Name :- Himanshi Parmar
Paper :- 102, Literature of the neo - classical period.
Roll number :- 08
Enrollment number :- 4069206420210025
Email id :- himanshiparmar3004@gmail.com
Batch :- 2021 - 23 (M. A. Sem 1)
Submitted to :- S. B. Gardi, Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
Introduction :-
Pamela; or Virtue rewarded is an epistolary novel first published in 1740, by English writer Samuel Richardson. It is also known as the first true english novel. The novel reflects the idea of Richardson, about marriage, Class differences, and the condition of females of his time. If we see the full title, 'Pamela; Or the Virtue Rewarded', it simply indicates, that in the second part of the novel Pamela marries Mr. B and tries to acclimatise to her new position in upper - class society.
Here we find that Richardson wants to give a happy ending to the novel. And give a happy, worthy life to his female protagonist. Which we find by the letters written by Pamela.
Plot overview of Pamela :-
Pamela is a fifteen-year-old maidservant in Bedfordshire. She is innocent and virtuous. She serves Lady B, who is kind to her. Unfortunately, Lady B has just passed away. Pamela is nervous about her work situation, as she does not come from money. Lady B’s son, Mr. B, promises to keep her and all the other servants employed.
Mr. B begins making advances towards Pamela. At first, they are just verbal, as she reports to her parents. She promises she will do everything to preserve her virtue. Her parents agree with her, but advise her if Mr. B ever makes physical advances towards her she should return home, despite their impoverishment. Soon thereafter, Mr. B makes a physical advancement towards Pamela, which she rebuffs. He attempts to pay her to keep her quiet, but she refuses and tells her friend the housekeeper, Mrs. Jervis.
Mr. B continues to make advances towards Pamela, including trying to kiss her while she undresses for the evening after hiding in her closet. She faints, which dissuades Mr. B from continuing. Pamela threatens to return home to her parents. Mr. B is against this and thwarts her return. He offers Pamela more money, then marries a Lincolnshire clergyman named Mr. Williams. She refuses and packs her bags to return home. Mr. B tricks Pamela and sends her to his estate in Lincolnshire. He also writes to her parents telling them he has sent her away to preserve her virtue, as she has had an affair with a penurious clergyman. Pamela’s father does not believe him and attempts to retrieve her at the Bedfordshire estate, but she is not there.
Pamela begins a journal in Lincolnshire, hoping one day her parents will read it and understand. She is virtually a captive there, under the watch of Mrs. Jewkes, the spiteful housekeeper. Mr. B writes to Pamela and invites her to be his mistress. She refuses. Pamela begins to plan her escape and enlists the help of Mr. Williams. They exchange letters, leaving them next to the sunflower in the garden. Mr. Williams tries his best to help her, even asking the local gentry for assistance. They refuse due to Mr. B’s social standing, advising Mr. Williams to marry Pamela.
Mr. Williams asks Pamela to marry him to help her escape, but she refuses. Pamela is concerned when Mr. Williams is robbed, wondering if Mr. B set the robbery up to steal her letters. She is determined to escape but gives up on this idea when she is hurt during her attempt.
Mr. B soon arrives at Lincolnshire. He again asks Pamela to be his mistress and she refuses. Mr. B and Mr. Jewkes come up with a plan for Mr. B to finally seduce Pamela. He dresses up as a female servant named Nan and pretends to be drunk. As Nan, he sneaks into Pamela’s bed. When Pamela realises what is happening, she has a violent fit, similar to a seizure.
After Pamela’s fit, Mr. B’s demeanour changes. He seems regretful in his actions, but continues to pursue her, albeit without force. Pamela begs him to stop his advances. He admits that he loves Pamela, but feels he is unable to marry her due to the social gap. Pamela is shocked, but somewhat stirred by his confession. She hopes he means what he says. Mr. B leaves his estate for a few days. While he is gone, Pamela is stopped by a fortune teller who says Mr. B is trying to force her into a sham marriage. She rethinks her burgeoning affection for Mr. B.
When Mr. B returns, Mrs. Jewkes gives him some of Pamela’s recent writings. After reading them, his affection for Pamela only grows. He feels guilty for the way he has treated her and promises to make things right by marrying her. Pamela is still suspicious of him and denies him, asking to return home. Mr. B is upset and angry, but allows Pamela to go home. Pamela feels strangely sad.
On her way home, she receives a letter from Mr. B, imploring her to return and marry him. He speaks of reform and changing his ways, and Pamela, believing him, decides to return. On her return, they wonder how the gentry will react to their marriage, and Pamela tells Mr. B why she was wary of his proposal. He admits he thought of luring her into a sham marriage, but changed his mind.
