Pamela or Virtue Rewarded Notes

Samuel Richardson

Plot:

1-     Pamela is a chamber maid to a kind lady

2-     The lady dies, her son pursues Pamela

3-     Her new master separates her from her friends

4-     He tries to rape her

5-     He then offers a mock marriage

6-     She still refuses him

7-     He realizes he’s in love with her

8-     She realizes her love as well, but still denies him

9-     Then he really marries her and makes all his friends accept her.

Characters: psychological analysis of his characters made them into dynamic characters, [or ones that evolve] from flat ones. They are neither heroic ones, as in the old romances, nor picaresque ones, as in Defoe. Richardson, in fact, is the first writer to put, at the center of his works, the new middle-class people, with their problems and desires. 

Realism: unlike Defoe, it is used mainly in the treatment of characters and in the minute recording of their mental processes and feelings.

Epistolary

• Advantages: easier to describe psychological situations, and talk about deep feelings.

• Disadvantages: a lot of repetitions, therefore you get long books and slow narration.

It was a best seller at the time.

Theme: Virtue is rewarded

Point of view: multiple.