I apologize for the late response on Pamela and Shamela...I have been having "sign in" issues....
The story of Pamela drew me in. I was curious to see how Pamela's life would unfold as she continued to reach for a life involving her boss. The emphasis of virginity in the book is blatent and it leaves the reader wondering how her loss of virginity will affect her life. Being only 15 years old plays a huge role in the character analysis of Pamela...she's a child, but considering the time period, she isn't. Her constant writing to her parents became annoying after a while...it was like as if she was trying to convince herself of her "virtue"...I guess she had nothing much to do but write.
Shamela was a slightly more entertaining piece. I laughed when I noticed the letter writing in this book as well because I for some reason, at first, thought of Shamela as a "comedic" piece that makes fun of Pamela. In our class discussion it was said that some students saw Shamela as a target piece-targetting women in general and lower class women to be specific (maids). In both books, virtue is a key theme and is addressed in different ways. In Pamela the theme of virtue is present through her letter writing as well as her quest for the older man where in Shamela it's a theme that is faced but with a more general focus on other key themes as well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Pamela or Shamela
I personally wouldn't choose neither. Pamela was drawn out for no reason and shamela was a typical approach on sex and virginity. but if i had to choose one i would pic shamela, even though it was typical, it was more realistic than Pamela. What made Pamela unrealistic was the continuing back-n-forth between her and her parents about the subject of her virginity. Although it is possible for women to stay virgins till their early 20's, what made it unreal was her obssesion with her virginity. Which almost lead me to believe after a while that she wasnt a virgin at all. Shamela was a more realistic character who was also a virgin, except she had character. she was evil at times conniving, funny and she potrayed a nice character. These additives to her character make her more real to me.
I agree that Pamela was too drawn out. I believe her letter writing was indicative of the "prove to myself" that I'm virtues rather than anybody else. I find it that more often then not when someone repeats an ideal so profusely they're trying to convince themselves as much as anybody else. This can be further supported by the fact that she keeps of making excuses not to leave indicating that there is an alternative side to Pamela that might have more impure motives.
Shamela was fun for me and I do believe there is something to saying it was comedic. The exaggerated "looseness" of Shamela was definitely amusing to me.
Post a Comment