Money In Defoe's Moll Flanders

Money as Moll's God

Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders is the alleged autobiography of a woman and her struggle for success and survival in eighteenth-century England, the key to which is money. The importance Moll places on monetary value and the fact that money controls her thoughts, emotions, and actions serve as evidence that money is Moll's god. In the American Heritage Dictionary, a god is defined as any thing that is "worshipped, idealized, or followed." Through Moll's actions and based on the things on which she places importance, it is made clear that she worships and idealizes money and will do whatever it takes to follow it.

Moll's idealization of money is evident in how she places it in the utmost of importance, above all things including love. Of her first sexual encounter, in which her lover presents her with money directly after their rendezvous, she says, "I was more confounded with the money than I was before with the love, and began to be so elevated that I scarce knew the ground I stood on" (Defoe 22). To her money is more important, more moving, than love. From a young age, Moll has confused the two and they will forever be falsely connected in her mind.

This unfortunate association leads to Moll viewing herself and others as little more than monetary resources. She measures men based on their wealth and social standing. Once in describing a meeting with one of her husbands, Moll says, "I confess I was very glad to see him... He pleased me doubly too by the figure he came in, for he brought a very handsome (gentleman's) coach and four horses, with a servant to attend him" (Defoe 165). Moll is equally happy to see her husband as she is to see the prosperous condition in which he arrives. This is further evidence of her fixation with money. In addition, Moll constantly defines herself in terms of financial worth. "My circumstances were not great... I had preserved the elder brother's bonds to me to pay me Ј500... and this, with what I had saved of the money he formerly gave me and about as much more by my husband, left me a widow with about Ј1200 in my pocket" (Defoe 53). She fails to describe herself in any terms other than the wealth she possesses or, rarely, what traits she has that will assist her in amassing more wealth, such as her appearance. In another instance Moll says, "With a tolerable fortune in my pocket, I put no small value upon myself" (Defoe 54). Moll sees value as a reflection of the money that one possesses.

This mixed-up sense of value also shapes Moll's narration of her story. The fact that an entire page of the novel is devoted to bills and calculations of pricing illustrates Moll's obsession with monetary value (Defoe 151). This is not the only instance where Moll's fixation with money is evident. It is obvious throughout the novel that Moll gains comfort through counting up her possessions and calculating her wealth.

Just as money controls Moll's thoughts, it controls her actions. Everything that Moll does is done in order to secure some semblance of economic stability. She starts by deceiving men out of their money and progresses to actually stealing from individuals. She uses poverty as her excuse for such actions, saying it is "the sure bane of virtue" (Defoe 173). Mol allows money, or lack thereof, to rule her actions. If anything other than money was her god, she would be able to resist the temptation to procure wealth through dishonest means. Even when Moll convinces herself to do the right thing, money is her main persuasion. At one point in the story Moll says, "Thus my pride, not my principle, my money, not my virtue, kept me honest" (Defoe 55).

The actions she takes with men are also a result of Moll's fixation with money. To her, sexual encounters are more business transactions or investments; her only interest is the monetary value of the relationship. Of one husband she