English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

7-20-1972

Abstract

From his earliest days as a journalist, Daniel Defoe had been sympathetic toward women. This dissertation begins with a discussion of eighteenth century milieu which influences the non-fiction, and finally focuses on the gradual emergence of Defoe as artist. The Puritan-rationalist tradition helps account for Defoe's attitudes toward courtship, marriage, and the role of women. Analysis of the non-fiction shows that Defoe continually stressed reasonable action and that his tone became shriller as his pleas for reform were ignored. In addition, the later non-fiction, particularly Religious Courtship and Conjugal Lewdness, employs novelistic techniques which finally are culminated in Moll Flanders and Roxana, two creative studies of women. Each novel is structured around the heroine's search for security in a hostile environment. Aspects of character and plot reinforce theme and indicate how Defoe carefully builds his effect. In Moll Flanders, he works out the steps in the education of a capitalist and Moll emerges triumphant. Reflecting the same disillusion found in the non-fiction, Roxana is much more pessimistic. Its heroine is a lost soul, degraded and destroyed by the immorality of Restoration nobility. In Roxana's utter desolation, Defoe foretells the corruption of the entire race. The discussion of Defoe as novelist ends with an archetypal interpretation of the sea imagery in each novel. Moll and Roxana are shown to be Christian wayfarers whose lives have universal significance. The use of imagery is another aspect of careful structuring and further indicates Defoe's artistry.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Mary Jane Power

Second Committee Member

Ivan Peter Melada

Third Committee Member

Paul Benjamin Davis

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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