Moll Flanders Wealth Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)

Quote #4

I was more confounded with the money than I was before with the love, and began to be so elevated that I scarce knew the ground I stood on. (80)

Both money and love produce the same feeling in her of elevation and an almost gleeful lightness in Moll. It's hard to know what she's happier about – her relationship with the elder brother, or the fact that he just gave her a fat wad of cash. We have to say, this doesn't bode well for Moll's future.

Quote #5

As for their common design, that I understood too well to be drawn into any more snares of that kind. The case was altered with me: I had money in my pocket, and had nothing to say to them. I had been tricked once by that cheat called love, but the game was over; I was resolved now to be married or nothing, and to be well married or not at all. (228)

If love is a cheat, there doesn't really seem to be much point to it, does there? It's no wonder, then, that Moll abandons love in favor of money. She's learned a hard lesson: love and marriage have way less to do with each other than money and marriage, and a good marriage is a wealthy one.

Quote #6

This knowledge I soon learned by experience, viz. that the state of things was altered as to matrimony, and that I was not to expect at London what I had found in the country: that marriages were here the consequences of politic schemes for forming interests, and carrying on business, and that Love had no share, or but very little, in the matter. (248)

Once again, love gets shoved out of Moll's idea of marriage in favor of money. After all, she calls marriage a "business." And if Moll wants to be a good businesswoman, she can't afford to be a romantic.