A Feminist Reading Of Moll Flanders

This thesis makes a feminist reading of Moll Flanders, trying to combine the theory of narratology with the feminist study in the process of analysis. Based on the researches of other critics, the thesis tries to shed some fresh light on the study of this novel, especially from the aspects of structure and narrative voice.The thesis is composed of three parts: the introduction, the body and the conclusion.The introduction is a survey of the past criticism of the novel and a brief account of the content of the thesis.The body is made up of three chapters. Chapter One analyses how Moll Flanders, the heroine of the novel, as a female character in the patriarchal society, becomes a victim of it, mainly from the aspects of economy and marriage. The chapter also discusses the fight of Moll against the patriarchal society, which is a prominent point of Moll as a feminist character, also from the economic and marital aspects.Chapter Two furthers the study of Moll's fate from the structure of the story. The surface structure and deep structure of the novel reveal that Moll is doomed to be trapped in the inescapable cycles of fate.Chapter Three concentrates on the narrative voice appearing in the novel. As a female character created by a male author, her narrative voice is preempted by the male voice of the editor.Finally, the conclusion makes a summary of the thesis and reiterates its main points.