Letteratura inglese - Corso monografico The rise of the novel and Campus Novels.

LEGGERE ANCHE L’INTRODUZIONE

Frontispiece – title page

Less dramatic than Defoe’s title pages. She

is not famous, she’s an ordinary girl.

The subtitle, or alternative title, is Virtue Rewarded, it is just as important or even more

important than the first part. Debate about the title. Pamela is about it. Will virtue be

rewarded? How?

It is an epistolary novel. They were in vogue.

The second part is about the outcome of the story. “Exalted” condition, in its literary

meaning: raised condition, she marries well.

“Gentile” is a central term. It refers to the values of the upper-middle classes. It is also

used for Victorian values or for XIX century middle-class American values. This is a novel

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which shows the triumph of the middle-class as a class, not just of a middle-class

individual.

Pamela: glorification the middle-class individual in social terms. Her glory and triumph is

to marry a nobleman and to raise the middle-class to the level of aristocracy (exalted).

Preface

Many italics.

Docere (teach), delecatare (entertain), movere (excite): Horacian instructions to the writer.

Divert and entertain, but also instruct both sexes. Both sexes! In matter of moral conduct,

social behaviour and similar things there was the so-called double moral, one for the men,

one for the women. In the story, the social, moral behaviour and the behaviour in courting

which is put forward is for both men and women. Richardson wants to write a story

which will be both an entertainment and something useful to men and women.

Anaphora of the “if” leading to the last paragraph. Richardson says he’s the editor of the

story, not the writer. He wants us to believe this is a true story taken from true letters

given to him, from him to be edited (something he was very good at).

Pamela

The book is divided into letters and in the section “Contents”, Richardson gives us a short

summary of what we can find in each letter.

Next to the letters, we have Pamela’s journal.

At that point of the story, in fact, she is made prisoner by the nobleman who wants to

seduce her. She is a prisoner as Robinson in the island. She can’t write and receive letters.

She is reduced to keep a journal. She writes every day and at every hour.

Precision.

P.43 Letter I, from Pamela to her “dear Father and Mother”.

It’s not one letter from beginning to end. There’s a break after “Your dutiful Daughter”.

Very short and simple sentence. It immediately creates a sort of suspense. I have great

trouble, what about? And some comfort, which? She is a servant, she is the maid of the

house, and had a good relation with the lady of the house, who has just died.

“I mentioned to you”. This is not the beginning as the one of most novels, there have been

letters before, as it happens in real life. The story starts in the middle of things (in medias

res). It is the typical beginning of epical poems.

Additional information: she was not just the housemaid. She waited on the lady of the

house. It was a very important occupation. Her lady talked to her and she learned how to

write and do reckonings and how to use a needle.

“Degree” was about some social classes.

Clear portrait of Pamela in few lines.

Only very noble families could take her in.

Pamela is quite aware of her situation: she comes from a low-class, but she was brought up

in a higher level. She does not belong to the upper-class, because she was not born into it.

The lady’s death means trouble for Pamela, because she might have to come back to her

parents and can’t maintain herself.

On her deathbed, the lady recommended all her servants to her hair, her son, and in

particular she recommends Pamela. Remembering these words, Pamela cries. Typical

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melodrama. She’s a very sensitive person (above her degree), she cries a lot. Sentimental

comedy, or comedie lamoyant (=tearful).

She says no wonder if you see the paper blotted, because she was crying a lot. The paper,

so the letter, is blotted and that’s a realistic device. She says the story is so true that this

letter is blotted with tears. Sometimes there will be ink, other times the letter will be

crumpled. She presents us real letters.

Typical XVIII century scene: the noble person dies and his/her bed is surrounded by all

relatives and servants. The servants were given small presents from the dead person. Here

it is a small wage as an extra. Pamela gets no provisions, because she has no wage, she is

only the maid of the lady. Pamela was taken by the hand by the son of the lady. It is a

scene that will come again many times. She is pleased by this action. It is a great mark of

distinction. The parents will catch the snare (=trappola) which is in that. He gives her

money, a year service as for all other servants, but also four guineas. The young girl is

given money by the rich man, as it happens to Moll Flanders, even if it is a different

situation, it can be charity or good will.

She has to take care of the man’s linen (shorts, nightgown…). Taking care of the

gentleman’s linen was quite important and quite intimate.

