Moll Flanders

Moll employs disguises throughout the novel with the aplomb of a theatrical performer. This motif reveals Moll’s talent for survival and her ability to escape difficult situations. Her very name is a kind of disguise behind which her real self can hide. She will not even tell her reader what her given name is: “it is not to be expected that I should set my name or the account of my family to this work; perhaps, after my death, it may be better known” (33). In this way, Moll evades telling the full truth and maintains the upper hand. She is the ultimate authority on Moll Flanders; only she knows all of her secrets.

She begins using the name Mrs. Flanders early on, long before the beginning of her criminal career. It is a way to protect her assets and maintain control of her persona. After her second husband flees to France, Moll travels to the Mint, the financial district of early 18th-century London, and decides to conceal her true self: “the first thing I did was to go quite out of my knowledge, and go by another name” (81). This talent for discretion serves her well throughout the novel; it is one of many skills necessary for survival. Frequently, the disguise is merely one that amplifies Moll’s own identity, adding legitimacy to her performance. For example, when she resides among wealthy families in the country or goes into the city to work as a pickpocket, she dresses like a fortunate gentlewoman: “I had very good clothes on, and a gold watch by my side, as like a lady as other folks” (206). She already thinks of herself as a gentlewoman—indeed, she has been trained as one and married as one—so this disguise only serves to mask her lost assets. It also provides her a shield against any accusations: “Everything looked so honest about me, that they treated me civiller than I expected” (211). Looking the part of the gentlewoman keeps Moll from prison more than once.

She dresses also as a beggar when it serves her purpose, and her governess convinces her to dress as a man for a time. Shedding her male disguise keeps her from the gallows. She dons makeup—something a gentlewoman would never do—for her meeting with the man she robbed in the coach. This disguise signifies her willingness to enter into a sexual arrangement with him, and it is also a way for Moll to distance herself from the proceedings. All of these disguises serve to protect her in some way, but they are also, sometimes, playful and roguish. Still, Moll’s best disguise is Moll Flanders herself, master thief and mysterious outlaw: “My name was public among them indeed, but how to find me out they knew not, not so much as how to guess at my quarters” (214). She slips among them, bands of thieves and groups of gentlewomen alike, a liminal figure who never remains static for long.