Premium Essay

The Significance of Virtue and Social Class in ‘Pamela’

In:

Submitted By WolfDreamer
Words 854
Pages 4
The themes of virtue and attitude regarding social class and status are closely related in Richardson’s ‘Pamela.’ Pamela manages to preserve her virtue in spite of the pressure placed upon her by the country squire Mr. B, who is especially difficult to refuse because of the difference in social class between them. Pamela is at a distinct disadvantage.
During the time in which the novel was written, the European culture gave precedence to males. A female servant was considered lower-class and would have found it extremely difficult to disobey her male master. Such is the case for young Pamela. Trapped in his mansion, she should be an easy flower to pluck. However, showing strength of will uncharacteristic to most females in her situation, Pamela succeeds to preserve her virtue throughout the entirety of the novel.
Despite Mr. B’s many attempts to seduce her, Pamela never once gives in to his sexual advances. She continues to do so even after she discovers the love she has for him and refuses to sleep with him until they have married. “And I will say, that to see so much Innocence and Virtue, so eminently rewarded, is one of the greatest pleasures I have ever known.” (346)
Mr. B, an influential and wealthy man, should have no problem ordering his servant around. He is an older man, well-respected among his peers. It is simple for him to use his money and his social status to obtain his desires. However, Pamela rejects his offers of power- servants of her own to order around- as well as money and other special favors from him.
It is true that Mr. B could easily have forced himself upon Pamela. Yet his refusal to do so points to his own sense of virtue- although filled with lust, he truly loves Pamela. He recognizes her powerful sense of virtue and submits to it, acknowledging that he is unwilling to taint such a pure soul even though he desires it so much. Such

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Joseph Andrews

...WHAT IS NOVEL? A Novel is prose narrative of considerable length and some complexity that deals imaginatively (fictional) with human experiences (near to life) through a connected sequence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting. Previously it was known as fictional narrative or narrative prose. ( A Narrative opens “in media res”. This means it opens usually with the hero at his lowest point “in the middle of things”, earlier portions of the story appear later as flashbacks..) Main characterstics of novels are theme, plot or setting, structure, action or events in a sequence, strong characterization and expressive language. The genre of extended prose fiction or narrative fictional prose i.e. novel is rooted in the tradition of medieval "romances" or the heroic romance in prose. The term ‘roman or romance’ linked fictions back to the histories that had appeared in the Romance language of 11th and 12th-century southern France. The typical Arthurian romance became a fashion in the late 12th century. The unexpected and peculiar adventures surprised the audience in romances like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c. 1380).The romance had become a stable generic term by the beginning of the 13th century, as in the Roman de la Rose (c. 1230), famous today in English through Geoffrey Chaucer's late 14th-century translation. Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde (1380–87) is a late example of this European fashion. Prose narrators wrote narrative patterns as employed...

Words: 6118 - Pages: 25

Free Essay

Chapter Iii: Eighteenth Century English Literature

...CHAPTER III: EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE LITERATURE OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT (18th century) The 17th century was one of the most stormy periods of English history. The growing contradictions between the new class, the bourgeoisie, and the old forces of feudalism brought about the English Bourgeois Revolution in the 1640s. As a result of the revolution the king was dethroned and beheaded and England was proclaimed a republic. Though very soon monarchy was restored, the position of the bourgeoisie had changed. The 18th century saw Great Britain rapidly growing into a capitalist country. It was an age of intensive industrial development. New mills and manufactures appeared one after another. Small towns grew into large cities. The industrial revolution began: new machinery was invented that turned Britain into the first capitalist power of the world. While in France the bourgeoisie was just beginning its struggle against feudalism, the English bourgeoisie had already become one of the ruling classes. The 18th century was also remarkable for the development of science and culture. Isaac Newton’s discoveries in the field of physics, Adam Smith’s economic theories, the philosophical ideas of Hobbes, Locke and others enriched the materialistic thought and implanted in people’s minds belief in great powers of man’s intellect. It was in this period that English painting began to develop too: portraiture reached its peak in the works of William Hogarth,...

