Sunday, September 30, 2007
Pamela's fate is in her hands
When asked if I'm enjoying Richardson's, "Pamela" I have mixed emotions. At first I felt sympathetic towards Pamela's character being that she dealt with Mr.B's insane attempts and lived so far from her family. But then she started to annoy me because it seemed as though she was asking for it by choosing to remain in the house instead of escaping to her parents. While reading her letters it seemed as though she was trying to convince herself to remain virtuous and to not give into her desires towards Mr.B . It was quite obvious that Pamela had feelings for her master when she chose to finish his waistcoat and delay her return home after he attempted to rape her. Noone in their right mind would ever want to stay in the same house with someone who is trying to rape them; unless they secretly want to sleep with them in return and enjoys the chase. In her letters to her parents she first signs them with " your honest and dutiful daughter" but in the rest of her letters she just signs your dutiful daughter. Perhaps she wasn't completely honest with her parents about her feelings towards Mr. B. Another hint was when she was debating on whether or not she should marry Mr. Williams. If she had married him perhaps he would have allowed her to return home for a while and would have protected her from Mr. B. But she hesitated again and I think she did this becaus eshe was in love with Mr. B and didn't want to disappoint him. Just like she didn't want to disappoint him again when he asked her to return to him when he finally allowed her to go back home. When she returns to him and he treats her with kindness she realizes she has fallen in love with him and in a way she stops running away from him and her fears of no longer being virtuous. I think her virginityis sacred to her because it's the only thing she has left and because she wants to keep her parents happy. It appears as though she keeps trying to please them by remaining virtuous through her letters and that she is messing with Mr. B's head by playing games. Her fate is in her hands and she is to blame for the mental, physical, and emotional abuse.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
One thing about Parson Williams that we didn't discuss is that he is not a very compelling figure: Pamela for all of her fainting is strong; she is also intelligent and engaging. Williams resembles the "sensitive" guy from a seventies T.V. show: he is beaten up by robbers and is not exactly stoic about it; he is easily duped by Mrs. Jewkes and Mr. B. Although he does want to help her, there is something a little unsavory about pressing her to marry him when she is so vulnerable.
Certainly, this was a very macho period: upper class men all carried swords; many dueled, gambled, whored, drank excessively. The most common idea of the aristocratic man was the "rake." But our time as well as that has a very ambivalent relationship with "rakes"--think of the popularity of over-the-top hip hop stars--they seem always to be able to get a date. In his final novel, Sir Charles Grandison, Richardson would attempt to create a new "masculine" type, the polite and responsible aristocrat. No one reads this 8 volume novel anymore, but the Grandison type would be picked up by Fanny Burney and Jane Austen: basically, he is the grandfather of Emma's Mr. Knightley.
Post a Comment