The gentry accept Pamela easily, due to her charm. Her father comes looking for her, worried that she is now a mistress, but is happy and excited to see her engaged and content. Mr. B and Pamela are soon married. Pamela then has a hostile interaction with Mr. B’s sister, Lady Davers where she effectively holds Pamela hostage, disparaging her social status. Lady Davers forces Mr. B to confess to a dalliance he had as a young man. Pamela learns there was a child produced from this dalliance named Miss Goodwin. He introduces Pamela to Miss Goodwin, who believes Mr. B is her uncle. Miss Goodwin’s mother is happily married in Jamaica.
Mr. B sets up Pamela’s parents to look after Mr. B’s estate in Kent. Lady Davers ultimately accepts Pamela. Pamela has many children with Mr. B and visits with her family often. She is happy and takes Miss Goodwin under her wing, ensuring that she becomes as pious as Pamela.
About the author :-
Pamela was Written by Samuel Richardson, it is widely regarded as one of the earliest novels in the English language. The author himself was one of the greatest ones in the 18th Century. The novel is also arguably the first novel to introduce Epistolary as a style of fiction writing. Let me first discuss the author in brief. And then about Pamela as an epistolary novel.
Samuel Richardson was born on 19th August 1689, in Mackworth, Derbyshire, England. Along with Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett, and Lawrence Stern, Richardson was one of the best authors of the 18th Century. It was an era that revolutionised the art of storytelling and introduced various genres and styles of writing. Richardson was an established printer and publisher and printed almost 500 different works in his lifetime. These include novels, journals, magazines, and more. His notable works, Pamela, Clarissa, and, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, are the epitome of Epistolary novels.
Richardson got his education at Christ’s Hospital grammar school. However, from an early age, he confessed that he had a penchant for letter writing. In fact, Richardson himself admitted that helping people in his community write letters of correspondence for various purposes was one of his most favourite things to do.
Unlike his contemporaries, Richardson did not belong to the higher class of clergy or nobles. Instead, he came from the working-class, and this was quite apparent in his writing. He was aware of the social evils present in the society, like class discrimination, and the exploitation of the underprivileged at the hands of those belonging to the upper class. In his novels, Richardson tries to depict the problems, and usually provides solutions to them, an approach that was quite unique during the period. Samuel Richardson passed away on 04th July 1761, in London, England.
What is epistolary novel :-
The epistolary novel is a unique storytelling method that blends a nonfiction medium with a fictional narrative.Or in another words,
'In an epistolary novel, the story is told through the form of love letters, diary entries, newspaper clippings, telegrams, or other documents'.
A modern novel in the epistolary form may include electronic documents such as emails or text messages.Epistolary fiction may be monologic in which the story is told exclusively through journal entries or letters of the main character, thus representing their point of view. Epistolary writing may also be dialogic or polylogic consisting of a series of letters or other correspondence between two or more characters, in which multiple points of view are represented through an array of documents.
Pamela as an epistolary novel :-
The novel is divided into seven volumes of letters of conversations. Pamela had with her parents, and others. That's why we are able to consider Pamela as a marvellous epistolary novel. And also it is considered the first original English language novel, which was written in this style of writing.
In her initial letters written to her parents, she describes her state working for the mistress, the knight’s mother, and describes that she is quite happy. When the mistress passes away, Pamela shows her concerns in the subsequent letters, as she would have to go back to her parent’s village and live the life in poverty again. And when the knight informs the servants that wouldn’t terminate any of them, she expresses her joy and relief.
As the story progresses, her letters become more and more intense. With each letter, one comes to know more and more about the characters, especially Pamela. Her feelings, her dilemma, her desire for a financially stable life, her determination to protect her modesty, etc, all her feelings grip reader, and being letters it comes straight out of the horse’s mouth.The novel also shows multiple conversations Pamela has, like with her parents, and with the man in the unknown town. In fact, with the latter, Pamela exchanged letters by hiding them in sunflower fields, as the meeting wasn’t a possibility. Each conversation gives an insight into her character from a different perspective, which is essentially an important characteristic of an epistolary novel.
Even when Pamela suffers through her worst times in the unknown town, she continues to write the letters to her parents, though they never reach them. Somewhere deep inside, by the end of the novel, one realises the hidden desire she had for the knight, and the only thing that kept her from submitting to his demands was her wish to become a wife rather than a mistress. Subtly hidden throughout the letters, her desire to break from the lower class, and rise up to the higher ones was always there, though not intentionally. The length of the text is too large, and the premise of the story too common and predictable. However, that’s my analysis from a 21st Century perspective. Back in the day, Pamela was ground-breaking stylistically. It paved the way for a number of epistolary novels that followed, and continue to do so even today.
Conclusion :-
Here i discussed about the marvellous epistolary novel by Samuel Richardson. Which is devided into seven volumes of letters of conversion by pamela. And the plot is most interestingly portrayed by Richardson.
Words :- 1934
Paragraphs :- 8
References :-
1 - Masterclass.com
2 - Bombayreads.com
3 - Suppersummary.com
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