Words: 1140 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Peron Pinochet

...factor, and one which will be examined in greater detail in this essay, is the role powerful political leaders play in altering their constituents national identity, whether through beneficial or repressive means, for political gain. The governments of Juan Domingo Perón, in Argentina and Augusto Pinochet, in Chile will provide the framework for this study. Both leaders exhibited staggering amounts of power and influence in their countries, though achieved by different means. Much study has been devoted to Perón and Pinochet, however two main sources will be referenced for this essay; “ Manana es San Perón: A Cultural History of Perón’s Argentina”, written by Mariano Ben Plotkin and “ A Nation of Enemies: Chile Under Pinochet “, written by Pamela Constable and Arturo Valenzeula. Both books examine each respective regime and the lengths they went to procure their nations national identity. The power wielded by Parón and Pinochet was truly astonishing and changed the political and cultural landscape not only of Argentina and Chile, but all of South America. Before examining the cases of Juan Perón and Augusto Pinochet one must first understand the historical timeframe in which each served as well as their vastly different ascents to power. Juan Perón emerged as one of the main leaders of the Grupo de Oficiales Unidos (GOU). The group was made up of midlevel military officers, and was responsible for the overthrow of Argentine President Ramón Castillo on June 4, 1943. Peron took...

Words: 2398 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

Old English Literature

...OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE • Palaeolithic nomads from mainland Europe; • New inhabitants came from western and possibly north-western Europe (New Stone Age); • in the 2nd millennium BC new inhabitants came from the Low Countries and the middle Rhine (Stonehenge); • Between 800 and 200 BC Celtic peoples moved into Britain from mainland Europe (Iron Age) • first experience of a literate civilisation in 55 B.C. • remoter areas in Scotland retained independence • Ireland, never conquered by Rome, Celtic tradition • The language of the pre-Roman settlers - British (Welsh, Breton); Cornish; Irish and Scottish Gaelic (Celtic dialect) • The Romans up to the fifth century • Britain - a province of the Roman Empire 400 years • the first half of the 5th century the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (N Germany, Jutland) • The initial wave of migration - 449 A. D. • the Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) • the Britain of his time comprised four nations English, British (Welsh), Picts, and Scots. • invaders resembling those of the Germans as described by Tacitus in his Germania. • a warrior race • the chieftain, the companions or comitatus. • the Celtic languages were supplanted (e.g. ass, bannock, crag). * Christianity spread from two different directions: * In the 5th century St Patrick converted Ireland, in the 7th century the north of England was converted by Irish monks; * in the south at the end of the 6th century Aethelberht of Kent allowed the monk Augustine...

Words: 9579 - Pages: 39

Free Essay

English Literature

...1. Literature of the 17th century. John Milton. “Paradise Lost”. John Bunyan. “Pilgrim’s Progress”. The peculiarities of the English literature of the 17th century are determined by the events of the Engl. Bourgeois Revolution, which took place in 1640-60. King Charles I was beheaded in 1649& General Oliver Cromwell became the leader of the new government. In 1660, shortly after Cro-ll’s death, the dynasty of the Stuarts was restored. The establishment of new social&eco-ic relations, the change from feudal to bourgeois ownership, escalating class-struggle, liberation movement and contradictions of the bourgeois society found their reflection in lit-re. The main representatives of this period is: John Milton: was born in London&educated at Christ’s College. He lived a pure life believing that he had a great purpose to complete. At college he was known as the The Lady of Christ’s. he Got master’s degree at Cambridge. It’s convenient to consider his works in 3 divisions. At first he wrote his short poems at Horton. (The Passion, Song on May Morning, L’Allegro). Then he wrote mainly prose. His 3 greatest poems belong to his last group. At the age of 23 he had still done little in life&he admits this in one of his sonnets. (On his 23d B-day) In his another sonnet he wrote on his own blindness. (On his Blindness) Milton wrote diff. kinds of works. His prose works were mainly concerned with church, affairs, divorce & freedom. The English civil war between Charles...

Words: 10397 - Pages: 42

Free Essay

Pop Culture

...and Indian Identities around Puget Sound, by Alexandra Harmon 4. Aztlán and Viet Nam: Chicano and Chicana Experiences of the War, edited by George Mariscal 5. Immigration and the Political Economy of Home: West Indian Brooklyn and American Indian Minneapolis, by Rachel Buff 6. Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East,1945–2000, by Melani McAlister 7. Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown, by Nayan Shah 8. Japanese American Celebration and Conflict: A History of Ethnic Identity and Festival, 1934–1990, by Lon Kurashige 9. American Sensations: Class, Empire, and the Production of Popular Culture, by Shelley Streeby 10. Colored White: Transcending the Racial Past, by David R. Roediger 11. Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science, and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico, by Laura Briggs 12. meXicana Encounters: The Making of Social Identities on the Borderlands, by Rosa Linda Fregoso 13. Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight, by Eric Avila 14. Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom, by Tiya Miles 15. Cultural Moves: African Americans and the Politics of Representation, by Herman S. Gray Cultural Moves African Americans and the Politics of Representation Herman S. Gray UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley . Los Angeles . London Chapter 1 appeared as “The New Conditions of Black Cultural Production, Or Prefiguring of a Black Cultural Formation,” in Between Law...

