Luke is the product of a religious and domineering mother. She rules his life with a unreasonably stern iron hand. Luke eventually rebels and in the process kills his mother and in a sense his father. Guilt and remorse haunt him for the rest of his life, but so does the knowledge that monster exist in the form of women (and men) subjugate children making them emotional and physical slaves. He flees after killing his mother to commit one murder after another, and from one love affair after another. He, like Tom Jones, is irresistible to women - another curse from his parentage. When he sees victims of child abuse, like the Ancient Mariner, he knows instinctively what is going on and like the Mariner he is honor-bound to correct the problem.