Close Reading of a Passage from Moll Flanders

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The sentence structures in this passage are unusual in the sense that once she begins telling the story of the theft, there are no full stops. This shows the sense of panic that Moll Flanders was feeling at the time and also how quick the theft was, she recants the story in a way in which the reader feels that they were at the scene of the crime, watching the events unfold. The panic that Moll felt emphasises the severity of the situation, if she was caught in the act she would have been sent to Newgate and possibly hanged, a fear that haunts Moll through most of the Novel.

This passage, as is the rest of the novel, is written in first person, which is extremely important as we receive an eyewitness account of Moll’s life, ‘Written from her own Memorandums.’ However, in this extract it appears as if the ‘true Devil’ has taken over her body as she seems to be unable to control most of her own actions and the fast pace of the extract appears as if Moll is shocked at the event that is taking place. Perhaps this could be Defoe’s way of evoking pathos in the reader by suggesting our protagonist was not fully culpable with hunger and an evil encourager both playing a part. Furthermore, Moll is able to recall every detail of the theft, ‘I so away into Charterhouse-Yard and out into St. John’s Street.’ It seems implausible that a seventy-year-old woman would be capable of retelling her life story so well that she remembers the roads that she ran to. It feels as though Moll’s story is being narrated in the present as her actions appears to be spontaneous rather than over forty years old. In this way, it is as if the reader is living Moll’s life alongside her, experiencing and feeling what she does, which works in her favour because it makes readers more sympathetic to her crimes.

In this key passage, Defoe explores some of the unfortunate attributes that Moll possesses. However, he demonstrates this in a way so that we do not despise her, rather pity the lengths she is forced to go to in order to survive.

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