Words: 98852 - Pages: 396

Premium Essay

Absenteeism

...state of one greatly affects the others. Population and the percentage within that population which causes negative feedbacks can be the primary reason of a poor product. The group or classroom type of organized way of learning has given that impact to the community being the commonly used system. Its effectiveness has been proven and has never been out of fashion. The relationship between the student’s physical presence on class discussions and their learning performance are greatly relative. Class participation is just one way of measuring a child’s learning ability. In a class, the teacher-student relationship is one of the most fundamental units in student’s learning. Learning in a system of group collaboration is one of the best ways in gaining knowledge. It is a teamwork which the framework relies on an individual learning from the others and others learning from that individual. When a student misses a day of school he/she must have lost the chance to hear others, interpret and analyzing the lessons or joins the interaction within the class. This lost is being rooted to two different courses and varying factors under these courses. The inquiry might be a family situation or an individual problem. Then, under these courses are the factors that contribute to a child’s regular truancy. These may be finance concerns, disability, psychotic imbalance, poor school climate, family health, transportation problems, drug and alcohol use, and differing community attitude towards...

Words: 6279 - Pages: 26

Premium Essay

Progressive Ideology Ò the Renaissance

...Gulliver’s Travels Jonathan Swift I/ Introduction A. Writer: Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift is the greatest satirist in the history of English literature. He was the contemporary of Steele, Addison, Defoe and other English enlightens of the early period; however he stood apart from them. The greatest satirist in the history of English of the bourgeois life came to the negation of the bourgeois society. Swift's art had a great effect on the further development of English and European literature. The main features of his artistic method, such as hyperbole, grotesque, generalization, irony, were widely used by the English novelist, the dramatists, by the French writers, by the Russian writers and others. Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 30, 1667. He studied theology at Trinity College at the age of fourteen and graduated in 1688. He became the secretary of Sir William Temple, an English politician and member of the Whig party, at the age of 21. At Moor Park, Sir William’s estate, Swift made friend with Hester Johnson, the daughter of one of Temple’s servants. His letters to her, written in 1710 – 1713, were later published in the form of a book under the title of Journal to Stella, the name he poetically called Hester. In 1692, Swift took his Master of Arts Degree at Oxford University. In 1694, he had begun to write satires on the political and religious corruption surrounding him, working on A Tale of a Tub, which supports the position of the Anglican...

Words: 4913 - Pages: 20

Free Essay

Conceptual Metaphor

...Journal of Philosophy, Inc. Conceptual Metaphor in Everyday Language Author(s): George Lakoff and Mark Johnson Source: The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 77, No. 8 (Aug., 1980), pp. 453-486 Published by: Journal of Philosophy, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2025464 Accessed: 23/01/2009 17:46 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=jphil. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Journal of Philosophy, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR...

Words: 14829 - Pages: 60

Premium Essay

Ccscs

...7 Corporations in the Modern Era The Commercial Transformation of Material Life and Culture I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country. —Thomas Jefferson (letter to Tom Logan, 1816) J 1 ustice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court cited the third president of the United States in his strong dissent to the majority’s 2010 decision allowing corporations unlimited spending on behalf of political candidates.1 Quoting the court’s earlier McConnell decision, Stevens wrote, “We have repeatedly sustained legislation aimed at ‘the corrosive and distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth that are accumulated with Jefferson’s animus may seem curious in light of the history of British corporations that financed the settling of the first North American colonies and, as discussed in this chapter, are often credited with providing the model for representative government adopted by the framers of the U.S. Constitution (Tuitt 2006). 280 Corporations in the Modern Era——281 the help of the corporate form.’” The court’s decision, Justice Stevens continued, “will undoubtedly cripple the ability of ordinary citizens, Congress and the States to adopt even limited measures to protect against corporate domination of the electoral process.” The essence of Justice Steven’s dissent in the Citizens United v. Federal...

Words: 22537 - Pages: 91

Free Essay

The Thief of Time

...The Thief of Time The Thief of Time Philosophical Essays on Procrastination Edited by Chrisoula Andreou Mark D. White 2010 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2010 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The thief of time: philosophical essays on procrastination / edited by Chrisoula Andreou and Mark D. White. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-537668-5 (hardback: alk. paper) 1. Procrastination. I. Andreou, Chrisoula. II. White, Mark D., 1971– BF637.P76T45 2010 128'.4—dc22 2009021750 987654321 Printed in the United States of...

