#critical entry

In eighteenth-century tradition, acceptable behavior for women was encapsulated by the parameters of marriage since that appeared to be their only possible state. Although "there was no consensus between the state, church, and popular opinion as to how marriage should be defined," (Evans 47)marriage still was a socially ingrained institution which seemed almost a natural state for women, and it was opposed by their fall into disgrace and even prostitution. There was no middle ground for them. Adequate behavior in those terms could be summarized as turning women from individual agents into objects property of their husbands. As objects, they would have to be beautiful ornaments that did not cause trouble. They were supposed to be submissive, quiet, and obedient. If a subjectivity was given to them, it would have been one of the upper servants, but not because of their qualities, but of their obligations as wives.

One could think of works that offer a different representation of women to portray the possibilities that they could have if a fairer ground was offered to them in society such as The Female Quixote and The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless. Nevertheless, Moll Flanders is not one of those novels. When analyzing Daniel Defoe's novel, we need to consider that society does not judge women and men by the same standards. In this work, women need to be reeducated through (bad) experiences and redeem themselves to fit the expectations society had and demanded of them. This reeducation causes them to change and renounce the person they were in order to still be part of society.

But let us start from the beginning of Moll Flanders' fall: falling for the promise of the older brother of the house in which she was a servant. The narration establishes their relationship with the eager interest he first showed on her: "The eldest, a gay Gentleman that knew the Town as well as the Country (...) he began with that unhappy Snare to all Women, taking notice upon all Occasions how pretty I was, as he call'd it: how agreeable, how well Carriaged, and the like; and this he contriv'd so subtilly, as if he had known as well, how to catch a Woman in his Net." (Defoe 57) This quote lets us see how experienced he is in comparison to her and how, in retrospect, Moll recognizes her own naivety. The fact that he is the eldest is important since "[i]n the early eighteenth century, the arrangements by which the English aristocracy and gentry commonly provided for their families conformed to a standard pattern, the strict settlement, in which the essential questions were settled at the marriage of the eldest son."(Habakkuk 1) Therefore, with this knowledge, their relationship is doomed since she has nothing to offer for a good arrangement to be made out of their marriage. Nevertheless, Moll's perspective is biased from her own perception of herself which does not consider her social and economic status: "I had the Advantages of my Ladies, tho' they were my Superiors; but they were all the Gifts of Nature, and which all their Fortunes could not furnish. First, I was apparently Handsomer than any of them. Secondly, I was better shap'd, and Thirdly, I sung better." (Defoe 56) Moll's vanity surpassed her own vision of the world, and makes her "to be so elevated, that [she] scarce knew the Ground [she] stood on." (62) Since she immediately believes that this education and natural gifts were enough for her to make an arrangement for herself. By giving up on the eldest brother's propositions, she loses her "virtue" and "modesty" (68). I argue that this loss is based on mismanagement of her "conduct".

Jones argues that "the concern of all eighteenth-century 'conduct' manuals for women is how women might create themselves as objects of male desire, but in terms which will contain the desire within the publicly sanctioned form of marriage." (14) That is, even if the marriage between them was impossible considering their economic and social status, Moll ignored that her conduct was based on looking for a sanctioned marriage that is public and creates obligations towards her from him, and not a promise in exchange of her most valuable asset: her virtue.

One could argue that Moll did not have these ideas as clearly ingrained in her mind as other women for her upbringing, but if she received a similar education to the ladies, this must have been named since "(...) [y]oung women are taught 'natural' femininity in terms of negation and repression —silence, submission, 'abstinence or continence,'—" (15) this gives them the power of negotiation during courtship, but this power is so susceptible to seduction, rape, lies and more that their power seems almost an illusion. Their roles in this process seem to remain passive and compliant to male desire.

The objectification and limitation of female sexuality play into the idea of women being objects of exchange "within a mercantilist discourse which conflates economic self-interest and moral rectitude." (59) One can see this in the change of circumstances that make Moll marry the younger brother. For the eldest son, Moll was an object that was used and then discarded, and for the younger son, Moll was a new object ready to be used, even if he was gentler and kinder to her.

Jones argues that "public interest is privileged over individual desire" (15) which would justify the decision of the eldest brother and Moll to hide their relationship after it finished: to make it public would have affected a public interest such as his role in English society as a gentleman. Moll goes from being a respectable working woman to a whore. The active use of her sexuality contravened the notion of "conduct" and therefore, she was no longer an embodiment of moral value.

It may seem that sexuality, if it is not within the limits of marriage, is a threat to society since it could fall into very different situations: prostitution, rape, seduction, adultering, ill relationships, etc. Nevertheless, women are the only ones punished for these passions that lead to sex. Men maintain their reputations and can go and marry someone else, women cannot. Therefore, women are not only tied by their inevitable destiny as someone's wife but are also at risk at every moment until they are married. This process is rigged for women in vulnerable situations like Moll. They have no one to help them negotiate their value and their only respectable option for life becomes an impossible goal.

Ellis, Lorna. “Reacting to Romance and Building the Bildungsroman,” Appearing to Diminish, Bucknell University Press, 1999, pp. 70-87.

Evans, Tanya. "Unfortunate Objects". Courtship, Sex, and Marriage in Eighteenth-Century Popular Literature.Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2005, p. 48.

Defoe, Daniel. Moll Flanders. Penguin Classics, 1989.

Habakkuk, H. J. "Marriage Settlements in the Eighteenth Century." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, vol. 32, 1950, pp. 15-30.

