Pamela:
– the plot is very strong
– it is the story of a courtship
– long but structured
– he cashes in on the change of view regarding marriage (the extended family marriage vs. the romantic love-marriage)
– economically, the patriarchal society stood in the way of romantic marriage
– the author appeals to women
– full of stereotypes of the women
– the author has an ambivalent attitude towards sex (male – upper class vs. female – lower class)
– has a happy ending
Clarissa:
– a tragedy
– at a moment Lovelys rapes her and, in the end, she dies
– it’s about the struggle between individualism, sexes, and classes
– an ambivalence exists in the minds of the two main characters
The power of print according to Samuel Richardson:
– it must be true
– the illusion of print (enter the story)
– the privacy of print
– the anonymity of print (it’s not the writer but the characters)
