"Pamela" by Samuel Richardson

This blog is a response to a task assigned by Vaidehi Ma'am(Department of English, MKBU). In this blog we will discuss character of Pamela from the novel of 'Pamela' written by Samuel Richardson. For more information about this blog click here.

Samuel Richardson

Richardson is credited with writing the first modern novel. He was the son of a London joiner, who, for economy's sake, resided in some unknown town in Derbyshire, where Samuel was born in 1689. The boy received very little education, but he had a natural talent for writing letters, and even as a boy we find him frequently employed by working girls to write their love letters for them. This early experience, together with his fondness for the society of "his dearest ladies" rather than of men, gave him that intimate knowledge of the hearts of sentimental and uneducated women which is manifest in all his work. Moreover, he was a keen observer of manners, and his surprisingly accurate descriptions often compel us to listen, even when he is most tedious. At seventeen years of age he went to London and learned the printer's trade, which he followed to the end of his life.

'Pamela' Novel:

When fifty years of age he had a small reputation as a writer of elegant epistles, and this reputation led certain publishers to approach him with a proposal that he write a series of Familiar Letters, which could be used as models by people unused to writing. Richardson gladly accepted the proposal, and had the happy inspiration to make these letters tell the connected story of a girl's life. Defoe had told an adventure story of human life on a desert island, but Richardson would tell the story of a girl's inner life in the midst of English neighbors. That sounds simple enough now, but it marked an epoch in the history of literature. Like every other great and simple discovery, it makes us wonder why some one had not thought of it before.

Q: 1.) If Pamela was in the contemporary time, will the story take any changes?

In the novel we find Pamela is a virtuous woman who is being harassed by her employer. In novel written in the 18th century we find a character Pamela, believing blindly in Mr.B, she does not take stand for herself and does not fight with others for wrong doing. That's why she suffers a lot. If she were in contemporary time she would not endure any licentious behaviour of Mr.B rather she would fight against him.

At that time we also found that the legal rights of women were not as well known in the contemporary world. In this period Pamela would take legal actions against Mr.B's miss behaviours. In the novel we also find that Pamela accepts the marriage proposal of Mr.B after so much pain she suffers through because of him, In present time the modern woman would never accept such a man at any cost rather she would hate him and take legal action against him.

In the novel even Pamela's parents also neglect in taking care of Pamela or they don’t even inquire about her after she lost for so many days. In contemporary times parents would not neglect in such a manner and they would try to find their daughter by taking help from police. And in present world we also have legal rights for the servant especially for the women employees, so there are less chances that women would endure such a thing.

In the present time we also find a high level of education women have so they know what is right and wrong for themselves. Modern women will never follow their employer’s order blindly and she would deny to stuck with such work.