Defoe's Radical Views Exposed in Moll Flanders . The concepts he puts forward in his work are radically different from the usual beliefs of 17th century England. Appealing to and championing the common man, Defoe constructs an iconoclastic play that praises an ordinary woman. Despite gender differences, Moll reflects Defoe's life. Defoe draws inspiration from his past, when he served a prison sentence for debt after the failure of his merchant business. He traveled to cities where he would free himself from his creditors (Monarch Notes). It is from these experiences that Moll's adventure to survive begins. After the arrest of Moll's second husband, like Defoe, Moll took refuge at the Mint, because if the commissioners had been informed of [her] whereabouts, [she] should have been picked up and all [her] had saved. away (Defoe 44). Defoe uses his beliefs about morality, unusual for a man of his time, as I think....

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