Moll’s Brother/The Plantation Owner Character Analysis

In London, Moll meets the wealthy plantation owner from Virginia, and he quickly begins courting her. The plantation owner is led to believe by Moll’s friends that Moll has a large fortune, but Moll makes him promise to love her even if she is poor. After they are married, the plantation owner learns that Moll doesn’t have much money at all, but he truly loves her and doesn’t mind. Moll and the plantation owner move to his estate in Virginia, where they live with his mother and sister. Moll soon discovers that she and the plantation owner are really half-siblings (his mother turns out to be her own biological mother), and she keeps the secret from her husband for two years, during which time their relationship begins to suffer. Moll treats the plantation owner “like a Dog” and refuses to go to bed with him, and he threatens to send her to a madhouse. When Moll finally tells the plantation owner the truth, he becomes lethargic and depressed, and he twice attempts suicide. He sends Moll back to England, and they never see each other again. The plantation owner lives with his and Moll’s son, Humphry, in Virginia for the rest of his life and dies a senile old man. Moll’s marriage to the plantation owner is another example of immorality and vice in the novel. Moll secures him with deception, and their incestuous relationship is the very picture of sin; however, neither Moll nor the plantation owner know they are related until well into their relationship, and Moll firmly maintains that sins committed in ignorance don’t count.