Defoe's Radical Views Exposed in Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe is an advocate of the unorthodox in his novel Moll Flanders in which he models many aspects of Moll's life after those of his own. The concepts he presents in the work are radically different from the beliefs customary in 17th century England. Appealing to and championing the common man, Defoe constructs an iconoclastic piece that praises a common woman. Despite gender differences, Moll mirrors Defoe's life. Defoe draws on his past, when he served time in debtors' prison after his merchant business failed. He traveled to the city where he would be free from his creditors (Monarch Notes). It is from these experiences that Moll's adventure to survive begins. After Moll's second husband, like Defoe, is arrested, Moll takes refuge in the Mint, because if the commissioners had been informed where [she] was, [she] would have to be brought up and all [she] had saved be taken away (Defoe 44). Defoe uses his beliefs about morality, unusual for a man of his time, as they are...