Content Synopsis

“Pamela” is an epistolary novel, which means that it is written in letters. It opens with a teenage servant girl, Pamela, writing home to her parents from the house where she works. Pamela's mother and father are poor and lower class, although they are quite literate. For the last few years, Pamela has been employed by Mrs. B, a rich gentlewoman who has taken her in and trained her as a lady's maid. It was common for children at this time to be taken “into service” in this manner. But Pamela, instead of being made to scrub or cook, has been taught to read, write, and do fine embroidery—all accomplishments appropriate to a lady or a lady's companion, but not necessarily to a servant. Pamela has also been given her mistress's cast-off clothes to wear—even second-hand, these clothes would have been much finer than ordinary servants' dress. At once, then, the problematic issue of Pamela's class position arises: she is lowborn and she is a servant, but she dresses and acts like a lady.

When the novel opens, we learn that Pamela's beloved mistress and mentor, Mrs. B, has just died. Pamela grieves for her, but she is also concerned about her own position—she has effectively lost her job, but she has not been trained as a normal servant, so it may be difficult for her to find another position. To complicate matters, her dead mistress's son, the young Mr. B, now Pamela's master, has inherited and taken possession of the house. He has been paying Pamela unwanted attentions for some time, but had previously been restrained by the presence of his mother. Now, however, there is little to stop him making sexual advances. Oddly, in spite of this, Pamela seems inclined to linger; her rather unconvincing excuse is that she has to finish embroidering a waistcoat for Mr. B before she returns home to her parents.

Finally, after a series of increasingly sexually charged scenes with her master, Pamela is ready to leave his house in Bedfordshire in the south of England and return home. When Mr. B kindly offers her the use of his carriage so that she does not have to make her own way, she accepts. After a few hours' journey, however, she realizes that she does not recognize any of the scenery. Mr. B's carriage is not in fact taking her home; it is taking her to Mr. B's Lincolnshire estate. Pamela has been kidnapped and the coachman is in on the plot—there is little she can do. On overnight stops, they stay with some of Mr. B's Lincolnshire tenants, who adore their landlord and refuse to believe that he is trying to harm Pamela. Finally, they arrive at his Lincolnshire house, where Pamela is put under the direction of the “mannish” Mrs. Jewkes, Mr. B's Lincolnshire housekeeper, a bawdy and rude woman who will act as Pamela's jailor.

At this point, Pamela's letters to her parents turn into a journal, which she writes in the hope that one day they will be able to read it. Of course, she is not allowed to send them letters and her freedoms are increasingly restricted: Mrs. Jewkes tricks her into giving up her little stash of money by pretending that she wants change and also deprives Pamela of her shoes. Locked up on a country estate, she has little hope of getting away. She is able to communicate secretly with the local clergyman, Mr. Williams, who is young and dependent on Mr. B but willing to risk his position to help Pamela. He tries to interest more powerful locals in her cause—specifically, another, older clergyman, Mr. Peters, and the magistrate, Sir Simon Darnford. Both of these refuse to help on the grounds that they do not wish to interfere in their “neighbour B's” affairs—and besides, Pamela is only a servant. This provides Richardson with an opportunity to comment satirically on the self-interest of those whose public function is to help or protect others; it also establishes a setting where Pamela's survival is dependent only on her.

As Pamela remains immured in Mr. B's house, her state of mind slowly deteriorates. She has contact with no one except Mrs. Jewkes, a few of Mr. B's other servants, and Mr. B himself, as he writes to her, attempting to persuade her to become his mistress. Pamela shows her intelligence and integrity by confuting his specious arguments, copying out the “articles” of proposition he sends her and including her own commentary on why they are morally unsound. In spite of such a display of spirit, though, her position is becoming more and untenable, until finally she contemplates suicide. Sitting by the pond on Mr. B's estate, she seriously considers drowning herself. Finally, however, her religious faith and native strength of mind save her from this decision.

Eventually, Mr. B (after increasingly blatant attempts to rape Pamela) is sufficiently impressed by her ability to hold onto her beliefs that he declares himself in love with her and proposes marriage. She accepts, and it is now clear that in spite of his immorality, she has been in love with him all along. This is not the end of her problems, though: after their private marriage, Pamela must contend with Mr. B's proud, aristocratic sister, Lady Davers, who is infuriated to think that her brother has disgraced the family name by marrying their mother's former maid. Lady Davers behaves in an outrageous manner to Pamela until finally Mr. B becomes so angry that he threatens to break off contact with his sister. At this point, she capitulates and comes to admire Pamela for her virtue and for her ability to reform the rakish, loose-living Mr. B. The novel closes with Pamela happily married, although a slightly jarring note occurs when Mr. B presents his bride with a long, new set of “articles,” this time spelling out the way his wife must behave in order to please him.

