Lovelace spurns the good advice
Clarissa read-along: Letters 174 to 191
Dear friends,
“Lay me not under a necessity to repeat the same things so often. I hope thou readest what I write more than once.”
I thought I’d open with this quote from Lovelace to Belford, which reminds me of Richardson’s own tendency to repeat the same plot points over and over again! And which makes me feel like I’m writing the same things over and over again… This time Lovelace has told Belford, bluntly, to stop arguing Clarissa’s side: surely she has nothing to worry about from his advances if she is truly virtuous? As modern-day readers we know all too well what a dangerous game Lovelace is playing.
The fallout from Clarissa’s meeting with Lovelace’s friends in full swing and he realises he has lost her confidence. Not only that, but a failed attempt to read her letters has eroded trust even further. Lovelace acknowledges he has, “over plotted,” and it will take a while to, “recover my lost ground.” It has also been revealed that ‘innocent’ Dorcas is in fact a spy, her illiteracy an elaborate cover, as Lovelace tells Belford that he, “has provided against every possible accident, even to bring her back if she should escape, or in case she should go abroad and refuse to return.”
Meanwhile, Clarissa has been working on a plot of her own. She has engaged the assistance of Mr Hickman in an attempt to persuade her uncle to reconcile. Anna has approached Mrs Norton too. All to no avail. In true Clarissa style, she continues to cling to hope, but is becoming convinced the only way forward is to marry Lovelace. Begrudgingly she accepts she must appeal to his pride:
“I must be very humble, very submissive, and try to whine myself into his good graces.”
Lovelace sends her the marriage settlements, but cleverly avoids setting a date. Instead he suggests they wait for the word of Lord M which may be a long time coming. Meanwhile Anna urges Clarissa to drop her modesty: “What room for delicacy now?” She’s right. Lovelace has admitted to hard-heartedness, confessing a sort of pleasure in Clarissa’s misery, and is fully aware of his power. Even if he were to make an attempt on her virtue now, “her hatred can be but temporary,” for she has nowhere else to turn. It’s heartbreaking that Clarissa is aware of the web she’s caught in:
“I am too much in his power to make it prudent to stay with him.”
Despite his evident power and good looks, Lovelace remains clueless about winning a woman like Clarissa. “I imagined for a long while that we were born to make each other happy, he writes to Belford, “but, quite the contrary; we really seem to be sent to plague one another.” Like Clarissa’s brother James, Lovelace is also giving voice to many unpleasant views about women:
“Cunning women and witches, we read of without number. But I fancy wisdom never entered into the character of a woman. It is not a requisite of the sex. Women, indeed, make better sovereigns than men: but why is that? — Because the women sovereigns are governed by men; the men sovereigns by women.”
As ever, the future for Clarissa looks bleak.
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Featured image is Sir Miles Stapylton, 4th Bt of Myton courtesy of York Museums Trust