Daniel Defoe and the Possibility of Irony in Moll Flanders

Almost all critical analysis of Daniel Defoe's novel Moll Flanders focuses on the question of whether the novel should be read realistically or ironically. Based on the overwhelming amount of critical study focusing on this bifurcation of viewpoints, it seems that choosing one of these interpretations is crucial in forming a critical appreciation of the novel. 

There does exist, however, a small minority of critics who have come to the conclusion that both readings are equally valid, with the caveat that one interpretation was intentional on the part of Defoe while the other was completely unintentional. Uncovering the conscious intent of an author (subconscious intent is well beyond the scope of this paper) may be an exercise in futility unless the author has explicitly written down his aim, but discovering Daniel Defoe's objective in writing Moll Flanders seems not only possible, but pivotal in obtaining a full critical understanding of the novel. 

A profound critical analysis of Moll Flanders cannot help but be influenced by the realization that while Defoe thought he was writing a realistic interpretation of his socio-economic and moral theories in novel form, he was in fact unintentionally creating an ironic indictment of the immorality of capitalism as it pertained to middle class women pursuing upward mobility in England in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The author's choice for the structure of Moll Flanders and his prefatory comments in it are explicit rejections by Defoe of any intention toward reading the novel as being anything but completely realistic. As a new form of literature at the time Defoe wrote Moll Flanders, the novel was subject to suspicion by contemporary readers who felt that there was no moral to be gained from made-up stories. "Right at the very inception of the novel, then, there was demand for narrative form dealing with real material.