Samuel Richardson's “Pamela; Or, Virtue Rewarded” was first published on November 6, 1740. It immediately caused a sensation. Its pioneering subject matter of a virtuous lower-class woman defending herself against a predatory aristocratic male made it one of the best-selling and most provocative novels of the eighteenth century. It generated a phenomenon referred to in our own time as the “‘Pamela’ media event” and brought its author—hitherto a staid, middle-aged London printer—to the attention of such literary greats as Alexander Pope. It even inspired one of the first promotional merchandizing campaigns (readers could buy Pamela fans, handkerchiefs, and teacups).

Yet it was also deeply controversial. The novel inspired a flurry of imitations, parodies, and diatribes—so much so that recently, a six-volume collection of responses to “Pamela” in the ten years following its publication has been released. These ranged from an opera to a mock epic in heroic couplets to a semi-pornographic piece masquerading as a moral tract. Most famously, “Pamela” partly inspired Richardson's fellow—novelist Henry Fielding to write his parody “Shamela,” supposedly intended as a mockery of Richardson's heroine's hypocrisy and upward mobility.

Historical Context

Richardson's novels often do not contain very obvious social commentary or satire (unlike, for example, “Gulliver's Travels” or “The New Atlantis,” to take two of “Pamela's” predecessors). For this reason, it is easy to view them as isolated from historical contexts. If, however, we look more closely, it is possible to see a number of ways in which the examination of historical realities is essential to understanding Richardson's novelistic project.

It is an awful cliché to say that any historical period was “a time of great change.” Essentially, though, early-eighteenth-century Britain was transforming into the sort of society we know today. Modern financial structures such as the Bank of England (founded in 1694) were introducing the idea of a credit-based economy. It seemed very strange to contemporaries that paper could represent monetary value, but credit became, increasingly, a symbol of the new prosperity that was sweeping England. The country, although involved intermittently in foreign wars, was a lot more settled and peaceful than during the civil and religious tumults of the previous century. Agricultural practices were improving, and commerce was booming. (In the late 1730s, when “Pamela” was written, the bitter disputes about enclosure of land and about the decline of wages in real terms had not yet surfaced—these would come in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.) As more money circulated, general standards of living rose, and literacy increased. Successful businesses and the rich employed more and more people; many young people made their way to the cities, especially London, to seek new opportunities for themselves. Many of them, of course, would not make it, and would end up swelling the ranks of the urban poor, prostitutes, or petty criminals. It is against this background that we can start to understand Pamela, a lower-class but literate young woman who dares to judge her betters, to set a value on herself as a person, and to assert her right to decide with whom she has sex and when.

This brings us to another big theme: the value of Pamela's literacy. One reason that “Pamela” was so revolutionary was that it not only told the story of a poor young girl resisting seduction, but it used her voice to do the telling, thus privileging her interpretation of events. Ian Watt's classic study of the novel has reminded critics of the role of increasing literacy rates and the growing popularity of the novel as a genre during the eighteenth century. Although by the eighteenth century there was a strong demotic (or native-language) tradition of literature in England, ideas of “the literary” were still very much informed by classical, that is to say Latin and ancient Greek, literature. Having classical languages (generally) marked a man out as someone who had been to university—a gentleman. In this way, reading and writing in (or simply making allusions to) classical literature could have class and gender implications. The literary giants of the hundred years preceding Richardson—men such as Milton, Dryden, Swift, Addison, and Pope—were all classically educated and their knowledge of the classics informed their work, often to a significant extent. These are the writers that we generally have in mind when we talk about neo-classicism, or (in the case of the early-eighteenth-century ones) the “Augustan age.” What was different about the novel was that it did not rely on classical literary predecessors. It told “realistic” stories of English men and women falling in love, falling out, getting married, making choices. Such stories had great appeal for the increasingly literate working classes—servants were reckoned to be some of the most voracious readers of novels (it should be noted that at this time, servants were a relatively large segment of the working population). Additionally, having more disposable income meant that more people could afford to buy books, which were becoming less of a luxury and more of a common commodity. Richardson did not learn Latin or Greek (although he probably read English translations of many of the classics), and often his novels poke fun at “pedants” who parade their learning. Study of the classics was supposed to discipline the mind and lead to better argumentative and rhetorical skills. But in “Pamela,” a woman writes in English, defying a university-educated man (Mr. B has been to Oxford), arguing against him—and winning.

