The Rise of the Novel
C. Knight
Clarissa: Study Questions
2. The same may be asked of Clarissa. Samuel Johnson said of her that there is always something she prefers to the truth. At various points in the novel, ask if this judgment is valid. How valid is it for the events at Harlowe Place? Is Clarissa motivated by factors of which she is unaware or about which she is silent? Does she use letter writing as a way of discovering and sharing the truth about herself or a misleading and even untruthful self-justification? What is she interested in, if not the truth?
3. From her childhood Clarissa seems to have been regarded as an exemplary character. (Envy of her exemplary status certainly seems to be one motive for her siblings' behavior.) What are the burdens or encouragements of that status for Clarissa herself? What is the relationship between her public image and her inner self?
4. In addition to her problematic parents and evil siblings, Clarissa's extended family contains a variety of odd (but unfortunately uncomic) Aunts and Uncles--her Uncle Antony, her Uncle [John] Harlowe, her Aunt Hervey, her Cousin Dolly, and her old nurse, Mrs. Norton. What is their distinctive individuality? What is their collective force? What values do they stand for? What problems to they exemplify?
5. More generally, the first third of Clarissa is obviously about (among other things) the relation of the individual to the family. Consider the family both as an economic and psychological unit. (What, in the novel, is the relationship between those two terms?) How would you characterize the Harlowe family and its interests? What assumptions does the family make about the role of their daughter and why? Does Richardson imply any conclusions about the actual or proper nature of the family? Is Clarissa's case particular, or does it suggest themes and principles that are more-or-less universal?
6. What are the major elements of Anna Howe's character, and what is their impact on her relationship to Clarissa? Specifically, what effect does her character have on the kinds of letters Clarissa writes? Does her own situation limit her capacity to help Clarissa? What are Anna's judgments about Clarissa's situation, behavior, and plans? Does Clarissa agree? Do we?
7. Lovelace's early letters to Belford provide new explanations of his actions and motives. What are they? Do they come as a surprise? To what degree and in what ways do they change our attitudes towards the events of the novel?
8. The first third of Clarissa has been described as "claustrophobic" in its atmosphere. Do you agree? If so, how does Richardson gain this effect, and how does it influence the judgments we make about the characters and their actions? How literal is the claustrophobia? Are the characters psychologically as well as physically enclosed?
9. Why does Clarissa escape with Lovelace--in terms of plot (the sequence of events) and in terms of character? What is your own evaluation of the elopement? Both Clarissa and Lovelace describe the elopement. What are the differences in their accounts? Do either of them tell us the whole truth about this event and how it happened? Is Clarissa's primary sin that she has fled her father without being officially transferred to a husband?
10. At times, especially at times of emotional crisis, Clarissa talks of death as an alternative to marrying Solmes or as the inevitable outcome of the situation in which she is caught. What does this kind of language suggest about Clarissa and about her attitudes towards sexuality? Is it appropriate for us to apply twentieth-century psychological approaches to an eighteenth-century novel like Clarissa?
11. The previous question can be approached particularly by analyzing individual scenes. Look at the (almost literally) smashing scene between Clarissa, Solmes, and various members of her family, described on pp. 302-320. Consider, as well, the dream of death and burial which Clarissa reports in Letter 84 (pp. 342-343).
13. In particular, what makes Belford a particularly useful recipient of Lovelace's letters? What do we know about his individual character, about his values (or lack thereof), and about the nature of his relationship to Lovelace? How does his role change at key moments in the novel--after he sees Clarissa at Mrs. Sinclair's, for example, or after her escape? Insofar as he becomes Clarissa's advocate, why isn't he more effective in that role? Insofar as he is Lovelace's friend, how does he sort out the relationship of friendship to moral judgment?
14. How would you contrast the image of Clarissa in Lovelace's letters to your own understanding of Clarissa, and the image of Lovelace in Clarissa's letters to what you know about him? How important are these contrasts for the development of the novel--and why? Do the central characters, in short, seriously misread each other?
15. At some points in the middle third of Clarissa marriage between the two main characters may seem genuinely possible. What are the elements that imply its possibility? What are the factors--personal and situational--that prevent it from taking place?
16. Lovelace's fake illness, his introduction of Captain Tomlinson, and his alarm of fire are a closely connected and carefully worked series of stratagems. What is their effect on Clarissa? What does Lovelace learn about her? What does she learn about herself? What do we learn about both?
17. In fact, these stratagems are only part of a still larger series of schemes, deceits, and disguises on Lovelace's part, the center of which is the disguise of a brothel as a genteel boarding-house. What is the relation of Lovelace's deceptions to his character? What are his real intentions towards Clarissa, and how are they related to his scheming?
18. Clarissa's father curses her, her sister mocks her, and generally her family behaves in a way that confirms our view that it is not nice. Yet Lovelace uses Clarissa's hopes of reconciliation as one of the baits to catch her. What in fact is Clarissa's attitude towards her family after she escapes it, and is that attitude a major fault on her part? What is its effect on the way in which she behaves?
19. Characterize the world of Mrs. Sinclair's house? What is the attitude of the "maids" towards Clarissa? What is their attitude towards Lovelace: in fact, are they tools of him or he of them? Is there a plausible argument that Mrs. Sinclair rather than Lovelace is the major villain of the piece, and what are the implications of that argument for a feminist reading of the novel?
