...about all this mention of virtue and being ruined and everything else that poor little Pamela is encountering in her little story, and i couldn't help but be reminded of Memoirs of a Geisha. Pamela puts so much emphasis on her virginity that it almost seems like a commodity. She mentions time and time again how all the men admire her because of her virtue, which is synonymous for her virginity. Even though she doesn't explicitly say it (she can't; she's writing to her parents) she is a tease, often flaunting her beauty and her clothes and using it to her advantage. Every man she encounters is described as being enthralled with her beauty, which I see as not wanting her beuaty, but wanting her virginity that she also flaunts.
I thought of Memoirs of a Geisha because Sayuri also is a poor girl and once she hits adolescence, her virginity becomes the thing that will either make or break her career as a geisha and allow her the means to escape her fate as a maid if she cannot pay off her debt. She sells her virginity for a very high amount, and through this wins the favor of Mother and secures her career as a successful geisha.
I'm sure there are other literary instances of this as well. Why is it that the poor girls in these two novels have to bank their life on their virginity to secure themselves in society? I haven't read that far into Pamela yet (about p150 or so as of right now) but the strong emphasis on her virtue and no wanting to be ruined makes me think that somehow her virginity may play an important role later on. Even if it is not as drastic as in Memoirs of a Geisha, the emphasis is still there and is commodified. I really don't know how to piece this together but have been thinking about it ever since I started reading Pamela. More on this once I read some more and can clarify the connection, if there even is one....
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I thought of Sayuri too...and possibly Jane Eyre. I completely agree with the whole commodity on virginity thing.Very sad but basic, if you have no money but you are still a virgin...everything might just work out.
ReplyDeleteI've never read Jane Eyre, but I think the larger thing that I was kinda thinking of in all this is that this seems to be a common theme throughout many novels with lead female characters. Even Tess of the D'urbervilles has the same thing going on: poor servant girl who only has her virtue and virginity that is ripped away from her by her master. I'm sure the more I think about it, the more novels I can list that embody this theme. What is up with this???
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