Other historical-literary contexts of note are the importance of romance narratives and the idea of the rake. “Romance” was something of a contentious term at the time; nowadays, we distinguish between more “realistic” novels and old romances, which often take place in an exotic location or distant time, and which feature princesses, sorcerers, dashing heroes, improbable coincidences, exciting revelations, and so forth. People in the eighteenth century did not make this sharp (retrospective) distinction. As the novel was quite new, critical vocabularies for discussing it as literature did not necessarily exist. Often, the novel was satirized as being trashy and leading to immorality (Richardson himself often inveighs in his works against young girls reading novels and being led astray by them). We can perhaps understand why this is so: at the time, the strong literary novelistic tradition that we have now did not exist, and many novels were churned out by sleazy printers simply to make money. Most do not have enduring literary interest or merit. Richardson conceived of his project as introducing “a new species of writing.” Obviously, he was not in a position to see himself as one of the first of the great English novelists (“Selected Letters” 41). People who rewrote Richardson's plot often introduced “romance” elements. Richardson himself was not interested in writing romances; nevertheless, the fact that Pamela manages to get her aristocratic man and earn the respect of all the gentry around her does have something of a fairy-tale air to it.

Finally, it is necessary to mention the idea of the rake. For students who are reading “Clarissa” (Richardson's next novel, published in 1747–1748), this concept will be particularly important, but it is also relevant to understanding “Pamela.” The “rake” was a specific type of aristocratic masculinity. Urbane, witty, powerful, dissolute, and above all, sexually predatory, he represented an alluring and yet dangerous species of manhood. Probably the most famous rake at the time was the seventeenth-century court poet, John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester. Rochester's amusing and often-obscene poetry, together with his sharp wit and (long) list of sexual conquests were the stuff of legend in Richardson's time (Richardson would draw on Rochester's published letters when he wrote the character of Lovelace in “Clarissa”). Conversely, however, the rake could be represented as corrupt, diseased, and dangerous—in contrast to “virtuous” middle-class womanhood. In “Pamela,” Mr. B is a young rake who has not yet become utterly debauched. Pamela, with her beauty and strict moral standards, is instrumental in reclaiming him. In this way, although Pamela is very definitely marrying up, we can also read this marriage as a moral promotion for Mr. B, from vice to virtue.

Societal Context

One important societal context that needs to be considered when approaching “Pamela” is the increased social mobility of the eighteenth century. The eighteenth century is often considered the period that witnessed “the rise of the middle class.” In many ways, this is simplistic; however, it is true that more and more, people were making money from commerce and not just inheriting wealth. Such people often “married up” into the gentry or aristocracy. Others developed a sense of themselves as a hard-working, domestically oriented class apart from the aristocracy. Tradesmen and merchants were often called, in derision, “cits,” short for “citizens,” or members of the City, the financial area in London (as opposed to St James's or one of the aristocratic areas of London). In any case, there were cultural anxieties around the ideas of class membership and of possible mobility between classes. It is noteworthy, once again, that Pamela is allowed to dress up in her mistress's clothes and to pursue pastimes more suitable for a young lady than for a servant. It is almost as if Pamela is “naturally” of a higher class than might first appear. Certainly, after her marriage to Mr. B, the other characters in “Pamela” insist (almost too frequently) that no one would ever be able to tell that Pamela had not been born a lady. It is also worth remarking that many of those mentioned above who adapted Richardson's novel, changed Pamela's family history so that she unexpectedly turned out to be the daughter of aristocratic parents. One good example is Carlo Goldoni's operatic version, in which Pamela's father suddenly reveals himself to be a Scottish earl who is conveniently carrying around the title deeds to his estate and two character references to prove his claim. Richardson avoids such absurdities, but for a twenty-first-century reader, Pamela's identification as “lower-class” may be complicated: for one thing, few real-life working-class women would have been able to write like her.

Generally, although “Pamela” radically privileges the voice of a servant, it can be regarded as a work with a “middle-class” bias. As mentioned, Pamela often seems to have qualities associated with the middle classes. Mr. B, too, although he is nominally a member of the gentry, in fact subscribes to many ideas associated with the middle classes. For example, he does not wish to obtain a title, although it is hinted that he will be offered the rank of baronet. Equally, Richardson's work generally was criticized by members of the upper classes for presenting an unrealistic take on aristocratic life. For instance, Richardson was accused of giving titles to too many of his characters in an effort to make the novel seem “genteel.” In later editions of “Pamela,” many of characters who were originally entitled “Lady” become “Mrs.”