Jones, Vivien, "Conduct" Women in the Eighteenth Century. Constructions of femininity. Routledge London and New York, 1990, pp. 14-22

Throughout the literary production of the eighteenth century, one can find a very constricted representation of female characters which are shaped as either one of two: "women as angels and women as whores,... women as the embodiment of moral value and women as the source of moral disorder" (Jones 57). However, these categories, explains Vivien Jones in her book Women in the eighteenth Century: Constructions of Femininity, are "actually ideologically inseparable" (57). This is because femininity and its different extremes exist as prouduct contained within masculine parameters as Margarita Pisano suggests, "la feminidad no es un espacio aparte con posibilidades de igualdad o de autogestión, es una construcción simbólica, valórica, diseñada por la masculinidad” (28). For this reason, texts of the period that may appear transgressive at first glance due to a female character choosing to embrace one of these two extremes are not really portraying liberation from the boundaries established by patriarchal structures but are actually promoting the compliance to them. This is the case of Moll Flanders (1722) by Daniel Defoe in which he presents a repented female narrator that recalls the mistakes she made in her past that led her to a path of crime and, ultimately, repentance and happiness. In this way, I argue that the subversive aspect of the novel acts more as a resource for Defoe to emphasize his moralistic views regarding the role of women.

In “The Wife’s Resentment” (1722), Delarivier Manley portrays the consequences of betrayal, being driven by pleasure, and revenge, all as part of a collection called “The Power of Love”. Powerful it is. In this novel, Seignior Roderigo, Knight of Valencia, is depicted as a lover of leisure. He is first described as a man “devoted to his pleasures” (1), and it is made known that he was not fond of studies, but of “[walking] up and down the city, wasting his youth in trifles, music, masquerades, courting of ladies”, the latter of his habits being the most relevant to us. Roderigo is said to not know what it is to love, and to see the courting of ladies as a conquest, and to have no regard for them. After he meets Violenta, who is said to have "more wit than all the women of Valencia", he falls helplessly in love for her. Violenta is depicted as a rational and virtuous young woman, while Roderigo’s driving force is pleasure. This defies the previous belief that women were more emotional and irrational than men, which had been put to question by the culture of sensibility that prevailed in the Eighteenth Century (Rabin, 62). I will analyze how Violenta’s dialogue allows us to see that, after all, she is the voice of reason in this text.

Written by Shuangping Tang

Edited by Zhuying Xu

Organized by Shuangpiing Tang

Recently, Russia has made a series of moves in Arctic and might have impact on Canadian Arctic Sovereignty

1: Russian pilots discovered a small island named Yaya at the beginning of October which would soon be added to the map of the Arctic Ocean and would become part of the Russian territory.

2: Russian researchers have collected data of intensive seismic mapping, which enables the country to estimate the extension of the Russian Arctic shelf. Russia eyes huge new territories in the Arctic after comprehensive mapping of the North Pole area.

3: Russia has warned that it will revive its claim to a huge swathe of the Arctic in the hope that it can secure the rights to billions of tons of oil and gas.

4: Several Russia’s abandoned polar hydrometrological stations at Cape Menshikova on Novaya Zemlya can be declared a culture heritage site as Arkhangelsk authorities urge Moscow to include Arctic objects in the state register.

Zhuying Xu 

The challenging arctic climate has created various obstacles for scientific research. The sparse population and infrastructure and expensive costs to carry out operations and maintain equipment are challenges ahead of Canadian government. Therefore, to master the unmanned technology is crucial for Canadian Arctic sovereignty.

The Canadian scientific team returned from experimental mission in the Arctic on August 26. A total of 34 experiments operated by two unmanned ground vehicles and one unmanned air vehicle at Canadian Forces Station (CFA), was conducted in the extreme Arctic environment. Moreover, on September 19th, Canadian military tested drones - remotely piloted vehicles, which was intended for rescue mission and communications work in the High Arctic. Both experimental mission and remotely piloted drones were the first time for such kind of tests carried out in the Arctic region, considering a great step to reinforce the Canadian Sovereignty.

Zhuying Xu     

     In August 23, Prime Minister Stephen Harper attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS). The research station will be a world-class, multidisciplinary facilities, which explores the cutting-edge of Arctic science and technology issues. It will play an important role in reinforcing Canadian Arctic sovereignty by strengthening innovation and economic growth in the North.

     First, 150 jobs will be created due to the construction of the station. After the completion of the station, CHARS will continue to serve as an important part of the regional economy. With the help of targeted programs and partnerships, opportunities to develop the skills and experience is provided for Northerners, resulting in a better performance for Northerners in the labour force market. Moreover, not only will the local economy benefit from CHARS, but also will scientific research relative to Arctic science and technology issues gain benefits from it. The related issues include four priority areas, which are resource development; exercising sovereignty; environmental stewardship and climate change; and strong and healthy communities.

Organized by Zhuying Xu

In 1907, Canada first announced the “Sector Principle”, dividing the Arctic Ocean among countries with territory adjacent to the Arctic Ocean. The Soviet Union supported, while other countries including US did not. 

  In 1969, an American tanker, the SS Manhattan, made a voyage through the Northwest Passage without asking Canada’s permission.

  In 1985, the US Coast Guard icebreakers Polar Sea transited the passage without asking the permission of Canadian Government again. This event is considered as the most direct challenge to Canada’s arctic sovereignty.

  In 1985, the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, which gives Canada the right to control navigation in its sector of the Arctic Ocean and to manage its ocean environment, was brought up by Ottawa in response to the concern on Canada’s sovereignty over Arctic waters, Northwest Passage especially.

  In 1988, the Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and US President Ronald Reagan signed the Arctic Co-operation Agreement, stating that the US is under request to send the Canada’s permission for icebreakers through the Northwest Passage; in turn, the consent will always be given. 

Source: The regional geography of Canada, R.M.Bone,2011.