Name: Drashti Joshi
Batch: M.A. Sem.1 (2022-2024)
Enrollment N/o.: 4069206420220016
Roll N/o.: 06
Subject code & Paper N/o.: 22393- Paper 102: Literature of the Neoclassical period
E-mail Address: drashtijoshi582@gmail.com
Submitted to: Smt. S.B. Gardi Department of English- M.K.B.U.
Date of submission: 7th November, 2022
Thematic analysis of Pamela:
“Indeed I am Pamela, her own self! ”
Pamela, also known in literature as Virtue Rewarded, is a 1740 novel written by Samuel Richardson. It is, in fact, an epistolary novel, meaning it is written in the form of a letter or a diary. The novel is also considered to be a conduct book or a book that teaches the readers, especially the young audience, of the social norms of the community. It is often argued that Pamela is the first English novel—a pioneer in the novel genre. As such, it has received a lot of commercial success in the 18th and even the 19th century.
Pamela is written in two volumes and tells the story of a beautiful, smart, feminine, and religious 15 year old servant girl, as she is seduced and almost raped by the rich and noble Mr. B—the son of her late mistress. Pamela, however, doesn’t respond to Mr. B’s sexual advances, and he decides to reward her virtuous nature by asking her hand in marriage. In the end, Pamela and Mr. B fall in love and marry each-other. Some readers criticize Richardson for condoning abusive behavior towards women and making Pamela fall in love with the man who almost rapes her.
Novel Pamela’s themes:
Pamela covers a variety of social themes such as the social classes of English society, the importance of chastity, virtue and femininity, religion, a bit of feminism, and of course love and marriage. As a servant girl about to marry a nobleman, Pamela wishes to be accepted into the aristocracy. Through her character, Richardson explains to the readers how the middle class wanted to mingle with the higher class in order to gain social acceptance. By the end of the novel, Pamela with her youth, beauty, intelligence, and virtue has managed to enamor both the middle class and the nobility.
The three main themes in Pamela are social class, the importance of virtue, and love and marriage.
Social class: As a servant girl about to marry a nobleman, Pamela wishes to be accepted into the aristocracy.
The importance of virtue: Pamela’s acceptance by the upper classes depends greatly on her virtue, obedience, and proper behavior.
Love and marriage: Pamela and Mr. B fall in love and are married, and Richardson writes of a wife’s duties to her husband.
However, many readers ask the question, what would have happened with Pamela if she wasn’t considered beautiful, pious, or virtuous? Would society still accept her? Pamela was written in a time when feminism was beginning to spread all over Europe. Women wanted to prove that they were capable of having an opinion, and they began to fight for their rights and their independence. Thus we have the two unanswered questions of Pamela’s fate. Some readers think that her intelligence and her outgoing personality should have enabled her to climb the social ladder and obtain a higher socioeconomic position, regardless of her physical appearance. Others think that her social approval depends greatly on her beauty, virtue, obedience and proper behavior. This is why a lot of readers argue whether Pamela is a feminist or an anti-feminist figure.
Finally, there is the theme of love and marriage. What is interesting about this theme is the fact that Richardson made the main characters fall in love with one another, and their marriage was actually a happy one. It is commonly known that marriages in the 18th century were usually arranged and were more out of convenience than love. So having both characters (especially Mr. B) be infatuated with one another is, in fact, very bold and even revolutionary. In the second volume of the book, Richardson writes of all the marital duties a spouse should have, focusing more on the role of the wife, saying how she must be obedient and submissive to her husband.
Status of Women in the Society:-
The status of women in the society during those times was strict with morality and chastity. It was an age of strictness and it also reflected in the mannerisms and behavior of the characters. Women were silently oppressed in the society and were colonized in the hands of a patriarchy. When Pamela was captured and colonized in Lincolnshire by Mr. B, it reflected the colonization of a woman under patriarchal society. Pamela wanted to escape and even asked for help from Mr. Williams but she failed and later failed to trust him as he was a mere puppet of Mr. B. Pamela became a victim of patriarchal cage in Lincolnshire and it was her modesty that she made her alive in Lincolnshire. All of her letters were taken away from her reflecting her freedom and liberty to be snatched away by the hands of a man. This reflects the condition of a woman during those times.
