Moll Flanders: Character Mind Map & Summary
Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders: the heroine, her husbands, her life of crime, a quick summary and the exam facts.
The Character Mind Map
Tap any name to open the details.
Moll Flanders
Born in Newgate Prison to a mother who is transported to America, Moll tells her own story in old age. Driven by poverty and the wish to be a “gentlewoman”, she lives by marriage, adultery and finally theft, until she is caught and transported to Virginia, where she prospers and repents.
Ending: rich, respectable and “a penitent”💍 Husbands & Lovers
Marriage as survivalThe Elder BrotherOf the Colchester family
Role: Seduces young Moll with promises, then persuades her to marry his younger brother, Robin.
The Half-BrotherA Virginia planter
Role: Moll marries him and has children before discovering he is her half-brother; his mother is her own mother.
JemyThe “Lancashire husband”
Role: Each marries the other believing the other is rich. He becomes a highwayman; he is her true love and later joins her in Virginia.
Settles with Moll in Virginia🗝️ The Underworld
Crime & helpThe GovernessA midwife and receiver of stolen goods
Role: Moll’s partner in crime and confidante; she later repents too.
HumphryMoll’s son in Virginia
Role: Welcomes her back and helps her claim her inheritance.
Memory Hook: The Title Tells the Story
The full title sums up her life.
Quick Summary
The plot in five lines.
Stage 1Childhood
- Born in Newgate, Moll is raised by a kind nurse, then taken into a Colchester family.
Stage 2Marriages
- Seduced by the elder brother, she marries Robin, then a draper, then a planter who turns out to be her half-brother.
Stage 3Mistress & Wife
- She lives as a mistress, marries Jemy by mutual deception, and later a bank clerk.
Stage 4Thief
- Widowed and poor, she becomes a skilful thief with the Governess’s help.
Stage 5Newgate & Virginia
- Caught and sentenced to death, she repents and is transported with Jemy to Virginia, where they grow rich.
Must-Know Exam Facts
Quick points for UGC NET, SET and PGT.
Title & Date
Published in 1722. The full title begins The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders and summarises her whole life.
Form
A first-person picaresque novel, a fictional autobiography told by an old woman looking back.
“Moll Flanders”
Not her real name, but the nickname she was known by as a thief.
Defoe’s Novels
Robinson Crusoe (1719), Captain Singleton (1720), Moll Flanders (1722), A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), Roxana (1724).
Key Themes
Money and survival, women’s economic dependence, crime and repentance, and the individual in society.
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All the character mind maps in one printed book.
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