The Irishman/James Character Analysis

James is Moll’s fourth husband. Moll meets James in Lancashire, and she believes him to be a wealthy estate owner from Ireland. Shortly after they are married, Moll and James learn that they are both poor, each having lied to the other about being wealthy. Moll doesn’t know it, but James is a highwayman, and he makes his living robbing travelers and stagecoaches. Moll and James are exceedingly disappointed. They are in love, but they both vowed to marry for money, so they agree to separate. James and Moll travel together back to London, where he leaves her just outside of town. Moll doesn’t see him again until she marries the banker in Brickill, where, from the window of her room, she watches James and two other men go into a house across the street. She later learns that three highwaymen have struck, but Moll tells the authorities the suspects in question are fine men from Lancashire, not highwaymen, and James is able to escape. Moll later sees James at Newgate Prison, where they are both held for theft. Luckily, James’s case is weak, and he is able to escape death in exchange for being deported to the American colonies. James and Moll are transported to Virginia, where they buy their freedom and purchase a plantation near the colony of Carolina. They live a happy and prosperous life there until James is 68 years old, at which point they both return to England. Moll and James live the rest of their lives in England “in sincere Penitence, for the wicked Lives [they] have lived.” James serves as an example of a hardened criminal who sees the error of his ways and repents; however, it is never clear if James’s remorse is sincere, especially since he breaks the law by returning to England at the end of the novel.