Religious Context

Richardson's ideas about Christian morality pervade all his novels—for example, Pamela's religion quite literally saves her life when she decides not to commit suicide on the grounds that it would be a sin. Understanding the religious background to Richardson's work is often crucial to appreciating why his characters behave and think the way they do.

As mentioned above, novels in the mid-eighteenth century were often regarded as propagating (specifically sexual) immorality. Richardson wrote his novels with the idea that he would provide instruction in Christian morality under the guise of an entertaining fiction. Underneath the absorbing storyline and characters is a serious concern with expounding moral and religious lessons. In our often secular world, this can be hard to appreciate, but it is essential to understanding how Richardson conceived of his own work.

Historically, then, England at the time of “Pamela's” publication was an Anglican country; Anglicanism had split off from the Catholic Church in 1529, becoming a Protestant church. Still, many aspects of Anglicanism remained similar to aspects of Catholicism; types of Anglicanism or Anglican practices that strongly recalled Catholicism were referred to as “High Church” (“Low Church” practices were closer to evangelicalism). During the Civil Wars (1642–6; 1648), Anglicanism was debated hotly. The republicans who governed the country during the Interregnum (“time between kings,” 1649–1660), wanted to “disestablish” the Anglican Church, or remove it from its position as the official national religion. Ultimately, they were unsuccessful, but they left behind them a legacy of religious schism, which often involved distrust of non-Anglicans and certainly of Catholics. For example, Catholics were popularly blamed for the Great Fire of London of 1666 and into the eighteenth century, they suffered significant civil disabilities, such as not being able to go to university or live within ten miles of London. Other religious groups such as Dissenters (non-Anglican Protestants, like Presbyterians or Methodists) and Jews similarly suffered from religious prejudices.

Richardson himself was solidly Anglican, and probably more High Church than anything. For all this, however, he was not prejudiced in religious terms—in fact, by the standards of his time, he was remarkable for his relativism. He expressed tolerance towards Jewish people in his private correspondence and his last novel, “The History of Sir Charles Grandison,” has an extended, sympathetic treatment of a Catholic family.

In spite of his sympathy for the faiths of others, though, Richardson was secure in his own Anglicanism and used his novels in part to expound his interpretation of that religion. Pamela has a very personal investment in her religious faith: she privileges her soul as her highest concern, and considers it a duty to be as cheerful and selfless as possible in the face of whatever trials God may send her. For example, she describes how she and her parents faced poverty before she went into service with the B family; often, she remembers, they would not have enough to eat, but they were still thankful that God had given them the opportunity to be together. Pamela reads the Bible intensively and comes up with her own interpretations of the scriptures (as well as of popular fable). Most importantly, of course, the whole plot revolves around the fact that Pamela will not give up her “honesty” (read: virginity) to Mr. B because she believes that would be an offense against God. Pamela boldly declares that no matter what her “quality” (social status) is, her soul has exactly the same worth as that of a “princess.” Using an accepted reading of religion, Pamela thus makes potentially radical social statements. By centralizing the voice of a servant undergoing a religious trial, the novel enacts the idea that a lower-class woman's thoughts and experiences are indeed as important as those of a “princess.”

For Richardson, religion and morality are inextricably linked. This is shown by the fact that Pamela's religious faith is a mainstay of her ability to value herself and to retain control over her own body and sexuality. Additionally, religion is involved in Mr. B's reformation. About eighteen months after the publication of “Pamela,” Richardson issued a continuation entitled “Pamela in Her Exalted Condition” (nowadays generally referred to as “Pamela II”). It is not widely read these days (it is notably inferior to the original in terms of plot) but it does show Mr. B's full reformation, which is couched in explicitly religious terms. Generally, Pamela shows her moral worth by structuring her life around religion; she “meditates” often and when she is married, prays with her servants in order to provide them with a good example.

