Defoe Complicates Ethics in Early Novels: Developing Moral Tolerance in 18th C London

By having Robison Crusoe and Moll Flanders suffer moral failures while still garnering our sympathy as readers, Daniel DefoeDaniel Defoe grapples with complex ethical issues earlier novelists had avoided.

Moralism in the Early English Novel

Social and technological developments in the eighteenth century were changing the moral values in a growing population known as the middle class who increasingly questioned strict Christian notions of right and wrong. The early English novel became a particularly rich medium for such rising secularism.

Pilgrim's Progress, often considered to be the first English novel, is a religious allegory which presents moral messages in a relatively simple and straight-forward way by using stock figures to symbolize Puritan values. Without a doubt the values expressed, however allusively, are those of the writer: the epilogue says that to help people "turn their feet and heart to the right way, Is the hearty prayer of the author, John Bunyan" (288). Likewise it is clear the story is meant to support orthodoxy rather than to reform or attack any deficiencies in prevailing moral standards, as is typical of later novelists.

But by the eighteenth century Christianity was waning, especially in London where Daniel Defoe, another originator of the English novel, wrote Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. Although usually viewed ironically today his novels, like those of Bunyan, overtly express a serious moral purpose. However, quite unlike Bunyan, Deofe sought to unite the Puritanical moral code with contrary notions of economic individualism, the work ethic, and British colonialism. The resulting clash in ideology can be seen in how Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders are morally ambivalent characters because they repeatedly express their repentance for being avaricious, like a good Christian, and yet hypocritically they do all they can to acquire still more material possessions, as does a good capitalist.

Examples of Defoe's Moral Ambiguity

A famous instance of two-sidedness occurs when Crusoe, after finding some gold coins in a ship-wreck, speaks like an Apostle against the value of money and is about to toss them away but immediately has "second thoughts" and pockets the coins instead. Moll Flanders likewise is far from being a moral model because must resort to becoming a prostitute and a thief out of necessity due to the limited economic means available to a single woman in eighteenth century London. Although not physically isolated from humanity as was Crusoe, Moll is equally a social outcast, in her case because of her illegitimate birth. She survives through selfish and ruthless determination, the qualities of a successful capitalist. Whether Defoe meant the material-minded Moll to be a genuine bourgeois heroine or the typical literary picara of disreputable moral character is debatable. Or perhaps Defoe intended an ironic criticism of capitalistic morality. It is likely, however, that Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders were meant to be simple, even allegorical figures reflecting a sincere morality in an era of changing social values. What is certain is that Defoe departs from Bunyan-like moral simplicity with regard to agent and action morality. For example, Robinson Crusoe sells the slave Xury and takes possession of "his" man Friday, revealing how he views people as commodities to be bought and sold, which is simply wrong. Also, the haplessly marooned Crusoe colonizes his island and seeks to convert the islanders into English subjects, which we perhaps view ironically today knowing some of the consequences of colonization.

It is hard to resist being drawn in by such complex, un-heroic characters with such morally interesting lives. Their virtues and vices are so intriguingly portrayed that we eagerly seek out their progeny in the rich tradition of the English novel.