Pamela

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1740

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-15

Chapters 16-31

Chapters 32-51

Chapters 52-70

Chapters 71-84

Chapters 85-96

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

Choosing Personal Integrity over Material Rewards

Content warning: This Themes section includes references to attempted rape and sexual harassment.

The major conflict of the novel is Pamela’s resistance to Mr. B’s sexual desire. Because Mr. B is a wealthy man, and Pamela is poor, he often resorts to offering her money and expensive gifts in exchange for her yielding to him. However, Pamela consistently asserts the importance of choosing personal integrity over material rewards. She learns this lesson from her parents, who insist that “what signify all the riches in the world, if you are to be ruined and undone!” (45) Having internalizes this belief, Pamela is eager to avoid any connection between material gain and illicit sexuality; when she plans to leave Bedfordshire, she refuses to take the clothes Mr. B has gifted her, telling Mrs. Jervis that “they were to be the price of my shame” (111). As Mr. B explicitly proposes to pay her for being his mistress, Pamela grows more strident in her refusal: “to lose the best jewel, my virtue, would be poorly recompensed by the jewels you propose to give me” (229).

Pamela’s decision not to trade her chastity for jewels and fancy clothing reflects a straightforward model of integrity, but she also takes it upon herself to reject less direct offers. When he can’t prevail on Pamela to be avaricious, Mr. B appeals to her benevolence, offering to provide financial and material support to her parents and family. Pamela rejects this, assuring him that her parents would “rather chuse to starve in a ditch […] than accept of the fortune of a monarch, upon such wicked terms” (228). Pamela is so convinced of her moral correctness that she makes unilateral decisions about the material status of other people based on her own definition of integrity and propriety.

Ironically, the novel rewards Pamela’s insistence on integrity over material gain—with substantial material gains. Upon marrying her, Mr. B showers her with gifts including “two pairs of diamond earrings, two diamond rings, and necklace […] books, pictures, linen, laces” (488). Moreover, Mr. B adjusts his will to ensure that if he dies without an heir, Pamela will be “absolutely independent” (510). Pamela does intend to share her wealth and use it do good in the world, but there is no denying that in the end she profits from yielding sexually to Mr. B, though she only makes that exchange within the legal and religious sanctions of marriage. If Richardson’s novel was intended as moral instruction for young women, it may promise more in exchange for preserving integrity than most individuals are likely to achieve.

Inappropriateness of Transgressing Class Boundaries

Pamela resists Mr. B’s sexual advances on two major grounds. The first is obvious: The religious norms of 18th century Christianity dictate that sex outside of marriage is sinful. The second is a more novel idea: Pamela considers it inappropriate for two people from different social and economic classes to engage in romantic or sexual relationships. As soon as Mr. B attempts to kiss Pamela for the first time, she upbraids him for not respecting proper social distancing: “you […] have lessened the distance that fortune has made between us, by demeaning yourself, to be so free to a poor servant” (55). Throughout the novel, Pamela continues to object to the blurring of class boundaries in any context, arguing that even if she began to wear fine clothes, “when I wore them, [they] would make but my former poverty more ridiculous to every body that saw me” (239).

Pamela’s assertions of the inappropriateness of transgressing class boundaries are important because they protect her from accusations of being scheming or ambitious; if she were not so strident on this topic, she could readily be perceived as a social climber attempting to snare a wealthy husband. In fact, this is exactly how critics of Richardson’s novel saw her when it was first published. When the time comes for Pamela to marry a high-ranking man and seemingly defy her previous beliefs, she fantasizes that she can be Mr. B’s wife without elevating herself. For example, she tells him “I will beg of you, sir, not to let me go very fine in dress” (300), revealing her desire to remain modest. These hopes are unrealistic—in a few weeks, Pamela appears in public bedecked in diamonds—but at least initially, she aspires to move into an elevated social station without forgetting her humble origins. Pamela is also mollified into a cross-class marriage due to Mr. B’s enthusiasm about their relationship, and his argument that marriages between upper-class individuals are often unhappy. He argues that wealthy people “join most heartily in matrimony to plague one another” (463), and that he is therefore happy to marry a woman from humbler origins. The apparently genuine love between the two challenges the assumption that individuals from different classes should not be together.

Change of Male Behavior Due to True Love

At the beginning of the novel, Mr. B is a rake who is widely known to be “a little wildish” (45). He treats Pamela roughly and dismissively, and even comes close to raping her. Yet, by the end of the plot, Mr. B has reformed into a devoted and loving husband. The novel argues that men can (and will) change their behavior once they find a woman they truly love and respect. This is a dangerous message, as it creates moral loopholes for behaviors like kidnapping and rape; at the same time, it is optimistic about the possibility of redemption, change, and growth.

Mr. B is at first lecherous, sinister, and conniving. He repeatedly spies on Pamela, forcibly fondles her, and climbs into bed with her. He arranges to intercept and read her letters. He even kidnaps her and traps her in a remote estate where she will be entirely at his mercy. Moreover, Mr. B has previously seduced another woman, and that he has been waiting to prey on Pamela for a while: “[I] hoped, for a long time together, as my Pamela advanced to maturity, one day to prevail with her to be Sally Godfrey the second” (505). Given all of this context, as well as the rude and brusque way he often speaks to Pamela, it seems impossible for anyone to think that he would make a good partner.

Mr. B’s reformation is triggered by two major points of growth. First, he is moved by Pamela’s ongoing resistance to his overtures, and the trauma she experiences when he attempts to rape or seduce her. As he tells her, “I see you on all occasions so watchful for your virtue, that though I hoped to find it otherwise, I cannot but confess, my passion for you is increased by it” (251). Pamela earns his esteem through her integrity, and models how he should treat her with respect by consistently displaying self-respect. Second, Mr. B experiences an epiphany after reading Pamela’s writing, which reveals her to be an individual with complex thoughts and feelings. He eventually implores Pamela to “forgive the repeated attempts of a man who loves you more than he loves himself” (286). Pamela cannot resist the lure of this declaration of love: “does not this generosity, and open declaration, deserve in return some confidence?” (288).

While Pamela’s decision to trust Mr. B’s sincerity (after all of his betrayals and lies) is a gamble, it pays off. She ends up with a loving and gentle partner whom she sees as “my best friend” (400) and “the generous author of my happiness” (380). Pamela’s positive influence has facilitated Mr. B’s moral redemption, which grants her considerable agency within the world of the novel. For much of the plot, Pamela appeared powerless, but it turns out that the whole time, she was actually quietly exercising her power to turn Mr. B into a better man, and a good husband.