However, religion can also be used in “Pamela” to comment sharply on circumstances or people. For example, when she is imprisoned in Lincolnshire, Pamela rewrites one of the psalms as a pastime. She does this in such a way as to position herself as a virtuous, suffering biblical character and her jailors as evil. Here, then, a religious text is used to create or represent moral superiority. Similarly, religious expectations can be used to comment negatively on others. Whilst Richardson valued clergymen and their social roles, he was also not averse to criticizing them when they failed to fulfill those roles. For example, Mr. Peters, a local clergyman, refuses to help Pamela when Mr. Williams asks him to. Mr. Peters is shown as selfish and worldly for not performing his religious duty of helping the innocent. The fact that he is a clergyman makes this even worse. It is not enough simply to profess religious beliefs—one has to act up to them.

Scientific &Technological Context

Superficially, none of Richardson's novels have overt or important connections to scientific and technological issues (although an argument might be made that “The History of Sir Charles Grandison,” contains comment on agricultural reforms). Richardson himself was not at the center of scientific debates, nor did he have any particular expertise in related areas. He was, however, a good friend of the famous eighteenth-century doctor George Cheyne, who was Richardson's personal physician as well as correspondent and confidante. Richardson suffered from nervous ailments in the latter part of his life (when he wrote “Pamela” he was already fifty-two, no longer a young man) and Cheyne was an expert in nervous diseases. Cheyne prescribed a vegetarian regime for Richardson, as well as regular walks and a home exercise device.

Nerves and nervousness in the mid-eighteenth century were often connected to “sensibility,” that is, to the ability to empathize or enter into others' feelings, particularly suffering or distress. This also often implies the capacity for personal emotional experience. Sensibility related to the physical manifestation of symptoms of emotion at another's feeling or at one's own internal state (for example, tears, blushing, fainting, increased heartbeat as a result of sympathetic emotions). Richardson's heroines, including Pamela, are in many ways heroines of sensibility; Pamela responds physically to emotionally distressing situations. For example, when Mr. B tries to rape her, she faints in such a dramatic manner that he believes he may have killed or seriously injured her. Pamela's “sensibility” functions in at least two ways in the novel. Firstly, it serves to position her as delicate and feeling and thus, by implication, “naturally” of higher class than one might expect of a servant girl. Secondly, sensibility, with its attendant display of physicality, can be a discreet way of introducing sexual feeling into a narrative like “Pamela.”

Biographical Context

Richardson is supposed to have come up with the idea for the novel whilst writing a book of model letters (such books became increasingly common in the eighteenth century as literacy levels increased and people wanted to know how to communicate effectively in writing). In his own private letters, he claimed also that he had once heard a story from an acquaintance about a servant girl who married her master and that this provided part of his inspiration. Apparently, whilst he was writing his book of model letters—now known generally as the “Familiar Letters”—the idea for “Pamela” sprung into his head and took hold of him. He put aside the “Letters” for the time being and wrote frantically, using every spare moment. Richardson was also a successful and busy printer (he was an official publisher of the records of the Houses of Parliament), so the writing of “Pamela” was crammed into whatever time he had left over.

Critics have often found it odd that someone like Richardson should have written the novels he did (his other three novels, “Pamela II,” “Clarissa,” and “Sir Charles Grandison” are also mostly told from the perspectives of young women). When “Pamela” was published, he was a fifty-two-year-old man of humble beginnings, twice married, and now running a lucrative printing business. Why would he feel the need to write as a teenage girl in danger of being seduced by an aristocrat?

The disparity between Richardson and his heroines has led to some extremely dubious critical speculations: that Richardson was “effeminate,” that he was a pervert of some description, and that he was some sort of “natural genius” who wrote through inspiration rather than conscious thought. In reality, of course, it is almost impossible (and pointless) to try to understand why a particular person might have felt compelled to write a certain text. That said, it is possible to trace some meaningful biographical contexts for his work.

As mentioned above, Richardson was already involved in composing a text made up of fictional letters. Nor was this his first experience with the epistolary (letter) format. He recalled how, as a clever and literate young apprentice, local girls would get him to help them write love-letters to their sweethearts. We have no way of ascertaining the truth of Richardson's memories (nor do we have reason to question them) but if they are accurate, this experience must certainly have informed Richardson's ideas of young women's epistolary styles and concerns. After he published “Pamela,” Richardson became involved in correspondence with a wide range of women (some of whom, like Sarah Chapone and Elizabeth Carter, were literary figures in their own right). Even before this, however, Richardson was evidently able to imitate a young woman's epistolary style convincingly. As one detractor remarked, Richardson wrote not like a man of sense, but like a young girl. The commentator obviously intended this as a criticism, but it could well serve as the highest sort of compliment to Richardson's achievements in characterization.

Works Cited