20. Another way of looking at the same question is in terms of Richardson's treatment of spaces and settings. What are the real and imagined limitations of Clarissa's entrapment? How significant is Richardson's use of various settings in the novel, and how does Mrs. Sinclair's establishment fit into this pattern?
21. Clarissa's escape to Hampstead introduces another group of somewhat shadowy characters in the novel. It forces Lovelace to move from disguising an environment to disguising himself. But when Clarissa is brought back, by fraud or force, to Mrs. Sinclair's, we also are brought back to a situation not very different from when she left. Why has Richardson bothered with this long escapade (which I have felt few qualms about cutting substantially in "TBPG").
22. Analyze in close detail Lovelace's short letter to Belford (p. 883), Clarissa's "papers" (pp. 890-893), and her letter to Lovelace (pp. 894-896). What are the relationships of innocence to pride and clarity to madness in her efforts to represent herself? Is she right about her character? Is she the victim of forces beyond her control? If she is morally responsible, what is the nature of her guilt; if not, how is her story tragic or even morally important?
23. After the events alluded to in the previous question, the roles of Clarissa and Lovelace seem to reverse, so that she becomes the dominant character. Consider, in particular the "penknife scene" (pp. 945-952). How and why does this reversal take place?
25. In the last third of the novel Belford's character and role change substantially. Is his change in character psychologically plausible? What values does he bring to his extended witness to the story of Clarissa (and of other characters)? Does he emerge as a major character or only as a reporter of events? How does his relationship to Lovelace change? What is the nature and function of his role as Clarissa's executor?
26. The executor of her Grandfather's will is her long-absent cousin, Colonel Morden. One critic has suggested that just as other names in the novel are puns, so "Morden" derives from the Latin for "death," and his arrival in England implies the coming of death. What connections can be made between his symbolic self and his real qualities and values?
27. Clarissa spends much of her attention, after her escape, discovering what actually happened to her and passing that information on to Anna Howe. Why? What qualities of mind and judgment does she reveal both in the process of discovery and in the act of setting it down?
28. When Clarissa works herself up to pronouncing a really nasty insult (on Lovelace especially, but on others as well), she describes her antagonist as a "MAN!" Granted that she has genuine and deep grievances against Lovelace, is she overgeneralizing to extend her antagonism to all men?
29. Some interesting possibilities never take place: Lovelace hopes that Clarissa will turn out to be pregnant; she and Anna discuss the possibility of prosecuting Lovelace for rape; the Harlowes suggest to Clarissa the ultimate punishment--that she go to Philadelphia. Morden hopes that his Cousin will accompany him to Italy. What is the significance of these possibilities? What is the significance of the fact that they do not take place?
30. The central image accompanying Clarissa in the first two thirds of the novel seems to be confinement; in the last third it is illness. Is Clarissa's fatal illness physiologically and psychologically convincing? What is its value as an element of plot, or as a symbolic center?
31. "God Almighty," Clarissa claims, in nearly her dying breath, "would not let me depend for comfort upon any but Himself." What does she mean by this? Is she being fair to the other characters in the novel (after all, a fairly substantial support community surrounds Clarissa in her last days)? What moral and psychological considerations does the statement suggest?
32. Clarissa's death is treated in careful detail. What is the significance of this detailed treatment? (Do you find it excessive?) Why does Richardson (despite considerable advice to the contrary) feel that death is the only way in which Clarissa's situation can be resolved? What kinds of adjustments do we have to make in our own attitudes towards death in order to appreciate Richardson's aesthetic and moral purposes here?
33. Even after Clarissa's lingering death, Richardson spends considerable time winding up the novel. (The conclusion of Clarissa is particularly shortened in "TBPG.") Clarissa is buried (slowly); she writes letters (delivered after her death) to virtually everyone who has come in contact with her; her will is much debated. Do the unsympathetic characters become pitiable or still more contemptible? Why doesn't the novel end more promptly?
34. "LET THIS EXPIATE!" Lovelace pronounces (in caps) on his deathbed. Does or should his death expiate? What are our reactions to his behavior during the final third of the novel? What final conclusions should we come to about him? In what senses (if at all) is he a tragic character as well as Clarissa? (After all, none of us feels too sad that Iago is killed at the end of Othello; in fact, we hardly notice.)
35. Two factors in Clarissa (among others) have been noted as extraordinary--its attention to the minute details of human experience and its psychological depth. (The French writer Diderot, in eulogizing Richardson, said that he brings the torch to the mouth of the cave and shows us the monster who dwells therein.) What is the relationship between minute detail and psychological depth in the novel?
36. Clarissa is clearly meant to be an exemplary (if not perfect) character, shown to us for our moral edification. Do Richardson's obvious didactic purposes interfere with the aesthetic qualities of his novel? Can one really be a novelist and a moralist at the same time? (If not, why not; if so, does Richardson succeed in being both)?
37. Reading Clarissa often reminds us of the distance between eighteenth-century values and our own, especially when we need imaginatively to adopt religious ideas or standards of behavior that we do not share personally. But Clarissa has attracted the attentions of a number of diverse modern critics--feminist, Marxist, deconstructionist, and so on. Given the particularly eighteenth-century character of the novel, what are its uses for modern readers?