Representations of Children in 18^th Century Literature : An Analysis Using "Moll Flanders" by Daniel Defoe and "The Castle of Otranto" by Horace Walpole

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Moll Flanders could have become a wholly marginal character, given that she was an illegitimate child born to an imprisoned mother; however, she takes control of her own life because of those very conditions. As a result, she is able to make her own way in the world, even from early childhood, despite frequent episodes characterized by her lack of insight and judgment and her poor decision-making skills. While the story is told retrospectively, from the perspective of Moll Flanders as an older woman who benefits from the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of her adventures, its portrayal of Moll as a young girl whom few people noticed or cared for is an interesting social commentary on the position that children, especially female children, occupied in 18^th century society. This marginalization is evident as early as the first page of the novel, where Moll describes herself as “a poor desolate Girl without Friends, without Cloaths, without Help or Helper in the World, as was my fate” (Defoe 1). Given that she was “expos’d to very great Distresses” early in life, she soon learns than action will get her much further along in life than self pity. Recall that this is a similar strategy used by Matilda in "The Castle of Otranto", though it is deployed differently.

Moll Flanders narrates for the reader just how children were expected to fit into 18^th century society. Although she is taken in by a kind woman, the Mayor of the town declares that Moll, along with other children, must perform some sort of meaningful work in society. Moll Flanders resists this notion and is so pitiful that she convinces the woman to get a stay of service. Yet Moll soon decides that she will never be suited for the kind of work the Mayor has in mind for her and the other children, and she declares that she will somehow become a “Gentlewoman” (4), an idea which amuses her caretaker because it is so inconsistent with the social possibilities that are open to Moll, not only as a child, but also as a girl of a particularly low social class.

Moll goes on to learn some of the finer points of being a Gentlewoman, yet her life takes a series of unanticipated turns and she is forced to reinvent herself again. It is through each of her transitional periods that Moll challenges the roles that traditionally confined girl children. First defying her social position and its requirements, then defying the opposite to which she aspired, Moll finds herself engaging in sexual relationships at an early age. She has no adult figure to guide or protect her during this period, and thus Moll is diverted to a different life course entirely, one which will be defined by sexual and emotional promiscuity and, later, cunning thievery. If Moll, as a child—and an illegitimate child at that—was supposed to simply disappear into the background of society’s fabric, as the times dictated that someone of her social position would, she defied this expectation and refused to be contained by the limiting role that society offered to her. It may be argued that a child of Moll Flanders age did not have the developmental capacity to make such conscientious decisions about resisting social roles and stereotypes that had been defined for girl children, and it is probably the case that Moll did not grapple with the underlying psychology of such concerns. Yet, her narrative reflexivity permits her the privilege of hindsight. With that privilege, the adult Moll who narrates the novel is able to acknowledge that she never, at any point in her life, really had anything to lose by defying social expectations. As a result, she has matured into a woman who has her regrets, but who ultimately has learned from her mistakes and who has grown stronger and fuller because of her various forms of resistance.

It is important to point out that the roles of the children discussed here, in the case of both texts, are highly gender-bound and if these were male children being presented in either tale the argument would be entirely different. In other words, Matilda, Manfred’s daughter, is cast in a role assigned to her because of her gender, as is her brother Conrad. Unfortunately for her, his role affords him more opportunities than hers does. Similarly, in the case of Moll, her gender would have rendered her invisible had she not decided to resist, even unconsciously at first, the scripted roles that were typically cast for children and, in particular, for female children. Both Matilda in "Castle of Otranto" by Walpole and Moll Flanders in the novel by Defoe are notable characters because they refuse to be limited by such confining roles and it is this refusal—this outright rebellion and rejection of common thoughts about children—that makes them so noteworthy and memorable. While Matilda appears to be, and is, a doting daughter, her father’s rejection of her sets up a dynamic in which she can either accept or reject the traditional gender role for a girl child. She rejects the role by resisting largely within its confines. Matilda’s resistance strategy is successful because she does not lose her dignity or appeal to the reader. Instead, she works with what she has been given and refuses to be trapped by it. Moll Flanders, on the other hand, resists the role for a girl child, and ultimately, for an adult female, by defying the stereotype altogether.

In both Walpole’s "The Castle of Otranto" and Defoe’s "Moll Flanders", the authors create compelling female characters who, despite their youth, challenge all sorts of social conventions and boundaries, especially during a time period when challenging such social mores was incredibly rebellious and difficult.  While the organization of 18^th century society was structured around the protection of parental authority and the marginalized position of the child, especially girls, the strong female characters of Matilda and Moll Flanders expand the range of possibilities for both children and girls. Both of these novels marked a significant turning point in the treatment of children in literature and in particular, female children,  but they also reflected changing norms in society itself. In the time period following this, particularly after the Victorian era when many of these same ideas about children were present and persistent,  parents began to relate to their children with greater interest and emotional involvement, literature would inevitably begin to represent characters in the same way. "The Castle of Otranto" and "Moll Flanders" were written and published at a transitional moment in social history, and as such, serve as markers of cultural change.

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Works Cited

Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1996.

Moglen, Helene. The Trauma of Gender: A Feminist Theory of the English Novel. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001.

Pollock, Linda. Forgotten Children: Parent-Child Relations from 1500 to 1900. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

Walpole, Horace. The Castle of Otranto. New York: John B. Alden, 1889.

Warner, William B. “Recent Studies in the Restoration and 18^th Century.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 40, (2000), 561.