I have a problem with Pamela. She is very religious, pious, and very obidient to her parents.
I find that her character is one of mass confussion. She does her work while she is with Mr. B, but while she is sent to live with Mrs. Jewkes she does no work, and all she does is write letters to her parents. I also have a major problem with the idea that after getting kicked out of the second house, she returns to her tormentor, Mr. B.. This make it sound like she asked for it. I also think that Richardson presensts a reader with Pamela's being idolized and pious too much that her tale becomes repetative and dull. Pamela becomes a victim of rape, not physically, but psychologically because Mr. B. takes something that she cherishes the most, her virtue. Thus, making a reader believe that her virtue came with a financial and material reward attached to it Do you think this assessment of Pamela's character is a correct one?
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I think you bring up some of the major problems readers have had with the book. I like the way you call Pamela an "idol"--I sometimes think that Richardson fell in love with his heroine, and became caught up in how amazing and wonderful and stupendous and virtuous and beautiful and special she was--you get the idea. He lacks distance on her, which to my mind injures his novel. Whereas the power of the early sections comes from his strong imaginative identification with his character, in the later sections he seems obsessed with the good effect Pamela's story can have on humanity.
There is some argument for Pamela's victimization at the end--I think you have a real insight here. The virtue she seems to lose is her spunk--her voice if you will, as she turns into a little parrot of contemporary ideas of a good wife. It's as if she feels she needs to justify her rise in station (or perhaps her loss of virginity in marriage or her submission to the man who tried to ruin her) by being perfect!
I absolutely agree! Pamela is an extremely annoying character and her overly pious disposition makes her an irritating character. No person can possibly be as good and virtues as Pamela making her an unrealistic character in my opinion. However, the little things that she does, such as returning to Mister B gives us a glimpse into a perhaps competing personality that wants the rape and scandal. To me Pamela is a fraud and only pretends to be so pious because society demands it to be so. I feel as though she secretly yearns for wild passion and excess.
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