I think that what Defoe meant to convey about Moll through her children differs depending on which of her children hes referring to. I don’t think that we’re ever supposed to dislike her or think negatively about her as a result. I think that all of her children meantioned up to (but not including) her son with the man at bath are mentioned either for the sake of reality (obviously a healthy married woman in this time period would be having children) or because they are needed later in the story, as is the case with Moll’s son in Virginia. Once we get to her next two children (her son by the man at bath and her son by her Lancanshire husband) she is very upset to leave them behind. I think that this reflects the presentation made last week in class because as a woman Moll really didn’t have any other choice. She could either leave her children where they would be well cared for and she would also have better prospects of finding someone to support her or she could keep them with her and both her and her children would likely and up starving and homeless.
Another thing that I noticed is that a lot of the time that Moll or others are complaining about how poor they are they still have maids attending them. Like when Moll and her Lancanshire husband find out that neither of them have any money and when Moll goes to stay with her “governess” to give birth. It made me wonder what the lives of some of these maids would have been like. Not the maids of the very wealthy like Moll was when she was first taken in ,w ho may have recieved better wages, treatment, or accomadations as a result, but those of people like Moll who had very little money and seldom had a permanent residence.
Excellent point about the servants. These would have been very poorly paid, very hard jobs.