Moll Flanders

Moll’s adventures at last come to an end: she is caught entering a private home and sent to Newgate, the notorious London prison. She is scheduled to be hanged. She begins to repent her past behavior, but it brings her no peace, knowing that she will soon be executed. Her fellow prisoners are shocked that the infamous Moll Flanders has been brought to Newgate at last.

While the prison chaplain visits her, he offers nothing but reprimands. Moll cannot bring herself to repent of her deeds fully; she feels it is pointless when she will only go to her death in a few weeks. She begins to become like the other inmates, lethargic and uncaring.

However, when she catches a glimpse of her Lancashire husband, her attitude immediately changes. She blames herself for his troubles and begins to repent her past deeds in earnest. She discovers that her governess is so distraught over Moll’s fate that she, too, begins to repent of her own behavior.

A minister visits the prison and, convinced that Moll’s repentance is genuine, pleads her case before the court. Her sentence is commuted to transport—she will be shipped to the American colonies to work as an indentured servant—rather than death.