I hate the way Richardson wrote “Pamela.” I understand that is how they wrote back at the time, but I still don’t appreciate it since I am the one who has to read it. I had trouble understanding how Pamela wrote her letters. I think Pamela should’ve done a dialogue when she was writing to her parents the words that were spoken between her and the other people who were in her life at the time.
Overall I really enjoyed the book. The way I see it, this book is a love story. Many might not think so but I believe that Pamela was in love with the Master right from the beginning. I don’t think she knew what her feelings were just because she was too young to understand. When you have someone constantly telling you that your only duty in life is get married and have kids, it is difficult to differentiate between what love is and what a marriage is. Some simply get marry just for the sake of tradition, then you’ll find the few who actually get married to the person whom they fell in love with and cant imagine a life without them. How many people can you think off who married the one person they loved more than anything?
As I was reading this book I realized Pamela should have left the house from the very first time Mr. B tried to kiss/rape her. When she stayed it made me think that this is more than her just being afraid. I mean come on she is fifteen years old what the hell does she know. Mr. B says, “I will make a Gentlewoman of you, if you be obliging, and don’t stand in your own light.” When I read this it was is if Mr. B was saying that he will make her a woman meaning teach her what sex really is and to stop acting like a child, it was as if he was saying to keep her virginity was ridiculous. It was hard for me to understand this because I would have thought that back in those days the virginity for a young woman to keep was one of the strongest thing for someone to do, and if someone didn’t keep it, it would mean that she is a whore and that no one should be marrying her.
It was of great trouble to go through this book, for a woman to continue to marry to the same man who constantly tried to rape you, was a disgrace to me. I can’t imagine how people do this. This is not to say that Pamela would be the first. How many stories have you heard, for something like this to happen? The sad part of it all is, that it still happens to this day. I think she felt obligated to him more than anything. I think she is truly attached to him, although she knows she is beautiful, I believe that she thinks what Mr. B is right. Who would want her? I think she was afraid that no one would want to marry such a poor girl, and I believe that she convinced herself that she really loves him.
Overall I really enjoyed the book. The way I see it, this book is a love story. Many might not think so but I believe that Pamela was in love with the Master right from the beginning. I don’t think she knew what her feelings were just because she was too young to understand. When you have someone constantly telling you that your only duty in life is get married and have kids, it is difficult to differentiate between what love is and what a marriage is. Some simply get marry just for the sake of tradition, then you’ll find the few who actually get married to the person whom they fell in love with and cant imagine a life without them. How many people can you think off who married the one person they loved more than anything?
As I was reading this book I realized Pamela should have left the house from the very first time Mr. B tried to kiss/rape her. When she stayed it made me think that this is more than her just being afraid. I mean come on she is fifteen years old what the hell does she know. Mr. B says, “I will make a Gentlewoman of you, if you be obliging, and don’t stand in your own light.” When I read this it was is if Mr. B was saying that he will make her a woman meaning teach her what sex really is and to stop acting like a child, it was as if he was saying to keep her virginity was ridiculous. It was hard for me to understand this because I would have thought that back in those days the virginity for a young woman to keep was one of the strongest thing for someone to do, and if someone didn’t keep it, it would mean that she is a whore and that no one should be marrying her.
It was of great trouble to go through this book, for a woman to continue to marry to the same man who constantly tried to rape you, was a disgrace to me. I can’t imagine how people do this. This is not to say that Pamela would be the first. How many stories have you heard, for something like this to happen? The sad part of it all is, that it still happens to this day. I think she felt obligated to him more than anything. I think she is truly attached to him, although she knows she is beautiful, I believe that she thinks what Mr. B is right. Who would want her? I think she was afraid that no one would want to marry such a poor girl, and I believe that she convinced herself that she really loves him.
Although Mr. B tried to rape her, Pamela thought that he loves her and wants to be with her even though she is poor and the little attraction she had for him and his richness made her stay in the house through all of it. You can call it a love story, but I call it a misinformed child.
2 comments:
Going back to the form of the novel-- I wasn't too impressed with it either. It lends itself too much to "now he said, she said I said..." which I found very boring to read. Also, midway through the novel, the letters from Pamela's parents ceas until her letters merely read like some lifeless diary. I thought the letter scheme was a bit of a failure because in order for it to work, both sides of letter writers should have something interesting to contribute to the correspondence. To me, this appeared to be lacking in Pamela, and I was wondering why, if Richardson intended for the novel to be a one-way dialogue, did he set it up as an exchange of letters..or was this just a failure as a result of early experimentation with novel forms?
Just to comment on the form: at the time the status of fiction was fluctuating, and there was not as clear a sense of the value of reading something that was completely made up. Forms like the epistolary novel or Crusoe's memoir allow the author to maintain an ambiguity over whether the work is actually true or just "true to life." Richardson has some sophistication in his use of the epistolary form, especially with his capture of the immediacy of experience: it was called writing "to the moment." We talked in class about how he incorporates the physical letters and the effect of reading them into the plot itself. I do recommend Clarissa, which features dueling his and her accounts and contains many plays on how letters can be manipulated, lost, misdirected, stolen and forged, with the attendant plot complications.
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