The world has gone through great evolution. Since the evolution of man, we strive to live and survive. Civilization comes with a great deal of both developed technology and humanity. In keeping up with technological advancement, men are always in need of a code of conduct, a guidance to ensure a dynamic and healthy society. This need is shared by all human being, it cuts across geographical, linguistic and cultural and time boundaries. As much as men are driven to develop new technology they are also in a great search for answers to the concept of morality, and this quest is somehow encapsulated in literature from the ancient times to the contemporary work.
For instance, the classic renowned works of fictions in English resonate more or less the same concern a society has with the postcolonial 21st century fictions. This concern boils down to the basic human needs which include the search for upright morality. Daniel Defoe's melodrama Moll Flanders is published in 1722 and it is about a journey of Moll, living on charity in her childhood; going to a series of both fortunate and unfortunate events, her social climbing and shrinking; and finally when she reaches the final point of repentance. The full title tells the life of Moll, of her marriages and affairs, and being groomed to be a professional pickpocket and finally her repentance.
The story of Moll is heavily stuffed with question of morality. It is being put under scrutiny in the storyline. In discussing morality it would be important to note that when it is broken down it grows many small branches that are essentially related to one another. Morality is embedded in the code of conduct, mostly put forward by a society, which makes it multidimensional. In the novel, there are unsettling thoughts of self-righteousness, self-control and wrongful desire in every action, event taken place. In other words, morality in this novel comes in a handful number; Christian morality, social morality, sexual morality, political morality and economic morality.
In Moll Flanders, it can be seen that the central issue talks about morality. In this novel, the author addresses the character Moll as someone who doesn't hold onto a faith like what Islam has outlined, that is the Islamic view of the Creator (Tawheed). The character Moll is seen as weak and she is easily influenced to commit what are prohibited in Islam, such as adultery, theft, and so on and so forth.
SOCIAL MORALITY
The most prominent issue in Moll Flanders is the social morality. Moll is portrayed as sexually adventurous and socially property offender. Being a female criminal opposing the uptight teaching of Puritanism, Moll represents the fundamental change of faith of the British society in terms of selfhood and social order. As history accounts the fate of the Puritans who goes against the church of England and shipped to America in 1620's the transportation of British convicts to Virginia in the setting of Moll Flanders can be considered as a hope to reform Moll and many others to start a new life.
Furthermore in Moll Flanders, it can be seen that the central issue talks about morality. In this novel, the author addresses the character Moll as someone who doesn't hold onto a faith like what Islam has outlined, that is the Islamic view of the Creator (Tawheed). The character Moll is seen as weak and she is easily influenced to commit what are prohibited in Islam, such as adultery, theft, and so on and so forth. As Muslims, we should always observe our limits and prevent ourselves from committing sins which are prohibited in Islam.
In Islam, it is an obligatory for Muslim to preserve the good behaviour which is mirrored in the Qur'an and Sunnah. Muslim must acquire appropriate religious knowledge either through books or from learned Islamic Scholars. He should abstain from all sins, and if he commits one, he should make sincere efforts for repentance immediately.
ECONOMIC MORALITY
The lesson in morality contained in Moll Flanders is that she is a positive and honorable example of the new pattern of the economic individual that Defoe envisioned as being completely necessary to maintaining the growth of England as a power that was promised by the emerging economic structure of the 18th century.
Moll is also seen as a character who questions the meaning of rank and privilege and the economic workings of her world, as well as interrogating herself about her motives and her understanding of them. She is the personification of economy, good management and industry, but cleverly presented as the exact opposite of these Puritan values. Her thrift is often the result of wrong doing or terrible liaisons, her good management is totally self-centered and her industry is devoted to finding suitably eligible (wealthy) men to keep her in the style she desires. Later the industry is concentrated on becoming the best thief in London. In fact Moll is often perverse and very materialistic and in strict Puritan terms she is lost to God because of her false worship of wealth, power and success.
CHRISTIAN MORALITY
Reading the novel one could see how Christian morality is in general the standard codified by early 18th British Christian society, in which the church would promote upright practices of Christianity as oppose to vices. The first evident of Christian morality being abused in the fact that Moll herself made a confession of how she lacks moral, again and again throughout the novel. Thus this weak spot of her leads her to committing sins.
Moll is portrayed as sexually adventurous and socially property offender. Being a female criminal opposing the uptight teaching of Puritanism, Moll represents the fundamental change of faith of the British society in terms of selfhood and social order.
Furthermore in Moll Flanders, it can be seen that the central issue talks about morality. In this novel, the author addresses the character Moll as someone who doesn't hold onto a faith like what Islam has outlined, that is the Islamic view of the Creator (Tawheed). The character Moll is seen as weak and she is easily influenced to commit what are prohibited in Islam, such as adultery, theft, and so on and so forth. As Muslims, we should always observe our limits and prevent ourselves from committing sins which are prohibited in Islam.
In Islam, it is an obligatory for Muslim to preserve the good behaviour which is mirrored in the Qur'an and Sunnah. Muslim must acquire appropriate religious knowledge either through books or from learned Islamic Scholars. He should abstain from all sins, and if he commits one, he should make sincere efforts for repentance immediately.
ECONOMIC MORALITY
The lesson in morality contained in Moll Flanders is that she is a positive and honorable example of the new pattern of the economic individual that Defoe envisioned as being completely necessary to maintaining the growth of England as a power that was promised by the emerging economic structure of the 18th century.
Moll is also seen as a character who questions the meaning of rank and privilege and the economic workings of her world, as well as interrogating herself about her motives and her understanding of them. She is the personification of economy, good management and industry, but cleverly presented as the exact opposite of these Puritan values. Her thrift is often the result of wrong doing or terrible liaisons, her good management is totally self-centered and her industry is devoted to finding suitably eligible (wealthy) men to keep her in the style she desires. Later the industry is concentrated on becoming the best thief in London. In fact Moll is often perverse and very materialistic and in strict Puritan terms she is lost to God because of her false worship of wealth, power and success.
CHRISTIAN MORALITY
Reading the novel one could see how Christian morality is in general the standard codified by early 18th British Christian society, in which the church would promote upright practices of Christianity as oppose to vices. The first evident of Christian morality being abused in the fact that Moll herself made a confession of how she lacks moral, again and again throughout the novel. Thus this weak spot of her leads her to committing sins.
Moll is portrayed as sexually adventurous and socially property offender. Being a female criminal opposing the uptight teaching of Puritanism, Moll represents the fundamental change of faith of the British society in terms of selfhood and social order.
Cant find the relationship between economic morality and islam.
ReplyDelete