Friday, May 26, 2006

Defoe, Moll Flanders

[pre-departure week 3.] OK. I have bought a new suitcase and new shoes. I have ordered some inexpensive travel guides (just for some additional bits of information), spent time looking at maps, read Hard Times (what a hoot; why did I never read this fully before?--perfect for our class), and checked with this person and that about things Harlaxton and UK (the mother of the boyfriend of my daughter [who will join us from the 16th to the 30th--my daughter, not everyone else] who attended an English dept. Harlaxton trip recently, loved it there, but noted that some of the meals (esp. vegetables) are very institutional (well, I am paraphrasing here; I believe her phrase was not as diplomatic). The good news is: (1) there are great shops food and otherwise at Grantham which are walkable (there is also a shuttle); (2) there is a tv in the basement (don't know what that is apropos of; just thought I'd mention it). She recommends bringing snacks, but I always found food shopping for this and that to be one of the inexpensive pleasures of being in a foreign country. On the note of shopping, I have noted with some trepidation, the falling dollar in the last couple of months. When I began planning this trip, the pound was about 1.75 dollars; now it is 1.87. For your own travelling, etc., whatever you planned to bring, see if you can scrounge up a bit more.

On to Defoe's Moll Flanders (link is to entire text online; not that I would want to read it online) and my last pre-departure question. Those who have responded (5 for the first question, and 2 for the second [Megan put the answer for question one under week 2]) have done a great job. As I have mentioned before the only rule is that you try to answer each question before we depart on the 4th. (Forget the must-be-longer-than-the-last-entry requirement.) Moll begins life in Newgate Prison, is taken by gypsies to Colchester, Essex, adn then the countryside near Colchester, where much of the beginning of the book takes place (indeed, these chapters are the most traditional of an early tragic novel). Eventually, she is in London, travels to Oxford, land in the Mint (part of London where insolvent debtors hide), tries her luck among the ship captains at Redriff (Rotherhithe) near London, then goes to Virginia (York River), before returning to Milford Haven, London again, Bristol, Bath (we will return to this on our Bath week), Gloucester, Reading, Hammersmith, London (Bloomsbury, the Bank), Lancashire (Warrington to Liverpool), Chester (Black Rock), Dunstable (within 30 miles of London), London (St. Jone's near Clerkenwell), etc. So I really should ask a geography question. But, no, let's look at the people with whom she interacts: the Mayoress, the two Brothers (gentry?), the gentleman-tradesman, the sea captain and Virginia planter, her Bath friend, the north-country gentlewoman, Jemmy, Mother Midnight, the gentleman at the Bank. In fact, let's look just at when Moll "at last I found this amphibious creature, this land-water thing called a gentleman-tradesman; and as a just plague upon my folly, I was catched in the very snare which, as I might say, I laid for myself" (p. 41, Bantam ed.). What is a "gentleman-tradesman," and what is the problem with the same? Is it just Moll's problem or is it a larger problem?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

A 'gentleman-tradesman' in Moll's book is a man who by day works in his trade such as draping, butchering, and other trades, and by night becomes the dandy-gentleman that any gentlewoman would be proud to have excort her about town. Basicall, Moll wants a man who earns his money with his hands and then hides that fact to the world when outside of his domain. The problem with this type of man is that if he is so concerned with his outward appearance, he is more likely to live outside of his means. Even those with money, those not in the trade, often lived beyond their means. One can only imagine the expense that some were willing to go to appear better off than what they were. In essence, appearance was mroe important than substance at this tiem period.

Anonymous said...

The amphibious nature of the gentleman-tradesmen suggests that there is a level of tradesmen whose income is great enough to be able to masquerade, albeit briefly, as a gentleman. The reason these men spent so much of their income on appearing rich was because these men looked to move upward socially via marriage.
Moll wanted to be a gentlewoman, and looked for a gentleman husband. She was acting as if she were a rich widow in order to ensnare a rich suitor. Moll wished to move up beyond her means through marriage, much as these gentlemen-tradesmen.
The existence of these socially mobile people might have threatened the social structure of urban London, creating a bigger problem for society as a whole and for poor Moll.

Anonymous said...

Flander's use of the term "gentleman-tradesman" is in itself an oxymoron, comparing this text to some of our others. Most other documents concerning "gentlemen" seem to reflect what little work they actually have to do, mainly, they collect money off of their family estates. This term "gentlemen-tradesmen" shows that this man actually worked during the day. Interesting that he presents himself as a "higher" ranked person than he truly was. He must have gone out of his way to project this outward apperance, and as Carrie mentions, it shows how shallow the time period was.

Anonymous said...

A "gentleman-tradesmen" is, in a sense, a tradesman by day and a gentleman by night. The tradesman has an income that allows him some of the luxeries of a gentleman, but in reality, it is more a facade (sp?). While he is able to appear to be a gentleman, he has to work very hard for that appearance, but he is constantly struggling to mantain this status. tradesmen/gentlemen wanted to marry into wealth to secure their status.

The problem in Moll Flanders was that Moll Flanders was putting up this same facade and was doing the same thing (trying to marry into wealth to gain her dream status as a gentlewoman).

Anonymous said...

A gentleman-tradesman in "Moll Flanders" was a man who by day did the work of a tradesman by working with his hands and being involved in manual labor, but who by night extracted himself from that person to be a gentleman which included his manerisms, speech, and means of living. They did this of course to move up in society, hopefully by marriage. Moll, however, was attempting to do the same thing. With this being said, this creates a problem not only for Moll, but for many others who were attempting to do the same thing. By living beyond their means they are creating a false sense of security that will result in a harsh downfall.

Anonymous said...

Moll’s “gentleman-tradesman” is a man who works with his hands by day and tries to hide it at night by pretending to be a gentleman. I think Moll wants a man like this because he would be like her, having a trade or skill. But he would also be like the man she loves, a gentleman who could support her in style. This label of a “gentleman-tradesman” is anachronistic for the time in which Moll lived. Due to the social system at this time a tradesman could not penetrate the social circle of a true gentleman. Furthermore, this shows Moll’s naivete: she does not understand that a “gentleman-tradesman” does not exist. Moll soon learns this through the failure of her marriage to such a man.

Anonymous said...

A 'gentleman-tradesman' in Moll Flanders is (as I am repeating almost everyone in this blog) a man who works during the day by performing a particular trade, and at night makes himself seem like he is a gentleman. By mascarading himself as a gentleman he is giving the impression that he is more well-to-do than he actually is and making a community think that he is of a higher social standing. Being a 'gentleman-tradesman,' he is not pulling in enough money to continue the lifestyle that he wants to live. Persons like Moll get the impression that he has a lot of money to spend when in all actuality he has very little. We all know that spending money that you don't have will send you into poverty and this would be the opposite of what Moll is looking for.