Filippos Rempoutzakos

ENG 355
Dr. Kevin Bourque
17/04/15

Love and Truth in 18th Century Literature

Truth that is not undergirded by love makes the truth obnoxious
and the possessor of it repulsive.
- Ravi Zacharias

In the 18th century, as the novel was becoming more dominant, authors used their works to
reflect the relationship they perceived between Love and Truth. In Daniel Defoes Moll Flanders
and Eliza Haywooods Fantomina, this relationship is greatly fleshed out and expanded upon. By
understanding this convention within this blossoming genre of literature, the modern approach
towards those two qualities can be better determined. Both Defoes and Haywoods text present
Truth as an abhorrent quality and a concept that can end all happiness. At the same time, Love is
shown as either a temptation from which the heroine tries to escape or the cause of her downfall.
In order to fully understand this connection in the 18th-century novel, it becomes necessary to
discern how Love and Truth are introduced, and what they mean in each novel, the way the
words are woven into the manuscripts and through their respective literary endings.
In Moll Flanders, Love is tied to falsities from its first mention (Defoe 60). The older brother
in her surrogate family is the origin of the word, as he affectionately relates his feelings using
this term (love). He professes to love her, despite his ignoble intentions, and she believes him in
large part because of her ignorance. The protagonist therefore links love and lies together from
her first experience henceforth they are inseparable. When the younger brother claims he loves
her, she lies her way out of the problematic situation, and it is under false circumstances that they
wed. Indeed, from this point onwards, Moll will never tell the truth to a person she loves or
marries, at least not the whole truth.
In Fantomina, there is a similar attitude towards Love. It is first mentioned after Fantomina
has had relations with Beauplaisir; she claims that your Love alone can compensate for the

Shame you involved me in (Haywood 47). As they consummated their relationship under false
pretenses, this is a connection built on lies, again. His subsequent efforts towards her begin under
a misguided understanding of her persona, and she gives him but a partial truth as an
explanation. From this moment onwards, Fantomina concludes she loves Beauplaisir and that, as
the absence of truth was the instigator to the first sexual connection, so must it be for every
subsequent first. Thus, Haywood binds the original coupling with a false basis. In Fantomina,
Love and Truth coexisting is a paradox; it is Truth and familiarity that destroy each relationship.
Returning to Moll Flanders, there is a deeper meaning to Love than the way it is introduced.
The problem lies in finding it it is so sparingly used in the text, that one might entirely miss it.
Her marriages are described as agreeable (Defoe 102), the match being a comfort (Defoe
427). This highlights the lack of Love in this story; something that is also related to the lack of
Truth that lies therein. By reading the texts mentions of Love in relation to a coupling, it seems
as if Defoe is implying that Love can exist only within small periods of time between truth and
lies. If so, then no relationship built on falsehoods can attain love, although it can apparently
simulate its effects (an agreeable lifestyle, happiness). Considering the conclusion to Moll
Flanders, Defoe seems to promote this lack of Love as the path to happiness.
In Fantomina, the use of Love is similarly used strategically to convey a deeper meaning.
Although the initial use related to affection and devotion, the second use (Haywood 53, again
placed at the time of the first sexual encounter between Beauplaisir and this new personality) has
the more common phrasing and meaning. Indeed, Love in Fantomina is mentioned exclusively in
the first encounters between Beauplaisir and the different characters Fantomina acts out
(Haywood 64). This seems to suggest that in Fantomina, Love can only exist in that brief instant
in the beginning of a romantic relationship, with false pretenses and a lack of complete

understanding between the two participants. With this in mind, both Fantomina and Moll
Flanders use the word love reservedly, and it serves to highlight the 18th-century approach that
these early novels have towards it. Love seems to be a fleeting notion, a phantom idea that
cannot last. It requires both an absence of Truth to come about and a mirage of reality to exist,
however shortly.
The notion of Truth in these stories is similarly hard to decode. In Moll Flanders, Truth is an
elusive concept that the protagonist plays with constantly when communicating with those
around her. She never relates the entire truth of her life not once since she begins to lie. There
are characters to whom she confesses, to be sure, but to every one of those she tells a fragmented
version; enough to satisfy their curiosity, but never enough to fully reveal herself. The closest the
gets to this confession is in Newgate, the location she labels as Hell. On the one hand, this could
be seen as a defense mechanism, that she never reveals her entire history so that she may protect
herself. This however doesnt hold up to her repentance. In Newgate prison she confesses to the
second Minister. Yet, although she narrates that she bared nothing from him, she also describes
her tale as abridged (Defoe 366-7). Truth is almost an arcane concept one that Moll avoids and
finds obsolete. Defoe seems to be preventing us from forming an idea of what Truth means to
Moll; considering her seeming repulsion to it, this must be on purpose. Is Defoe trying to
dissuade people from telling the Truth?
While considering this, it should be noted that Molls lowest point is also the point of most
Truth. This refers to Newgate the time she is most in danger as her crimes are revealed and she
bares herself to the Minister. At once however, this seems problematic due to the opening pages
where Truth was in full effect. Indeed, the opening pages contain a blissful ignorance of
falsehoods, replacing them with misunderstandings. As such, one could argue that the problems

