Psychological and Presentational Realism in Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
The Eighteenth-century literature is popular for its peculiar style of writing that gives the readers an insider’s view in the novel. By combining the two aspects such as Psychological and Presentational Realism, authors have created works of pure masterpiece such as Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. Defoe illustrates Moll, the protagonist’s psyche by writing the narrative in the first person to imply it as an autobiography. This allows psychological realism to work at its finest since the readers can feel a personal relationship to the character. The two important instances that occur with this type of realism are when Moll realizes that she is married to her own brother and her meeting with Humphrey, her son. In addition, Defoe also uses Presentational Realism to describe Moll’s initial career as thief with her first episode at the apothecary’s shop and later stealing a gold necklace from a child. The manner in which the setting is described gives the readers a sense of feeling of being there and at the same time experiencing her escape from the scene.
Amongst Moll’s several relationships, she is married to a plantation owner, who owns property and has mother and a sister in America. The couple decides to move to Virginia to be with the family (Defoe 77). Moll’s describes that she lives in marital bliss and also enjoys the company of her mother-in-law. She exclaims “…I thought of myself the happiest creature alive…” until her world is shattered as she portrays herself being “…most uncomfortable in the world” (78). As she is listening to the story of her mother-in-law being a transported felon to Virginia from Newgate prison in London and sudden...
... middle of paper ...
...hough she may not have kept in touch with her son. She is overjoyed by meeting him, which gives the reader a sense of hope that the story will end on a positive note. On the other hand, presentational realism is shown through Moll’s darker side when she turns into a thief to support herself and live lavishly. Her description of her deeds and exact account of what she acquires amazes the readers. The reader can connect to her by being a thief and at the same time passing moral judgments upon her. Some may congratulate her on being slick enough to steal from an apothecary shop while others may criticize her for robbing a little innocent child. Regardless of various opinions, Defoe’s narrative style involves the reader in the story, which makes it interesting to read.
Works Cited
Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. New York: Signet Classic Penguin Books USA Inc, 1996.
Farewell my Lovely, The Robber Bridegroom, and In the Skin of a Lion all contain heroes, although their heroism is of an unconventional sort. Despite their non-traditional nature, the characters of Philip Marlowe, Jamie Lockheart and Patrick Lewis are all identifiably true heroes, because they successfully engage, draw in, and 'win over' the reader with their positive characteristics. They are not merely average people with a few heroic attributes. Furthermore, these characters have many characteristics in common, despite their disparate backgrounds and vocations (of a private detective, a bandit, and a worker). This essay begins by introducing the theme of 'ambiguous heroism' that runs through each of the three novels, by scrutinising the example of The Robber Bridegroom. Following this, by looking in detail at the similarities (and differences) that are evident in terms of the characters' moral stances, physical bravery, and world view, it shall be demonstrated that all three characters are candidates for ambiguous heroism.
Some battles are more important than other’s like the one the character endures eternally. British literature as a whole pertains a lot of literary elements. But within these stories the most prominent is identity. A soul searching journey for one’s identity can begin at any stage of one’s life. The universal, time-transcendent idea of identity within British Literature attests to the human need for self knowledge, as it can be seen in the novels in Frankenstein, Beowulf, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
The way in which individuals interact reveals the nature of a person’s character. Henry James in his story, “The Pupil”, does exactly this—characterizing individuals based upon their reaction and relationship with one another. The characters of Pemberton, Mrs. Moreen, and Morgan Moreen are slightly revealed through conversation and actions. However, the restriction of Pemberton’s point of view only provides readers with deeper insight into his specific character rather than the others. Yet through the use of tone, James enables readers to grasp the essence of each character’s desire and motive. Throughout the opening of this story, Henry James subtly, yet progressively, exposes the true nature of each character with the techniques of point
Unfortunately, in eighteenth-century England, women were most definitely seen as objects of male desire. Until recently, any textual representation of female sexuality was non-existent and considered a taboo subject to speak of in public, so the acknowledgment of female sexuality by Cleland and Defoe is liberal and progressive in their time. In Moll Flanders, after Moll is tricked by the elder brother, her view of sex changes. Moll understands that “nothing but money now recommends a woman” and learns to transform her only asset, her body, into a commodity for monetary exchange (Defoe, 2011: 18). Mark Schorer (1950) argues that this depiction of sexuality reduces Moll and many of the other female characters to things to be bought and sold. Yet after her marriage to Robin, Moll never allows herself to be controlled. She chooses the men who satisfy her financially and manipulates them into marrying her. Her predatory and ruthless nature - traits typically associated with masculinity - transgresses her gender stereotypes. While the discourse of sexuality in Moll Flanders
When reading through "Gimpel the Fool", the reader asks who the fools really are? Throughout this paper I will use the psychological approach. I will use this to show that Gimpel's character grows more into a successful person rather than a fool as everyone knows him to be.
In conclusion, the novella "The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide" operates a kind of classic gothic fiction through numbers of connotation of the novella. It resonates the readers not simply because of the mystery and supernatural elements, nor stipulates them with violence and horror, but because it explores and dramatizes the Victorian cultural anxieties which the story is set. The embedded narratives create narratives and unreliability, complicates senses of overarching moral authority.
