Clarissa or The History of a Young Lady
In the Johnson age there are many popular writers. One of these authors is Samuel Richardson, who was a novelist. His most popular novels were Pamela and Clarissa, which are both constructed of a series of letters. Clarissa, however, was regarded as one of his most popular European novels. "His masterpiece, Clarissa, or the History of a Young Lady, one of the greatest European novels, was published in 1747-8" (Richardson, 1).
When Richardson wrote Clarissa his intention was to write a novel of a series of letters that were written by an unskilled author. This book contains 537 letters written by various characters in the novel. Because the book is so long I could not read the whole thing nor have I ever read it before. As a result I can not say a lot about it. Because I find it is a little hard to read I was not able to read as much as I would have like to in the four hours that we were to set aside to read the book. I did, however, manage to read the first eight letters in the novel. The first letter was written to Clarissa Harlowe from her good friend Anna Howe. This letter is used to introduce the reader to the problems that have been going on in the Harlowe home that lead to Clarissa being the topic of gossip.
The letters that follow this one are from Clarissa to Anna and they explain what had happened. The trouble begins when Mr. Lovelace begins to visit the Harlowe home; it is believed that he is there to court the eldest daughter. However, this does not work out and he then decides the he would like to date the younger daughter, who is Clarissa. This is not well liked by her brother because Mr. Lovelace was his enemy all through college and there is now a grudge between the two. As a result, Clarissa's brother and Mr. Lovelace get into a fight and Clarissa's brother is injured. It is because of this that no one else in the family cares for him anymore either. However, this does not stop him from pursuing Clarissa.
In Mrs. Dalloway, Clarissa Dalloway undergoes an internal struggle between her love for society and life and a combined affinity for and fear of death. Her practical marriage to Richard serves its purpose of providing her with an involved social life of gatherings and parties that others may find frivolous but Clarissa sees as “an offering” to the life she loves so well. Throughout the novel she grapples with the prospect of growing old and approaching death, which after the joys of her life seems “unbelievable… that it must end; and no one in the whole world would know how she had loved it all; how, every instant…” At the same time, she is drawn to the very idea of dying, a theme which is most obviously exposed through her reaction to the news of Septimus Smith’s suicide. However, this crucial scene r...
"Genocide- Cambodia." Talking About Genocide - Genocides. Peace Pledge Union, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2014. .
Writing a journal from the perspective of a fictional eighteenth century reader, a mother whose daughter is the age of Eliza's friends, will allow me to employ reader-response criticism to help answer these questions and to decipher the possible social influences and/or meanings of the novel. Though reader-response criticism varies from critic to critic, it relies largely on the idea that the reader herself is a valid critic, that her critique is influenced by time and place,...
The letter was given to her aunt and he asked her to write back to the girls and as nicely
The youngest of five children, Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on December 25, 1821 to a middle class family in North Oxford, Massachusetts. In this rocky New England countryside, Clara, as she quickly became known, learned the value of hard work and hard principles through her labors on the family farm. From the beginning, Clara's family had an immeasurable influence on her. Her older siblings, who were all quite intelligent, helped educate Clara and could scarcely keep up with answering her never-ending barrage of questions. Her active mind readily absorbed new lessons and novel stories about famous ancestors. Something of a tomboy, she portrayed exceptional equestrian skills and could play sports with surprising aptitude, compliments of her brothers and male cousins.
“Will you have the goodness to send me the address of my niece, Jane Eyre, and to tell me how she is. It is my intention to write shortly and desire her to come to see me at Madeira…I wish to adopt her during my life, and bequeath her at my death whatever I may have to leave.” (252)
Hovannisian, Richard. "The Reality and Relevance of the Armenian Genocide." UCLA: Armenian Studies. http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history/centers/armenian/source109.html (accessed April 11, 2014).
An important feature of Jane Austen’s novel, “Pride and Prejudice,” is the utilization of letters, which were the prevalent form of communication in the nineteenth century. “The novel is packed with correspondence, with forty-four letters referred to, and eighteen of those either heavily quoted from or given in full” (Fullerton 46). Letters are used as a dramatic device in the novel to advance the plot, uncover character and benefit in the composition of theme in “Pride and Prejudice.”
