For Love or Money: Moll and Pamelaby Rebecca Wilson
For Love or Money: Moll and PamelaBy Rebecca Wilson
Capitalism, as it emerges in a new form throughout the 1700’s, plays a significant role in the “love” plots of Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and Samuel Richardson’s Pamela. As each author works to depict the relationships of the time, they illustrate the role played by economics and capitalism as well as individual characters. In the time of Defoe, marriage was based upon social and economic standing, and all involved worked to marry well financially. This emphasis on money and economic advantage is replaced by a desire for complementarianism and a focus on internal qualities as Richardson begins his novel, Pamela. With this change, the lives and loves of the main heroines are dictated by the changing norms and shifts in capitalistic gain. Although capitalism plays a significant role in shaping the marriage of individuals, there is still room for true love, as witnessed by both Moll and Pamela. In an emerging form of capitalism, marriage is dictated by money in Moll Flanders and then inner qualities in Pamela. While capitalism creates the framework for marriage, true love often takes over and steps outside the economic boundaries. Defoe uses his novel to express the inner workings of an early English marriage “market.” Because the form of capitalism during the early 1700’s dictates that women must marry well in order to survive, Moll is forced to marry for money and not for love. Throughout her life-long pursuit of comfort and stability, she understands the game: marriage is a form of capitalism, as individuals seek out appropriate investments in partners in order for economic gain. In light of this situation, Moll’s relationships are dominated not by love but by money and she explains: “Marriages were here the Consequence of politick Schemes, for forming Interests, and carrying in Business, and that LOVE had no share, or but very little in the Matter” (Defoe 67). This is just one of many instances where
Capitalism, as it emerges in a new form throughout the 1700’s, plays a significant role in the “love” plots of Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and Samuel Richardson’s Pamela. As each author works to depict the relationships of the time, they illustrate the role played by economics and capitalism as well as individual characters. In the time of Defoe, marriage was based upon social and economic standing, and all involved worked to marry well financially. This emphasis on money and economic advantage is replaced by a desire for complementarianism and a focus on internal qualities as Richardson begins his novel, Pamela. With this change, the lives and loves of the main heroines are dictated by the changing norms and shifts in capitalistic gain. Although capitalism plays a significant role in shaping the marriage of individuals, there is still room for true love, as witnessed by both Moll and Pamela. In an emerging form of capitalism, marriage is dictated by money in Moll Flanders and then inner qualities in Pamela. While capitalism creates the framework for marriage, true love often takes over and steps outside the economic boundaries. Defoe uses his novel to express the inner workings of an early English marriage “market.” Because the form of capitalism during the early 1700’s dictates that women must marry well in order to survive, Moll is forced to marry for money and not for love. Throughout her life-long pursuit of comfort and stability, she understands the game: marriage is a form of capitalism, as individuals seek out appropriate investments in partners in order for economic gain. In light of this situation, Moll’s relationships are dominated not by love but by money and she explains: “Marriages were here the Consequence of politick Schemes, for forming Interests, and carrying in Business, and that LOVE had no share, or but very little in the Matter” (Defoe 67). This is just one of many instances where