I haven't quite finished reading Shamela, but when i got to this letter, I instantly fell in love.
LETTER II.
Shamela Andrews to Henrietta Maria Honora Andrews.
Dear Mamma,
[31] O what News, since I writ my last! the young Squire hath been here, and as sure as a Gun he hath taken a Fancy to me; Pamela, says he, (for so I am called here) you was a great Favourite of your late Mistress's; yes, an't please your Honour, says I; and I believe you deserved it, says he; thank your Honour for your good Opinion, says I; and then he took me by the Hand, and I pretended to be shy: Laud, says I, Sir, I hope you don't intend to be rude; no, says he, my Dear, and then he kissed me, 'till he took away my Breath — and I pretended to be Angry, and to get away, and then he kissed me again, and breathed very short, and looked very silly; and by Ill-Luck Mrs. Jervis came in, and had like to have spoiled Sport. — How troublesome is such Interruption! You shall hear now soon, for I shall not come away yet, so I rest,
Your affectionate Daughter,
Shamela.
This letter sums it all up for me. I love how Fielding points out that in all of these spots where she is "being virtuous," she is really pretending. Her exaggeration of each and every situation, her overemphasis of how "perfect" she is, and the fact that she is writing to her parents are all indications that Fielding has it right on here. All of her attempts to get away from her horrible master are sorry attempts, and all it took for her to want to be with him was for him to convince her that he loved her. I'm sorry, but if some guy was being awful to me and then said he loved me, that would not convince me to marry him. Also, with the exception of Mrs. Jervis (who really doesn't help her out that much anyways...), all the people she goes to for help are men. This may just be out of societal position and convenience based on sex, but one could speculate (as I mentioned on Thurs) that she is flaunting her good looks (since she is the most beautiful thing, even in her plain clothes) to get what she wants. And anything bad that ever happens to her or anyone else (she ruined A LOT of lives with her little schemes...I have the page numbers marked...I'll put them in later) is not her fault. Afterall, Shamela, errr, I mean Pamela, is perfect, right???? She would NEVER do anyone any harm........more on this later...
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I think that if Shamela had come out first we would have no need for Pamela. But then of course we would have no one to hate for the making of Pamela. And Pamela did a lot of pretending in the text called Pamela and the most obvious of all pretenders was definitely Shamela. Such a shame I think he should have titled the story "The Great Pretender".
ReplyDeleteI also agree that if Shamela was released first, we really wouldn't see Pamela as relevant. It would be like someone trying to make a serious version of the film "Scary Movie". Shamela was meant to be comical to get the point across, so making it serious would take away the affect of satirical quality. Shamela is more comical, than Pamela, but in it's comedic approach we find reality. For example it's easier to believe that Shamela has these devious ideas towards men, than it is to believe Pamela to be so "virtuous" that she is around a man so much, but she isn't interested in him.
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