Moral Problems and Narrative Strategy in Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders

Moral Problems and Narrative Strategy in Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders

本論文試圖探討丹尼爾‧狄佛（Daniel Defoe）的小說《摩兒‧法蘭德絲》（Moll Flanders）中的道德問題與處理此議題的敘述策略。狄佛的主要小說皆以第一人稱敘述方式呈現主角本身的故事。此種未必全然可信的敘述觀點，因具有作者身分的編輯者之介入，而益顯複雜。因為編輯者宣稱，他已將故事中低下階層的主角所使用的粗俗言語及寫作方式加以修飾。在《摩兒‧法蘭德絲》中，讀者必須同時面對女主角坦率的敘事方式與編輯者說教式的修訂。此外，摩兒的各項經歷與冒險常常與編輯者所要傳達的道德宗旨背道而馳。因此如何使小說中的罪犯故事與所要呈現的道德教誨相符合，便成為狄佛必須解決的重要課題。藉由分析《摩兒‧法蘭德絲》中的四個重要詞語──“by the way,” “repent(ance),” “necessity,” and “Devil,”──及敘述策略之運用，本人希望能提出一些更具體的方法來討論該小說中的道德問題。

This essay attempts to explore the moral problems in Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders and the narrative strategy employed to deal with this issue. All of Defoe’s major novels use first-person narration, an eponymous protagonist telling his or her own life story. The reliability of such a narrative perspective is further complicated by the role of the authorial editor, who claims to have edited and pruned the vulgar language and writing style of the lower-class villain-hero. In Moll Flanders, the reader is simultaneously confronted with the protagonist’s explicit and prosaic narrative as well as the authorial editor’s implicit and moralistic “revision.” Moreover, since Moll’s adventures and experiences contradict more often than not the morals the authorial editor tries to teach, how to make her plainspoken narration and the editor’s didactic intention agree forms an essential and delicate task Defoe must undertake. By a stylistic analysis of four key terms in Moll Flanders—“by the way,” “repent(ance),” “necessity,” and “Devil”—in relation to Defoe’s narrative strategy, I hope to produce more concrete criteria for a critical evaluation of the novel’s moral tenor.