Pamela as a reliable narrator or not?

Hello, i am Himanshi Parmar. As a task of thinking activity given for paper number -2, neoclassical literature. Unit - 4, samuel Richardson's pamela ; Or, The virtue rewarded. Here i write a blog on given question, is pamela a reliable narrator? Yes, then why? If not, then why?

Befor writing about the Pamela is a reliable narrator or not! Let me give over view about the plot and some factual information about the novel.

Pamela structure and plot construction :-

Panela ; or, virtue rewarded is a very well known apistolary novel by Samuel Richardson. First published in 1740 by

Messrs Rivington & Osborn. Richardson was a very famous English writer, wrote the novel very well. And in this novel he put his views about marriage.

Pamela tells the story of a fifteen-year-old maidservant named Pamela Andrews, whose employer, Mr. B, a wealthy landowner, makes unwanted and inappropriate advances towards her after the death of her mother. Pamela strives to reconcile her strong religious training with her desire for the approval of her employer in a series of letters and, later in the novel, journal entries all addressed to her impoverished parents. After various unsuccessful attempts at seduction, a series of sexual assaults, and an extended period of kidnapping, the rakish Mr. B eventually reforms and makes Pamela a sincere proposal of marriage. In the novel's second part Pamela marries Mr. B and tries to acclimatise to her new position in upper-class society. The full title, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, makes plain Richardson's moral purpose. A best-seller of its time, Pamela was widely read but was also criticised for its perceived licentiousness and disregard for class barriers. Furthermore, Pamela was an early commentary on domestic violence and brought into question the dynamic line between male aggression and a contemporary view of love. The action of the novel is told through letters and journal entries from Pamela to her parents. Richardson highlights a theme of naivety, illustrated through the eyes of Pamela. Richardson paints Pamela herself as innocent and meek to further contribute to the theme of her being short-sighted to emphasize the ideas of childhood innocence and naivety.

Here i put a video of summary of the novel pamela. The video is in hindi. But much easier to understand.

 Afater knowing the story let me discuss about the question Is pamela a reliable narrator? Yes then why? If No then why?

I don't find the pamela as a reliable narration. the story consists of Pamela's first person narration, offered via her letters to her parents. The main story opens with just such a letter, with Pamela lamenting "I have great Trouble, and some Comfort, to acquaint you with".

The first part of the story is a series of letters Pamela writes to her parents relating her problems with Mr. B. and asking for their advice. And through this letters, pamela narrates the story.when Readers read the novel they come to know about the storyline, by the letters of pamela. In The second and much longer part is a journal that she keeps, still addressing her parents as though writing a long letter to them, telling them of her trials and assuring them of her determination to preserve her honor. She also tries to analyse people’s motives, including her own.

Richardson chose the epistolary form because of its immediacy. The first-person voice of someone in the throes of the experience does draw in the reader. Unfortunately, Pamela’s voice did not remain interested very long. It soon began to find her endless complaining tiresome and her infinite perfection quite irritating. Even if, she is writing to her parents, so it is natural to relay compliments that she has received, knowing that they would enjoy hearing praise of her, but she goes on at such length about how everyone finds her so remarkable, so good, so smart, so beautiful, that it’s hard not to think “and so vain”.

It is very difficult to say that is pamela reliable narrator or not. Because Pamela’s story is far more than the narration of the experience of a

servant girl. Pamela’s storytelling is wondrous the method by which the narration is especially important. Letters help to ground this book in reality, while their information smooth over problems of narration and make Pamela an unreliable narrator. However, in defiance of Behn and Defoe, Pamela’s unreliability makes sense; after all, she has to be careful that nothing she writes about could condemn her to further mistreatment by the Master who harasses her.

When readers come across the letters written by pamela to her parents. They must attached with pamela. And feel sympathy towards her. But when the story moves ahead, we find that the flow of letters by pamela still going on. But its seems like unworthy and give us a boring sign. It seems like she is praising herself all the time. And tried to potray Mr. B as a bad man to potray herself good and virtuous. Of course, Mr. B is not proved as a good man at all. But we also find that pamela is also have duel personality. many times, She got chance to go back to her parents, but by one and another reasons She refusing it. And readers come to know about the reasons by her letters. But when we deeply analysis the letters. We must find that somehow the reasons are not valuable and acceptable. She just try to hide her inner little desire to marriage with Mr. B.

When we read the starting points when pamela used start writing letters to her parents. She most of the time write about only mr. B and praising her. This narration show us that she is interested in mr. B but later on when mr. B asked her for marriage at first time, she refused her. So that i thought pamela is nor reliable narrator at all. Because she has a duel personality which is also reflected in her writing.

To read more about the narration in pamela; Or, The virtue rewarded. (Click here)

Words :- 1029

Paragraphs :- 8

Images :- three

Video :- one

References :-

1) bmorrison.com

2) Wikipedia.com

3) shmoop.com

4)riseofthenovel. wordpress.com