Despite her exhaustion, Charlotte gathered up a pile of stationery and began to write in a refined version of her usual scrawl. "Dear Martha", she wrote, "You knew and loved me once. You do not know me now, and I am not sure that you would love me if you did… I have grown and changed wildly, darkly, strangely, beyond a mother's recognition, beyond my own."
a passage from the letter she is writing to add a personal feel to the
Clarissa's relationships with other females in Mrs. Dalloway offer great insight into her personality. Additionally, Woolf's decision to focus at length on Sally Seton, Millicent Bruton, Ellie Henderson, and Doris Kilman allows the reader to see how women relate to one another in extremely different ways: sometimes drawing upon one another for things they cannot get from men; other times, turning on one another out of jealousy and insecurity. Although Mrs. Dalloway is far from the most healthy or positive literary portrayal of women, Woolf presents an excellent exploration of female relationships.
Before the major upheaval occurs Jane Austin gives us a glimpse of what social life, the class distinction, was like through the perspective of Ann Elliot. Ann is the second out of three daughters to Sir Walter Elliot, the proud head of the family (Austen, 2). The Elliots are an old landowning family that seems well known in the upper echelons of British society. The most important piece of background we are presented with as central to the plot of the story is that eight years prior to the setting Ann was engaged to a man she loved, Frederick Wentworth. They were soon engaged, but her family along with mother-like figure, Lady Russell, soon persuaded Ann that the match was unsuitable because Frederick Wentworth was essentially unworthy without any money or prestige (Austen, 30). This piece of background echoes exclusivity among the upper classes of Britain. In that time it would seem unacceptable for a girl like Ann with a family like hers to marry or even associate with someone not of ...
I read this book out of interest for another Henry James piece, liking Daisy Miller so much. I found that this book, as in Daisy Miller, has a female point of interest throughout. Isabel Archer is a young American girl brought to Europe after her father has died in America. Isabel is an independent girl, easily noticed by many others in her circle. I felt that Isabel was a woman in her time, in that she took notice of things that she wouldn’t have without certain without the opportunities she was given. In America she would have see and done other things, but in Europe she saw so much opportunity. I like the carefree attitude she had, but with the regard for her elders and common courtesy. The example in the book about being a proper young lady when it was not looked at very well that she stay up ‘alone’ with her cousin and another young man. She had asked her aunt to help her and tell her when she is doing, or about to do something saw as improper. I admired that. I think nowadays young women would revolt against proper if it meant something they did not wish to do.
In his novel, Pamela, Samuel Richardson suggests something that would have been considered ludicrous at the time in which his novel was published – he proposes that men should choose their wives not for their money or social standing, but for their virtue. He then makes yet another shocking suggestion by implying that the only way in which members of the upper class can learn to be virtuous is via the lower class. That is, he suggests that the lower class must teach the upper class how to be virtuous. Richardson makes these suggestions, which would have been considered wild in the eighteenth century, by creating a story that is arguably even more ridiculous than the intimations Richardson is making. Richardson’s tale of a young servant doggedly resisting the sexual advances of her master, only to eventually compel him to marry her would have seemed as unlikely to eighteenth-century readers as a story about Martians landing on Earth would seem to contemporary readers. However for readers to deeply consider Richardson’s suggestions regarding society, they must find the story in which the suggestions are imbedded to be somewhat believable (Endnote 1). Recognizing the implausibility of his story and the fact that despite the implausibility, readers must find his story at least somewhat probable to even begin to consider its implications, Richardson employs a variety of different tactics in an effort to achieve some semblance of verisimilitude. He strives for this verisimilitude through inserting letters to the editor at the beginning of the novel, which stress the supposed veracity of the incidents portrayed, having the plot unfold in an epistolary form, and attempting to make the action ...
Household energy conservation is a very practical and realistic approach to conserving energy within our society. US households consume a tremendous amount of natural gas as well as electric energy. It has been calculated that the amount of energy consumed within the US increased exponentially from about 1850 to 1975. If energy continued to increase at this rate, we would be experiencing severe energy shortages in our current society. Luckily, steps towards conservation, including various energy regulations, have curbed that growth somewhat, brining the predicted 160 Qbtu/yr for the year 2000 down to around 93.8 Qbtu/yr by the year 1996. However, household energy usage is still a major issue as households consume about 38% of the total consumed energy and contribute greatly to natural gas consumption and issues such as global warming. Therefore, it is important that people understand how we use energy in the household and what steps can be taken to conserve that energy.