Class Consciousness and Woman:-
Pamela belonged to the poor section of the society and her family Andrews lives in a village. She worked as a maid servant in the family of Lady B . Since she is a woman and poor, she was vulnerable to seduction and patriarchal oppression in the society. The class consciousness has always been used as a weapon against her to break her devotion to chastity. Mr. B demanded her to marry a clergyman Mr. Williams but she refuses and shows that Pamela is a devout character who will remain virtuous even if she has to face a penalty or social criticisms. It also reflects that poor pauper are always a victim of sexual harassment and exploitation under the hands of a rich society. Pamela is consistently attacked for her chastity by the rich man Mr. B.
Significance of the Subtitle:-
The subtitle virtue rewarded is also a significant theme in the novel. It was Pamela’s chastity and devotion to morality that helped her to change Mr. B. Pamela was married to him and had several children and many things started to change after their marriage. Her family starts to live out of poverty as Mr. B gives Pamela’s father the position of his estate. The major development was the change in Mr. B character and Richardson is implying the importance of chastity in the society which can change the society into a larger better as reflected in Pamela and Mr. B’s relationship.
Epistolary Elements:-
The novel is written in epistolary format where Pamela writes numerous letters to her family regarding the situations that are happening in the family she serves. She is vocal about her feelings in the epistles and gives a discourse about the treatment and sexual harassment of Mr. B. Critically, it is through the letters, a woman can assert her true self and individual feelings of mental psyche which she is unable to express directly to the society. This is the same reflection in the case of the novel where the format of letters expresses the mental state of Pamela and her resistance towards immoral lust of Mr. B. There are two divisive state of letters in the novel where the other part of the novel is the letter address to the family of Pamela and the other letter is the letter written from her captivity in Lincolnshire by Mr. B. Mr. B took advantage of the letter before her captivity and wrote to her family about the inevitable circumstances of her inability to reach her village and family. The letter is also misused in the novel to show the lust of a man and to add the theme of conflict between lust and chastity. The letter has also proven the development of Mr. B character in the novel where he was moved by the letters of Pamela and instantly falls in love with her virtuous and chastise nature. Though Pamela was warned by the fortune tellers about Mr. B’s plan on marriage, she was left by Mr. B afterward after reading the letters she had written about her feelings and ill treatment towards her. It moved him and the letter was sent to Pamela by Mr. B which made Pamela return back to him. This entire development changed the story in the novel where the chastise nature of Pamela changed the sexually lustful man into a gentleman and a man she married later.
Tussle Between Chastity and Lust:-
The major theme of the novel is conflict between chastity and lust. Pamela is a symbol of woman chastity which Fielding makes it clear in Joseph Andrews as male chastity. In the novel, Pamela is sexually attracted and objectified by a son of Lady B named Mr. B or Squire B who consistently prey on her body and wanted to have a sexual intercourse with her. She clearly remains virtuous and states that she is willing to suffer any social penalty or injustices rather than giving up her own chastity to a man. She is constantly spied by Squire B while she undresses her clothes and Pamela shows a strong protest against such sexual desire from a man. When Pamela left the house of Mr. B and thought that she returned back home, she was in Lincolnshire and was colonized by Mr. B where the servant Mr. Jukes objectifies and spies on her every move which reflects the tussle between lust and chastity. It seems that Pamela’s chastity is a threat to the society which every man wants to devour.
Class Politics:-
One of the great social facts of Richardson’s day was the intermingling of the aspirant middle class with the gentry and aristocracy. The eighteenth century was a golden age of social climbing and thereby satire (primarily in poetry), but Richardson was the first novelist to turn his serious regard on class difference and class tension. Pamela’s class status is ambiguous at the start of the novel. She is on good terms with the other Bedfordshire servants, and the pleasure she takes in their respect for her shows that she does not consider herself above them; her position as a lady’s maid, however, has led to her acquiring refinements of education and manner that unfit her for the work of common servants: when she attempts to scour a plate, her soft hand develops a blister. Moreover, Richardson does some fudging with respect to her origins when he specifies that her father is an educated man who was not always a peasant but once ran a school.
If this hedging suggests latent class snobbery on Richardson’s part, however, the novelist does not fail to insist that those who receive privileges under the system bear responsibilities also, and correspondingly those on the lower rungs of the ladder are entitled to claim rights of their superiors. Thus, in the early part of the novel, Pamela emphasizes that Mr. B., in harassing her, violates his duty to protect the social inferiors under his care; after his reformation in the middle of the novel, she repeatedly lauds the “Godlike Power" of doing good that is the special pleasure and burden of the wealthy. Whether Richardson’s stress on the reciprocal obligations that characterize the harmonious social order expresses genuine concern for the working class, or whether it is simply an insidious justification of an inequitable power structure, is a matter for individual readers to decide.
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