Words: 125542 - Pages: 503

Premium Essay

Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of the Catcher in the Rye

...4141- 4141--- Cherished and Cursed:Towarda Social History of The Catcher in the Rye STEPHEN J. WHITFIELD THE plot is brief:in 1949 or perhaps 1950, over the course of three days during the Christmas season, a sixteen-yearold takes a picaresque journey to his New YorkCity home from the third private school to expel him. The narratorrecounts his experiences and opinions from a sanitarium in California. A heavy smoker, Holden Caulfield claims to be already six feet, two inches tall and to have wisps of grey hair; and he wonders what happens to the ducks when the ponds freeze in winter. The novel was published on 16 July 1951, sold for $3.00, and was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. Within two weeks, it had been reprinted five times, the next month three more times-though by the third edition the jacket photographof the author had quietly disappeared. His book stayed on the bestseller list for thirty weeks, though never above fourth place.' Costing 75?, the Bantam paperback edition appeared in 1964. By 1981, when the same edition went for $2.50, sales still held steady, between twenty and thirty thousand copies per month, about a quarter of a million copies annually. In paperback the novel sold over three million copies between 1953 and 1964, climbed even higher by the 1980s, and continues to attract about as many buyers as it did in 1951. The durabilityof The author appreciates the invitationof Professors Marc Lee Raphaeland Robert A. Gross to present an early version...

Words: 12326 - Pages: 50

Premium Essay

Bdhs

...Social Change and Modernity Edited By Hans Haferkamp and Neil J. Smelser UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford © 1992 The Regents of the University of California INTRODUCTION Hans Haferkamp and Neil J. Smelser Haferkamp is grateful to Angelika Schade for her fruitful comments and her helpful assistance in editing this volume and to Geoff Hunter for translating the first German version of parts of the Introduction; Smelser has profited from the research assistance and critical analyses given by Joppke. 1. Social Change and Modernity Those who organized the conference on which this volume is based—including the editors— decided to use the terms "social change" and "modernity" as the organizing concepts for this project. Because these terms enjoy wide usage in contemporary sociology and are general and inclusive, they seem preferable to more specific terms such as "evolution" "progress," "differentiation," or even "development," many of which evoke more specific mechanisms, processes, and directions of change. Likewise, we have excluded historically specific terms such as "late capitalism" and "industrial society" even though these concepts figure prominently in many of the contributions to this volume. The conference strategy called for a general statement of a metaframework for the study of social change within which a variety of more specific theories could be identified. 2. Theories of Social Change Change is such an evident feature of...

Words: 171529 - Pages: 687

Free Essay

The Outline of English Literature

...Министерство образования и науки Республики Казахстан Кокшетауский государственный университет им. Ш. Уалиханова An Outline of British Literature (from tradition to post modernism) Кокшетау 2011 УДК 802.0 – 5:20 ББК 81:432.1-923 № 39 Рекомендовано к печати кафедрой английского языка и МП КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, Ученым Советом филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, УМС КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова. Рецензенты: Баяндина С.Ж. доктор филологических наук, профессор, декан филологического факультета КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова Батаева Ф.А. кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры «Переводческое дело» Кокшетауского университета им. А. Мырзахметова Кожанова К.Т. преподаватель английского языка кафедры гуманитарного цикла ИПК и ПРО Акмолинской области An Outline of British Literature from tradition to post modernism (on specialties 050119 – “Foreign Language: Two Foreign Languages”, 050205 – “Foreign Philology” and 050207 – “Translation”): Учебное пособие / Сост. Немченко Н.Ф. – Кокшетау: Типография КГУ им. Ш. Уалиханова, 2010 – 170 с. ISBN 9965-19-350-9 Пособие представляет собой краткие очерки, характеризующие английскую литературу Великобритании, ее основные направления и тенденции. Все известные направления в литературе иллюстрированы примерами жизни и творчества авторов, вошедших в мировую литературу благодаря...

Words: 82733 - Pages: 331

Free Essay

Politics

...Trustees of Princeton University Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989 Author(s): Timur Kuran Source: World Politics, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Oct., 1991), pp. 7-48 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2010422 . Accessed: 26/02/2011 05:24 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Cambridge University Press and Trustees of Princeton University...

Words: 15671 - Pages: 63