Line #21 Literature/MollFlanders


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/moll_flanders.jpg]]
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3	Describe ''Moll Flanders'' here.
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5	Well, we don't really need to, given that the entire story is revealed by the full title (takes a breath): ''The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, Etc. Who Was Born In Newgate, and During a Life of Continu'd Variety For Threescore Years, Besides Her Childhood, Was Twelve Year a Whore, Five Times a Wife [Whereof Once To Her Own Brother], Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon In Virginia, At Last Grew Rich, Liv'd Honest, and Died a Penitent. Written from her own Memorandums''. (breathes) Whew.
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7	Outside that, all you really need to know is that it's a novel published in 1722 written by Creator/DanielDefoe, author of ''Literature/RobinsonCrusoe'', and that it received several adaptations, including a 1965 film starring Creator/KimNovak as Moll, a 1996 film starring Creator/RobinWright as Moll, and a TV miniseries also from 1996, starring Creator/AlexKingston as Moll.
8	----
9	!!''Moll Flanders'' provides examples of:
10	* TheAtoner: As the title says, Moll [[spoiler:and her husband]] both become this in the end.
11	* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: Claims to be based on a true story, as was normal of novels at the time, as fiction was considered taboo [[LoopholeAbuse so writers would get around this by claiming their stories were based on real events.]]
12	* BirdsOfAFeather: Moll and her husband from Lancashire.
13	* BrotherSisterIncest: As the title says, one of Moll's husbands was her own brother. Though to be fair, they didn't know they were siblings at the time.
14	* DiabolusExMachina: ''Constantly''.
15	* DirectLineToTheAuthor: Claims to be based on a true story, as was normal of novels at the time, "Written from her own Memorandums".
16	* DrivenToSuicide: Moll's third husband after he learns [[spoiler:he's her long lost brother]]. He survives, though.
17	* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Almost everyone of Moll's husbands, her wet-nurse, her best friend, her mother...
18	* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Moll, after a life time of hardships, not only becomes genuinely repentant of her actions, but is HappilyMarried, reconciled with her son, and a wealthy gentlewoman by legitimate means.]]
19	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Even when she's a master thief, Moll can never bring herself to murder anyone.
20	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: And what a rather long tin it is.
21	* ForegoneConclusion: Thanks to the title.
22	* GoldDigger: The Book. In a hilarious fashion, she marries a supposedly rich Catholic man, who turns out to be a GoldDigger ''himself''. Naturally, they split up.
23	* GuileHero: Moll.
24	* IWasQuiteALooker: Moll makes it clear often enough.
25	* InWhichATropeIsDescribed: This book and it's very long, descriptive title are among the {{Trope Maker}}s, being written in the heyday of the trope's non-ironic use.
26	* LongLostRelative: [[spoiler:Moll's mother is... [[BrotherSisterIncest her mother in law.]] ]]
27	* MockMillionaire: Moll attracts one of her husbands by pretending to be rich. By the time she admits that she has no money at all, he's already in love with her.
28	* MissingMom: Moll's mother abandoned her and Moll herself is a missing mom for most of her children.
29	* NoNameGiven: Almost all characters.
30	* OutlawCouple: [[spoiler:Ironically, when they reunite at the end of the novel [[LoveRedeems she and her husband both become repentant of their crimes]].]]
31	* {{Picaresque}}: The genre of the novel.
32	* RagsToRiches: And to rags again and to riches again, and so on and so forth.
33	* RedemptionEarnsLife: Moll's finally becoming genuinely repentant for her actions, and the steps she takes to do so, ultimately save her life from the gallows.
34	* SettleForSibling: Moll is seduced by her young master but marries his younger brother.
35	* SpoilerTitle: The (full) title gives away all the major plot twists.
36	* SurpriseIncest: [[spoiler:Moll finally discovers her long-lost mother. Unfortunately, Moll's mother is also... her mother-in-law. Oops.]]
37	* UnreliableNarrator: This is an early case of a narrator who is unreliable on more than one plane. Superficially, Moll puts herself in the best possible light no matter what, either by glossing over the enormousness of her crimes or by blaming the victims, but her story is also logically inconsistent and ahistorical. She leaves her purportedly well-loved children in Colchester in the 1640s - in other words, in a war zone - to traipse off to America on a whim. Her "older brother", with whom she inadvertently commits incest and has a child, must be younger than her if her mother's story is true. Despite living in London in the 1660s, she does not recall the Plague, the Dutch invasion, or the Great Fire.
38	* TheVamp: Oh, Moll.
39	* VillainProtagonist: For a portion of the novel when Moll is a master thief.
40	* WealthyEverAfter
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42	!!Adaptations provide examples of:
43	* DawsonCasting: In the 1996 miniseries, 33-year-old Creator/AlexKingston played Moll from the age of 18 onwards. (She hardly looks any older when she gets transported: at that point, Moll is 61 in the novel, and so far as the miniseries' chronology makes sense, she ought to be about 50.)
44	* SettingUpdate: The 1996 miniseries shifts the setting, just a few decades into the Restoration period. The novel ends in 1683, from which one can work backwards and see that Moll is born in 1614, first goes to London in the late 1630s, and is transported in 1675. In the early scenes in Colchester, the miniseries does look as if it's set in the early-to-mid 17th century - but it turns out that's just due to Colchester being a backwater. The moment she goes up to London, everybody's dressed in Restoration finery, and she attends a performance of ''The Country Wife'', first staged in 1675; shortly before being transported, she goes back to the theatre to see ''The Way of the World'' (1700).

Context Literature / MollFlanders