Moll Flanders The story centres around Moll Flanders who turns to committing crimes to survive In the beginning of Moll Flanders's "private history," Defoe announces that some people may not find the story credible due to the omission of many of the characters' names and circumstances. Moll will elaborate on her reasons for omitting her identity later on.According to Defoe, Moll is a woman of debauchery, vice, and her story portrays wickedness and corruption.In the novel's first lines, Defoe shows that Moll, the daughter of a convicted felon, was born in prison and will eventually follow in her mother’s footsteps “Had this been the Custom in our Country, I had not been left a poor desolate Girl without Friends, without Clothes, without Help or Helper in the World, as was my Fate; and by which, I was not only exposed to very great Distresses, even before I was capable, either of Understanding my Case, or how to Amend it, nor brought into a Course of Life, which was not only scandalous in itself, but, which in its ordinary Course, tended to the swift Destruction both of Soul and Body”. The novel depicted Moll as a young girl left alone in the wide world, forced to become a servant to feed herself. According to the novel , a poor childhood is what made Moll become a criminal. According to Moll , England's failure to care for orphaned children is directly responsible for the "destruction" of Moll's "Soul and Body," indicating that both Moll's morals and her physical health are undermined. Defoe suggests here that Moll is more a victim than she is a criminal, and the fault lies with society. Because of her poor childhood,
