Moll Flanders essay - marriage and wealth, a moral issue.

The first 200 words of this essay...

MOLL FLANDERS ESSAY:

MARRIAGE & WEALTH: A MORAL ISSUE

Moll describes the dark fate of children of criminals. Without any system to protect them, they are thrown into the world with no training in any subject and no goal other than starvation or the same life of crime that ended so badly for their parents. Moll's mother had been sentenced to death for having stolen three pieces of cloth. Moll herself was very lucky to be taken in: the parish, the area served by one church, were under no obligation to take care of penniless children who were not born there, or had no other particular claim to charity: "I was not a parish charge upon this or that part of the town by law." Indeed the parish officers tried to find the gypsies in order to send Moll back to them, even though they were unrelated to her and she did not like them. Legally, they could have sent her out to starve: she was saved only by their compassion.

Once Moll was taken in, her troubles had not end. An eight-year old child could be made to work all day as a powerless "drudge