Penguin Books, 1989. Print.
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