Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is an epistolary novel first published in 1740 by the English writer Samuel Richardson. Considered one of the first true English novels, it serves as Richardson's version of conduct literature 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 his 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. Moreover, Pamela, despite the controversies, shed light on social issues that transcended the novel for the time such as gender roles, early false-imprisonment, and class barriers present in the eighteenth century.
Richardson highlights a theme of naivety, illustrated through the eyes of Pamela. Richardson paints Pamela herself as innocent and meek and further contributes to the theme of her being short-sighted to emphasize the ideas of childhood innocence and naivety.
Two years after the publication of Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, Richardson published a sequel, Pamela in her Exalted Condition (1742). He revisited the theme of the rake in his Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady (1748), and sought to create a "male Pamela" in Sir Charles Grandison (1753).
Since Ian Watt discussed it in The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding in 1957, literary critics and historians have generally agreed that Pamela played a critical role in the development of the novel in English.Watt, Ian (1957). The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Plot summary
Volume 1
Pamela Andrews is a pious, virtuous fifteen-year-old, the daughter of impoverished labourers, who works for Lady B as a maid in her Bedfordshire estate. After Lady B's death, her son, Mr. B, inherits the estate, and begins to pay Pamela romantic attention: first gifting her his mother's fine clothes, and then attempting to seduce her. Pamela rejects Mr. B's advances multiple times by fleeing and locking herself in her bedroom. In one instance, she faints, and finds the laces of her stays have been cut.
When Mr. B attempts to pay her to keep his failed seduction secret, she confides in her best friend and housekeeper of the estate, Mrs. Jervis. Later, Mr. B hides in Pamela's closet and tries to kiss her when she undresses for bed, which causes Pamela to consider leaving her position and returning to her parents to preserve her innocence. She is insistent on remaining at the estate to finish embroidering a waistcoat for Mr. B, hoping that by doing so he will let her leave on good terms.
Angry at Pamela for telling Mrs. Jervis of his attempted seductions, Mr. B informs Pamela that he intends to marry her off to Mr. Williams, his chaplain in Lincolnshire, and gives money to her parents to persuade them to give consent. Pamela refuses the engagement and decides to leave the estate, but Mr. B intercepts her letters to her parents and tells them she is having an affair with a poor clergyman and that he will send her to a safe place to preserve her chastity. Pamela is forcibly taken to Mr. B's Lincolnshire Estate by Mr. B's servant Monsieur Colbrand, where she begins a journal with the intention of sending it to her parents.
The Lincolnshire housekeeper, Mrs. Jewkes, is "odious" and "unwomanly", devoted to Mr. B, and keeps Pamela as her bedfellow. Mr. B promises that he will not approach Pamela without her consent and stays away from the estate for some time.
As Pamela is mistreated by Mrs. Jewkes, she begins communicating with Mr. Williams by letters, which they leave for one another in the gardens. After Mrs. Jewkes beats Pamela after she calls her a "Jezebel", Mr. Williams entreats the village gentry for help. They pity Pamela, but they too are loyal to Mr. B, and are convinced a seduction would either not occur or be inconsequential because of Pamela's low social standing. Mr. Williams proposes marriage to her to help her escape the estate and Mr. B's advances but shortly afterward is attacked and beaten by robbers. Pamela attempts to flee home to her parents, but is terrified by two cows, which she mistakes for bulls. Mr. Williams accidentally reveals his correspondence with Pamela to Mrs. Jewkes and so Mr. B has him arrested and announces that he will marry Pamela to one of his servants. Desperate, Pamela attempts to escape by climbing a wall, and, injured, gives up.
Mr. B returns and offers Pamela a list of conditions that he would meet, should she accept his hand in marriage, but she refuses, citing her reluctance to think above her social station to become his mistress. In league with Mrs. Jewkes, Mr. B molests Pamela while she is in bed and is dressed as the housemaid Nan. Pamela is sent into hysteria and seems likely to die. Mr. B repents and is kinder in his seductions, but Pamela implores him to stop altogether. Mr. B implies that he loves Pamela but will not marry her because of her social status.
Pamela has hidden a parcel of letters to her parents in the garden, but they are seized by Mrs. Jewkes, who gives them to Mr. B. He sympathises with Pamela on reading her account of their relationship, and once again proposes. Pamela, still doubtful of his intentions, begs him to let her return. Though vexed, he does so to her surprise.
Volume 2 On leaving for home, Pamela is strangely sad and on her way home he sends her an apologetic letter that prompts her to realise that she is, in fact, in love. When she hears that he is ill, she returns to him. The two reunite and become engaged, and Pamela explains that she rejected Mr. B's advances because she feared that he would attempt to take advantage of her without marrying her.
