en are only an unwanted charge for an attractive widow with no steady income. She is, however, careful to find homes for them, which show that there are at least some basic human feelings of guilt.
             Later in the novel, after Moll marries again, the details of her mother-in-law's story convinced Moll, to her horror, that her mother-in-law is also her true mother. Her maternal feelings for her children were slighted by the fact that their father was her brother. Moll had by this time had two children by her own brother, and was pregnant with a third. She did not tell anyone of her horrible discovery, but was terribly oppressed by it; also, she was afraid that if she told, she would be divorced without being believed, and left helpless far from her native land. Thus she lived for three more years, but without having any more children (she refused to sleep with her husband). Her relationship with him deteriorated drastically, and she requested to go to England. He was angry, and asked how she could stand to abandon her children (she did not want to see them ever again), and threatened to have her put in a madhouse. Finally she told him that she knew something which meant that their marriage was not lawful. This shows how she let her feelings about their marriage overpower her maternal feelings for her own children.
             The mother of Moll and her brother also seems to be more motivated by regard for conventions than anything else: she would actually prefer to have her children continue cohabiting, than risk the scandal of separation. Also, she shows no joy upon the discovery of her long lost daughter, which is very strange. Thus Moll is motivated by a sort of instinctive natural morality, her husband/brother by a more religious
             sense of guilt and sacrifice, and their mother by a concern for keeping up appearances. Even in the short description of the feelings of the mother-in-law, Defoe shows once again how maternal feelings are...