In her article “The Rise of Fictionality”, literary critic Catherine Gallagher sources an etymological modification of the term ‘fiction’ with the rise of the novel in eighteenth-century England, where it emerged as “a supposition known to be at variance with fact, but conventionally accepted” (347). This occurred at a time when an extensive homology between the ubiquitous use of speculation in modern society and that of belief that operates in the novel arose. The former required “the kind of cognitive provisionality one practices in reading fiction” (347). Through its frequent application and encounter, the “readers developed the ability to tell [fiction] apart from both fact and (this is the key) deception” (338). Its “earlier meaning of “deceit, dissimulation, pretence” became obsolete” (338). This paper will identify the effect of the synchronously burgeoning field of psychology, and its use of speculations and hypotheses in studying the mind, on this modification of fiction’s meaning, and its consequent influence on the formal and the thematic structure of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela. While it does not assume a unidirectional, causal alliance between the two, for the scope of this paper more attention will be paid on how the novel was configured in its scientific environment. This will be
The disposition and temperament of a character is revealed to a reader by the author throughout any work of literature, but a vast portion of the characterization occurs in specific instances at certain key points in the plot of a novel or play. This excerpt about Jude and Sue, from Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, exposes significant insights into their true intentions and emotions of themselves, others, and life in general. This author engenders a unique persona for each of the inhabitants of these two houses by utilizing a forlorn tone and gruesome diction, alongside symbolism that emulates the current situations in which the two characters find themselves ensnared.
...skell puts Molly’s reputation as a respectable young lady on the line by insinuating that she was behaving unfashionably with Mr. Preston. For the women of the Victoria era, a large burden was placed upon their shoulders, which nobody can carry or maintain their entire life. While the novel provides plenty of insight into the different characters with a splash of comedy, it still addresses critical and social roles women contend with in a male dominated society in the 1800’s.
Henry James, one of America¡¯s major novelists and critics, has produced many great works, such as Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, The Golden Bowel and The Ambassadors. His method of characterization is ¡°a complete objectification of characters.¡±¢Ùand he focuses on the inner life of characters rather than external action and environment to explore the mind and inner activities of the characters through their dialogues, mental conflicts, thoughts on man and events instead of the complex plot. So his writings do not present readers a series of events as traditional novels do. Especially in his final and ¡°major phase¡±, the very subtlety and complexity of characterization is almost to deliberately depicting degree. Thus people call him a psychological realist and consider him as the founder of psychological realism. James believes that reality lies in the impressions made by life on the spectator, and not in any facts of which the spectator is unaware. So by making the conscious part of the artist the final measure of experience, James shifts the ground of realistic art from the outer to the inner world. His short story Paste is one of typical examples reflecting his such writing techniques and theories on literary creation.
Metafictional Traits found in Flaubert's Parrot and in John Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman, before comparing these with the elements of realism in Isaac Singer's The Family Moskat.
In actuality, she was defiant, and ate macaroons secretly when her husband had forbidden her to do so. She was quite wise and resourceful. While her husband was gravely ill she forged her father’s signature and borrowed money without her father or husband’s permission to do so and then boastfully related the story of doing so to her friend, Mrs. Linde. She was proud of the sacrifices she made for her husband, but her perceptions of what her husband truly thought of her would become clear. She had realized that the childlike and submissive role she was playing for her husband was no longer a role she wanted to play. She defied the normal roles of the nineteenth century and chose to find her true self, leaving her husband and children
The concept of character is an illusion, a reality where ‘there are no facts, only interpretations’. In this illusory reality, like Alice, we stumble through the looking-glass from the world of reality into the world of appearance, of illusion. We find ourselves among heroes and villains that seem familiar but, in fact, could not be stranger. In Henry James’ ‘In the Cage’, an unnamed telegraphist, restricted by ‘the cage’ in which she works, peers through the rims of the looking-glass and, seeking to escape from the mundane reality of her existence, imagines her own fantastic reality. James interrogates the concept of character through the relation between appearance and reality, in that the unnamed narrator defines herself and others, living vicariously, through the mock reality she creates. Ford Maddox Ford’s narrative in ‘The Good Soldier’ is dogged by the narrator’s inability to distinguish appearance from reality, resulting in not only an unreliable narration but also a skewed perception of reality. The result is that Ford’s interrogation of the concept of character, through unreliable narration, suggests personal perception is all we can ever have, that the concept of character is not objective, it is an illusion, one individuals perception of the truth. It is the relation of appearance and reality to the interrogation of concept of character I will now explore, that we mustn’t look for ‘the old stable ego of the character’ but treat the concept of character as an illusion, merely a perception, not an objective concept.
Throughout this semester, and the multiple readings covered, a number of different prison scenes have been encountered. In many cases the prisons function as a location that restricts certain kinds of movements and actions while enabling others. Overall, one underlying message of the prison encounters through the texts is that prison can help people reach some sort of realization. Some texts enable a realization of self, while other texts enable a realization of a society as a whole, but regardless some sort of realization is met. Some texts in particular that successfully do this are De Profundis, Moll Flanders, and “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”.
A common theme often portrayed in literature is the individual vs. society. In the beginning of Robinson Crusoe , the narrator deals with, not society, but his family's views on how he was bound to fail in life if his parents' expectations of him taking the family business were not met. However, Defoe's novel was somewhat autobiographical. "What Defoe wrote was intimately connected with the sort of life he led, with the friends and enemies he made, and with the interests of natural to a merchant and a Dissenter" (Sutherland 2). These similarities are seen throughout the novel. "My father...gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design," says Crusoe (Defoe 8-9) . Like Crusoe, Defoe also rebelled against his parents. Unlike Crusoe, however, Defoe printed many essays and papers that rebelled against the government and society, just as Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, did in England by depicting society languishing in social malaise (Marowski 231). It were these writings that eventually got Defoe charged with libel and imprisoned (DIScovering Authors). In Defoe's life it was the ministry that his father wanted him to pursue (Sutherland 2), but, instead, Defoe chose to become a tradesman (DIScovering Biography). The depth of the relationship between Crusoe and his parents in the book was specifically not elaborated upon because his parent's become symbolic not only of all parents, but of society. In keeping this ambiguous relationship, Defoe is able to make Crusoe's abrupt exodus much more believable and, thus, more humane.