Question- What are the various themes in the novel?

Answer -

The various themes in the novel are -

(i) The Nature of Virtue - Richardson's novel has often given the impresion of defining 'virtue' too narrowly and negatively, as the physical condition of virginity before marriage. To begin with, Pamela makes a sensible distinction between losing her virginity involuntarily and acquiescing in a seduction. Only the latter would be a transgression against sexual virtue. Moreover, almost the entire second half of the novel is taken up with the explication and praise of Pamela's positive qualities of generosity and benevolence. Mr.B values these qualities and they have brought him to propose marriage reading her journal, he has discovered her genuine goodwill toward him, particularly in her rejoicing over his escape from death by drowning. As a result, Pamela's active goodness merits the 'reward' of a happy marriage as much as her defense of her virginity.

(ii) The Integrity of the Individual - Richardson's fiction commonly portrays individuals struggling balance incompatible demands on their integrity. Pamela, for instance, must either compromise her own sense of right or offend her. Master, who deserves her obedience except in so far as he makes illicit demands on her. This highly conscientious servant and Christian must work scruplously to defy her. Master's will only to the degree that is necessary to preserve her virtue, to do any less would be irreligious, while to do anymore would be contumacious and the successfull balance of these conflicting claims represents the greatest expression of Pamela's personal integrity.

(iii) Class Politics - One of the greatest-social facts of Richardson's day was the intermingling of the aspirant middle class with the gentry and aristocracy. The eighteenth century was a golden age of social climbing and thereby of satire (primarity in poetry), but Richardson was the first novelist to turn his serious regard on class different and class tension. Pamela's class status is ambiguous at the start of the novel. She is on good terms with the other Bedfordshire servants, and the pleasure she takes in their respect for her shows that she does not consider herself above them; her position as a lady's maid, however, has led to her acquiring refinements of education and manner that unfit her for the work of common servants; when she attempts to scour a plate her soft hand develops a blister. Moreover, Richardson does some fudging with respect to her orginis when he specifies that her father is an educated man who was not always a peasant but once ran a school.

If this hedging suggest latent class snobbery on Richardson's part, however, the novelist does not fail to insist that those who receive privileges under the system bear responsibilities also, and correspondingly those on the lower rungs of the ladder are entitled to claim rights of their superiors. Thus, in the early part of the novel, Pamela emphasizes that Mr.B, in harassing her, violates his duty to protect the social inferiors under his care, after his reformation in the middle of the novel, she repeatedly lauds the "Godlike Power" of doing good that is the special pleasure and burden of the wealthy.

(iv) Sexual Politics - Sexual inequality was a common theme of 18th century social commentators and political philosophers. Though Richardson's decision to have Pamela fall in love with her would-be rapist has rankled many advocates of women's rights in recent years, he remains in some sense a feminist writer due to his sympathetic interest in the hopes and concerns of women. He allows Pamela to comment acerbically on the hoary theme of the sexual double standard.

Richardson's sympathy for the feminine view of things emerges in his presentation of certain contracts between the feminine and masculine psyches. Pamela's psychological subtlety counters Mr.B; simplicity, her emotional refinement counters his crudity, and her perceptiveness defeats his callousness, with the result that Mr.B must give up his masculine aggressive persona and embrace instead the civilizing feminine values of his new wife.

(v) Psychology and the Self - In composing Pamela Richardson wanted to explore human psychology in ways that no other writer had. His innovative narrative method, in which Pamela records her thoughts as they occur to her and soon after the events that have inspired them, he called 'writing to the moment'.

Although the overt plot of the novel addresses Mr. B's efforts to invade the recesses of Pamela's physical person, the secondary plot in which she must defend the secrecy of her writings shows the Squire equally keen to intrude upon her in most Psyche. Beginning with the incident in Letter I when she reacts to Mr. B's sudden appearance by concealing her letter in her bosom, Pamela instinctively resists her Master's attempts to expose her private thoughts as she says, what-one writes to one's Father and Mother is not for everybody. It is not until Mr. B learns to respect both Pamela's body and writings, relinluishing access to them except when she voluntarily offers it, that he becomes worthy of either physical or psychological intimacy with her.

(vi) Hypocrisy and Self-knowledge - Since the initial publication of Pamela in 1740, critics of Richardson's moralistic novel have accused its heroine of hypocrisy, charging that her outentible virtue is simply a reverse psychological play for attracting Mr. B. This criticism has a certain merit, in that Pamela does indeed turn out to be more positively disposed towards her master than she has let on; in her defense, however, her misrepresentation of her feelings has not been deliberate, as she is quite the last person to figure out what her 'treacherous, treacherous Heart' has felt.

The lovers in the novel remain at cross-purposes when they should be coming together, and only Mr. B's persistence secures the union that Pamela's suspicions have jeopardized.

(vii) Realism and Country Life - 18th century literature tended to idealize the life of rustic simplicity that Pamela typifies. Dramatists were found of rendering the tale of the liantious squire and the chaste maiden in a high romantic strain. Richardson, however, disappoints the idyllic expectations by having Pamela tell her story in the 'low' style that is realistically appropriate to her class, as well as through his generous incorporation of naturalistic details. Far from Idealizing the countryside, Richardson recurs to the dirt in which Pamela conceals her writings and plants her horse beans.

In selecting his imagery, Richardson favours not the wood nymphs and sentimental will ows of pastoral romance but such homely items as Pamela's flannel, Mr. B's boiled chicken, the Carp in the pond, the grass in the garden, the mould, a cake, and the shoes that Mrs. Jewkes periodically confiscates from Pamela. To discover dramatic significance, Richardson does not look to the great cities and the exemplars of public greatness who reside there; he maintains, rather, that much of equal or greater significance inherent in the private actions and passions of common people.

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