Mr. Williams is released from prison, and the neighbouring gentry come to the estate and admire Pamela. Her father arrives at the estate and fears that she accepted Mr. B's proposal under duress but is reassured when he sees her happy. Pamela and Mr. B wed. When Mr. B leaves to attend to a sick man, his sister, Lady Davers, arrives at the estate and threatens Pamela and calls her marriage a sham. Pamela escapes by the window and is taken by Colbrand to Mr. B. The following day, Lady Davers enters their bedroom without permission and reveals that Mr. B previously seduced a girl, Sally Godfrey, and had a child with her.
Pamela reconciles the furious siblings, who return to Bedfordshire. Pamela rewards her friends and servants with money and forgives her father for attempting to end her engagement. They visit a farmhouse where they meet Mr. B's daughter and learn that her mother now lives married in Jamaica. Pamela proposes taking the girl home with them. The neighbourhood gentry, who once despised Pamela, now praise her.
Characters Pamela Andrews: The novel's fifteen-year-old pious protagonist, who narrates the novel. She is passed on by her deceased employer to her son, Mr. B, who puts her through numerous sexual advances and even assault before she eventually concedes and marries him. Pamela originally came to the estate as a young servant looking to make money to send to her parents back home. Pamela is also noted to value her virtue before anything else. Her virtue and her moral beliefs become her controlling purpose which creates tension between her and her employer who was making multiple advances towards her. John and Elizabeth Andrews: Pamela's father and mother to whom Pamela's letters are addressed. Pamela hears only from her father, who alone of her parents appears in the novel. Mr. Williams: A young clergyman who attempts to help Pamela escape Mr. B's estate, and delivers letters to her family. He offers to marry Pamela to secure her from Mr. B's unwanted advances, but she denies him. Mr. B has Williams taken away to debtors' prison. Mr. B: Pamela's lascivious and abusive employer, who falls in love with and eventually marries her. Lady B: Deceased; Mr. B's and Lady Daver's mother, Pamela's late employer. Lady Davers: Mr. B's sister. She initially disapproves of Pamela's union with Mr. B for her lower class but eventually warms to the modest girl. Mrs. Jervis: The elderly housekeeper of Mr. B's Bedfordshire estate. She becomes one of Pamela's best friends, as stated in a letter to her parents. Despite her good intentions, she is nearly ineffectual in preventing Mr. B's unwanted advances on Pamela. Mrs. Jewkes: The housekeeper of Mr. B's Lincolnshire estate. She holds Pamela at the estate according to Mr. B's wishes and is completely dutiful to him. She warms to Pamela once she marries Mr. B. Sally Godfrey: Mr. B's mistress from his college days. She has a daughter by Mr. B but removed to Jamaica and married another. Monsieur Colbrand: Helps in keeping Pamela at the Lincolnshire estate but proves to be protecting her and helps her escape from Lady Davers. Miss Goodwin: The daughter of Mr. B and Sally Godfrey.
Genre Conduct books and the novel Richardson began writing Pamela after he was approached by two book-sellers, who requested that he make them a book of letter templates. Richardson accepted the request, but only if the letters had a moral purpose. As Richardson was writing, the series of letters turned into a story. Writing in a new form, the novel, Richardson attempted both to instruct and to entertain. Richardson wrote Pamela as a conduct book, a sort of manual that codified social and domestic behavior of men, women, and servants, as well as a narrative to provide a more morally-concerned literature option for young audiences. Ironically, some readers focused more upon the bawdy details of Richardson's novel, resulting in some negative reactions and even a slew of literature satirizing Pamela and so he published a clarification in the form of A Collection of the Moral and Instructive Sentiments, Maxims, Cautions, and Reflexions, Contained in the Histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison in 1755. Many novels, from the mid-18th century and well into the 19th, followed Richardson's lead and claimed legitimacy through the ability to teach as well as amuse.
Epistolary
Epistolary novels, novels written as series of letters, were popular in the eighteenth century but sustained popularity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as well. Fictional epistolary narratives originated in their early form in 16th-century England; however, they acquired wider renown with the publication of Richardson's Pamela.Traversa, Vincenzo (2005), transl. Traversa, Vincenzo. Three Italian Epistolary Novels: Foscolo, De Meis, Piovene : Translations, Introductions, and Backgrounds, p. xii. Peter Lang Publishing, Inc. Retrieved 30 April 2014.