American and British Studies Annual (Nov 2011)
Images of the Moral Order: (Im)Morality and Redemption in Daniel Defoe’s The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders
Abstract
The article starts from investigating the human preoccupation with the role and importance of divine providence through the centuries, with special emphasis on eighteenth-century English images of providence and divine authority, while observing the way in which the old tradition of magic and providential action was, during the same century, gradually overcome by the influence of Christian precepts and beliefs. Eighteenth-century England does not appear, at first sight, as a particularly religious age. Yet, religious themes pervade almost all the novels of the period, focusing on issues of morality or immorality. The recurrent invocation of, and belief in, God’s guidance of humans was also related to human sinful practices under such forms as theft, adultery, or prostitution. The article analyses the way in which images of providence and human practices related to morality or immorality played an important role on the cultural scene of the eighteenth-century England, particularly in Daniel Defoe’s novel The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders and Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. Special attention is paid to some key social and cultural agents such as the priest or, at the opposite pole, the prostitute seeking redemption. Investigating these characters’ relation to the divine order and its injunctions, the article intends to reveal their moral and spiritual accomplishment or failure.