Pamela’s attitude to life. Pamela gives the money to her family. She is irreproachable since

the beginning. Moll takes all the money for herself. She gives John the money because he is

going the right direction, but she hides them in a box for medicines putting them into a

paper, and doesn’t tell him what it is. She is provident, or simply attentive, and thinks one

never knows. Pamela is a very dutiful girl, she has a very strong sense of duty and of

social relations. She feels it is a duty to oblige her superiors, but she’s not naïve. She comes

from the lower-classes and knows life is full of snares and dangers and she’s aware that

money is important and she has to take care of it, because she is poor.

In two paragraphs, Richardson gives us a perfect portrait of Pamela. She’s not a stock

character, she’s more complex. She’s a good girl, she’s also clever and cunning, and she

has sentiments.

She finishes the letter, but later she goes on.

At the end she gives her name and surname.

In the second part of the letter, she tells us what happened when she finishes writing it.

Today everyone who knows how to write is supposed to be free of writing, but at that

time a similar situation is hardly imaginable. It is a typical XVIII century scene.

She says she is scared and she’s going to faint. The master’s attitude is intimidating, not

just patronising. He wants to read and reads what she’s writing.

Pamela precisely describes her fear and her confusion. She hides nothing. She tells her

master ‘please forgive me’, because maids were not supposed to write. Writing was and is

an instrument of power. The lower-class did not how to write.

The master says she writes well, but he’s not happy with what she’s writing, he tells her to

be careful of what she writes about this family. On the other hand, even if she is scared,

she asks herself why she should excuse herself, she is just writing to her parents.

Contradiction.

Italics is one of the main stylistic tools of Richardson. It underlines contraposition between

the master and Pamela, high and low level. 37

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‘Spell’ also refers to the ability of using words, as the master will accuse her also during

the novel (it is also underlined by Fielding in his parody Shamela, where the main

character’s name Shamela Andrews is modelled on the word ‘shame’).

P.45 Letter II, from the parents to Pamela.

Her father is worried about what she said about the young man.

There’s everything in a short paragraph. The father is worried for four main reasons:

- because he once was a libertine,

- because he gives her money, and money corrupt,

- because he also praises her, who is a beautiful woman,

- because he says “as you should do”, but this means as young girls should behave or

as I want you to behave?.

P.54. Letter XI. From Pamela to her parents.

Mr B. starts seducing Pamela.

Pamela can’t find her letters, they have been stolen. We understand Pamela is being

watched, she is spied upon.

She is alone, she sees him coming and wants to go away, but he stops her, saying she

always flees when he comes as she was afraid of him.

We’re only given the initials, Mr B. It makes us believe it’s something true. We can’t tell

the name, it is such a tricky story.

Mr B.’s sister lady Davers wants Pamela to be her maid, but he also wants her. She says

she prefers going to the lady, but she is interrupted by him, who kisses her. Anadiplosis,

the sentence ends with “because” and the next one begins with “because”.

She struggles and trembles, she is benumbed with terror. This reminds us Moll Flanders,

but Pamela is different. She struggles and manages to escape. She is precise about the

number of kisses again. However, he shuts the door.

Shutting the door. Pamela is like a recluse, a prisoner. She is almost at the mercy of her

master. Richardson’s novels are mainly novels of interiors. The novels almost completely

take place in rooms, not outside. To Defoe’s novel writing, he adds something different.

With Richardson we mostly have novels of interiors (rooms), while Defoe set them mostly

in exteriors.

“You won’t hussy!” is put in italics. The future in English has a considerable part of

willingness. Saying what you want is not appropriate in front of your master. You can’t

use such a language.

The relationship between Pamela and Mr B. is physical, but also based on words.

There’s a behaviour that is proper to a servant, to obey the master, but the master should

not go beyond certain limits.

When the master asks Pamela if he has done her any arms, she answers in a very

democratic way. Pamela is honest. She says she’s ready to die rather than submitting. It is

not just a moral scruple. It has not just to do with sexual morality, there is something

more. She doesn’t want to submit her identity as a person. She may submit to Mr B. as a

lover, as she does in the end, but only as a lover, because two lovers, if it is true love, are

on the same level, love bridges the social distance.

P.56. To quite her, Mr B. gives her some money. 38

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Letter writing

Richardson’s letters are not to be taken as absolute. Letter writing in the XVIII century and

writing today are not the same. Letter writing goes back to classical times.

The central work of letter writing in classical tradition was Heroides, they were messages

sent from heroines, from deserted women to men who has seduced them and deserted

them. We have Dido writing a letter to Aeneas, Arianna writing to Theseus. They are all

written by women. Even in Richardson’