begin not at the time of wrong ideas, but when the character knowingly lies or tells untruths
towards some purpose in this sense, Truth in both stories can also be related to a phase of
adulthood. It coincides with both characters sexual awakenings and the transition from pure
children into full-fledged adults. Truth, in this sense, is a childlike notion that inherently
contradicts the romantic. Truth once again seems a problematic notion.
The link between Love and Truth in Fantomina, is mainly expressed through love affairs
with Beauplaisir. Her relations seem to last longer in a directly inverse proportion to the amount
of truth she discloses, or indeed information. The first characters allure fades fast, because it
was very close to the truth, and there was little intrigue remaining after the first confession. The
second is further removed, lasts longer and so on. Truth seems to be the enemy of Love it is
lies that perpetuate the affair and prolong the connection between Fantomina and Beauplaisir.
This seems to indicate that Truth is seen as detestable, as was the case in Moll Flanders, but
rather as a corrosive element in a relationship.
Truth is given to us in-text in a very interesting way, much like Love. In Fantomina, there is
very little direction given to the dialogue that appears. The reader is often forced to interpret who
is talking, and even then it sometimes remains unclear. This could be due to the novel being in its
very early stages at the time, or it could be an intentional convention of Haywoods, to add a
stylistic cushioning of the Truth even to the dialogue. Moll Flanders lack of complete
confessions and general unreliability as a narrator provide evidence towards a similarly hazy
textual Truth. Looking at both Fantomina and Moll Flanders, Truth seems to hold a similar
function across texts in this time period. In both, Truth is avoided, and its application is measured
enough to serve the characters interests. Doled out in modest portions, too much of it is

damaging to the narrative itself. Truth and Love are both wrapped around both the narrative and
the writing of these 18th-century texts.
Looking at the conclusion of the novel provides further evidence to the poisonous effect of
Truth. In Fantomina, the conclusion arrives after the phrase Encouraged by this she related the
whole Truth, (Haywood 70) the shortest sentence in the entire story (by far). Fantomina has
confessed the whole Truth, and now she must pay for it she never sees her child, never sees
Beauplaisir again, and is sent to a convent. The story concludes because the Truth is out
romance cannot exist and she loses any chance at happiness.
In Moll Flanders, we see the Truth operate in the same poisonous way. It terrifies her, stalks
her throughout the narrative and beckons her to expose it. However, because she does not,
because she refrains from doing so, she lives her life happily. Her repentance from Newgate is
not so much a religious one as it is a spiritual awakening to the destructive power of the truth and
her aversion to it. Similar to Fantomina, the novel ends when Moll makes her final decision
about Truth she chooses to inform her final husband of that Affair (p. 427), implying she
doesnt reveal everything to him. Because she holds back the whole Truth, her life story
concludes with a family, affluence and happiness.
Considering these implications, the 18th century novel seems to have a very adverse relation
to both Truth and Love. It is almost as if Haywood and Defoe chastise the conventions of their
age their characters portray the failures of society to identify fraudulent behavior and to instead
reward it. The stories that are being told here, of women embodying various disguises and
identities, could be a link to the thoroughness of this corruption there is no part of the society
that escapes the reach of this happenstance. With the development of the printing press and the
popularization of novels, the 18th century became a period of upheaval in literature, and indeed in

the separation between fact and fiction. Perhaps these two novels reveal the thoroughness with
which the lack of Truth had encompassed their societies to such an extent that avoiding Truth
leads to happiness.
What then of Love? Both stories seem to link Love to the first kindling of sexuality,
especially the consummation of a relationship. Happiness is greatly described and desired in both
Fantomina and Moll Flanders, but not so much for Love. Both characters seems attached to the
first person they have sex with, but here the similarities end. For Fantomina, orchestrating
situations where she can enjoy Love with Beauplaisir seems to be her motivation, whereas
Moll seems to abandon all notions of the idyllic Love starting with her first marriage.
This can be interpreted as a critique by both authors to their cultures notion of Love. The
character driven by Love fails, whereas the one who searches for a greater happiness succeeds.
This could reflect on the perceived failings of the society to address and cultivate a long, lasting
Love between two partners. Haywood tells us that in the 18th century, Love is temporary and
fleeting, that it is a phantom after which one must not chase. Defoe similarly denounces Love,
refusing to even include it in the majority of his novel, and allocating it to the childish portion of
the narrative.
The 18th-century novels were a revolutionary force in storytelling. They not only affected the
types of stories that could be told, but they encompassed genres and styles that we still tackle
today. Both Fantomina and Moll Flanders seem to contain a jaded view on the cultural notions
of Love and Truth, but their very inclusion tells volumes about their importance to the society.
Though they seem to fail in the narrative, the staying power of those notions was great enough to
reach us almost three centuries later, and those books critiques of the societies definitely
factored into this.

Works Cited
Haywood, Eliza Fowler, Alexander Pettit, Margaret Case Croskery, and Anna C.
Patchias. Fantomina and Other Works. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 2004. Print.
Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. Ed. David Blewett. London: Penguin, 1989. Print.
"Ravi Zacharias." BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2015. 18 March 2015.
<http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/ravizachar574588.html>