presentation on Pamela: ‘Virtue’ Being ‘Rewarded’

1. ‘Virtue’ Being ‘Rewarded’

3. Points To Ponder :
1] Epistolary Novel
2] Brief Introduction of Pamela Andrew
3] Sexual Exploitation of Pamela and it’s
Outcome
4] Pamela Marrying Mr.B
5] Mentality And Statements of Rapist
6] Psychology Behind Marrying Own Rapist
7] Citation

4. Epistolary Novel :
● Epistolary novel, a novel told through the
medium of letters written by one or more
of the characters.
● The advantages of the novel in letter from are
that it presents an intimate view of the
character’s thoughts and feelings without
interference from the author and that it conveys
the shape of events to come with dramatic
immediacy. (Krasicki)

5. Brief Introduction of Pamela Andrews
● Protagonist of the novel.
● 15 year old, belonged to a working class.
● Occupies a liminal social position: Because of the
time she has spent with the wealthy Lady B.
● Serves a maid servant in one of the rich house.
● Beautiful and elegant.
● Highly skilled at expressing herself verbally.

6. ● Becomes a victim of sexual harassment.
● She was headstrong and had the courage
to protect herself.
● Was mature and understanding.
● Concerned with morality, she would be
more ashamed of dishonesty than poverty.

7. ● Pamela was constantly abused sexually
by her master.
● She was pretty young to bear the trauma.
● She even pretended to faint in order to
save herself.
● Had a good presence of mind.
● She feels exploited.
● But, ironically, by the end of the novel,
she marries the exploiter.
Sexual Exploitation of Pamela and it’s Outcome

8. Pamela Marrying Mr.B.
● There is a class conflict between these two
individuals.
● Pamela marries Mr.B. because she is in
love with him despite of the fact that he has
tried to exploit her multiple times.

9. ● The gang-rape of 23-year-old Jyoti Singh Pandey
in Delhi, India, on December 16, 2012. Thirteen
days later she died in a Singapore hospital from
injuries caused by insertion of an iron rod by her
six attackers. The authors first analyze the
remarks of politicians and religious leaders that
invoked religious- nationalist ideals to diminish the
responsibility of the attackers, to exonerate
traditional Hindu ways of life, and to blame the
victim. (Brown)
Mentality Of The Rapist

10. .
Statements of Rapists of Jyoti Singh Pandey:
● “ A girl is far more risponsible for rape”
● “ House work and housekeeping was the
domain of girls and they had no rights to
roam or visit discos and bars at night.”
● “They are doing wrong things and
wearing wrong clothes”
● He also added that the rape have not
been done purposefully, but it is for a
‘lesson’ for Jyoti to not roam with a boy
till late night.
Mukesh Singh

11. .
Psychology Behind Marrying own Rapist
● When a rapist offers to marry the victim, one
would think it’s the perfect solution. (Sharma)
● TOI remarks the statement of Kavita, an NGO
worker’s statement that-
“The girl has already been wronged once. And to
add to the misery, her predator neatly escapes the
consequences of the crime by simply marrying the
girl. You never know if this practice catches on,
rapists might resort to such techniques on any girl
he fancies. This is just not done.”
● Rapist takes advantage of the social stigma that
no man will accept a woman who has been raped.

12. “We have bailed out some small town
girls in the past.We make sure that
mindless community panchayat
decisions are challenged. But in some
cases it gets very difficult when the
girl’s family and the girl herself agree
to marry her rapist.” (Sharma)
A source from National
commission of women reveals,

13. In the Novel also we see marrying Pamela to Mr.B…
● But this marriage is a “reward” which is given by Mr.B to Pamela.
● Pamela accepts the proposal of Mr.B, who tried to make forcefully
physical relations with Pamela and also harrases her.
● Samuel Richardson’s Heroines Pamela and Clarissa
both can be considered as heroine of wavering
mind.
● Pamela is fighting with Mr.B to save her virtue and
later on marries him!!

14. Raises four questions from this novel:
What is
virtue?
What is
reward?
Who
rewards?
Why Pamela
Is being
rewarded?

15. ● In this novel, Richardson is considering
‘Virginity’ as ‘Virtue’.
● And the ‘Virtue’ is being rewarded by the
man who was having affair in his past and
aslo harrased a girl physically! (Gooding)

16. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "epistolary novel". Encyclopedia
Britannica, 24 Aug. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/art/epistolary-novel.
Brown, C. Mackenzie, et al. “The Rape That Woke Up India: Hindu Imagination
and the Rape of Jyoti Singh Pandey.” Journal of Religion and Violence, vol. 2, no.
2, 2014, pp. 234–80. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26671430.
Gooding, Richard. "Pamela, Shamela, and the Politics of the Pamela Vogue."
Eighteenth-Century Fiction 7.2 (1995): 109-130.
Sharma, Kalpana. “Should a woman marry her rapist?” Times of India, 28 October
2010, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/love-sex/should-
a-woman-marry-her-rapist/articleshow/6558340.cms.
Work cited

17. Any question?
Find me on- avanijani.18@gma
Any question?
You can find me on-
avanijani.18@gmail.com