Tuesday, November 4, 2025

Paper 102 :Richardson's Epistolary Architecture: A Study in the Gendering of Desire in Pamela.

Paper102 :Literature of the Neo-Classical Period.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Research Framework................................................................... 1

 2 Introduction: The Epistolary Form as a Gendered Space............. 1 

3 Pamela’s Textual Authority: Desire for Autonomy and Authorship .............................2 

3.1 The Letter as Material Embodiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 

3.2 Affective Gendering and Moral Sincerity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 

4 The Politics of Interception and Suppression: Mr. B’s Failed Masculine Desire................. 3 

4.1 Surveillance as Sublimated Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 

4.2 Epistolary Conversion and the Desire for Authorship . . . . . . . . 3

 5   The Paradox of Rewarded Virtue: Marital Closure and Narrative Domestication................. 4 

5.1 From Resistant Correspondence to Didactic Journal . . . . . . . . .  4

 5.2 The Co-option of the Female Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 

5.3 Virtue Rewarded as Narrative Containment . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . 5

 6 Conclusion................................................................ 5


Assignment Details:

 • Paper Name: Literature of the Neo-Classical Period


 • Paper No.: 102


 • Paper Code : 22393 

 

 • Unit: 4


 • Topic : Richardson's Epistolary Architecture: A Study in the Gendering of Desire in Pamela.


 • Submitted To: Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi,

Department of English

, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University


 • Submitted Date: November 10, 2025

Academic Details:

• Name : Siddhiba.R.Gohil

• Roll No : 34

• Enrollment No : 5108250017

• Semester : 1

• Batch : 2025-2027

• Email : siddhibagohil25@gmail.com 

The following information—numbers are counted using Docs :

Pages17
Words2949
Characters20261
Characters excluding spaces17318


Research Question :

To what extent does Samuel Richardson's epistolary structure in textit "Pamela "function as a contested space for the gendering of desire, and how is the radical potential of Pamela's textual authority ultimately contained by the demand for marital closure?


Hypothesis :

The epistolary form is the primary gendering agent of desire in ''Pamela", enabling Pamela to construct a desire for moral autonomy through continuous self-authorship. This textual agency compels Mr. B's initial proprietary desire into an "epistolary conversion," but the resulting marital closure ultimately co-opts and silences Pamela's resistant narrative voice, containing feminine desire within patriarchal domesticity.


Abstract :

This paper explores the argument, advanced in critical scholarship on Samuel Richardson’s Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740), that the novel’s epistolary structure is not merely a stylistic device but a fundamental architectural component that actively genders desire. The analysis focuses on how the act of writing---its production, consumption, and circulation---constructs and differentiates feminine desire (centred on moral autonomy, self-preservation, and narrative control) from masculine desire (characterised by impulsive assertion and patriarchal acquisition). By examining Pamela’s letters as acts of authorship and Mr. B’s attempts to control or destroy them, this essay argues that the gendering of desire in the novel is inextricably linked to the tension between the female subject’s textual authority and the patriarchal society’s ultimate imposition of marital closure, which transforms the private, resistant text into a public, domesticated narrative.


INTRODUCTION: The Epistolary Form as a Gendered Space :

Samuel Richardson’s Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is widely acknowledged as a foundational text of the English novel, distinguished above all by its immersive, "writing-to-the-moment" epistolary form. Yet, the critical engagement with Pamela extends far beyond its formal novelty, focusing on the complex, and often contradictory, messages it conveys about class, virtue, and social mobility. The core tension of the novel a servant girl’s resistance to her master’s sexual and social poweris managed and mediated entirely through the act of writing letters. This essay takes as its central thesis the idea that the epistolary structure of Pamela is inherently and strategically gendered; it functions as a distinct space wherein the articulation of desire for the female protagonist fundamentally differs from, and often conflicts with, the expression of desire by her male counterpart, Mr. B.


The Gendering of Epistolary Desire, as a critical framework, moves beyond simply observing that Pamela writes letters. Instead, it scrutinises the politics of literacy and narrative control. In the eighteenth century, literacy and private written correspondence offered women a rare avenue for self-reflection and the construction of an autonomous identity, a space largely inaccessible in the public, spoken sphere dominated by men. Pamela’s act of writing to her parents is therefore an assertion of selfhood, an attempt to solidify her moral position, and a desperate effort to create a record that might ensure her survival. Her letters are not mere communication; they are a defensive fortress built with ink and paper, a tangible form of self-possession that resists the physical and proprietary claims of Mr. B. The physical necessity of clandestine writing hiding her papers, writing in secret, and using makeshift ink only intensifies the value of the text as an extension of her essential self, a literal embodiment of her desire for freedom.


Conversely, Mr. B’s relationship with writing is consistently one of control and appropriation. He views letters Pamela’s and his own as instruments of power, surveillance, or deceit. His desire is initially expressed through physical aggression and the manipulation of spatial boundaries; when he turns to the written word, it is often to intercept, read, or attempt to silence Pamela’s own production. This critical distinction Pamela’s writing as the articulation of a moral, self-preservational desire, and Mr. B’s engagement with writing as a means of controlling the object of his desire establishes the epistolary space as a contested terrain where gendered power dynamics are fully played out. This assignment will proceed by analysing three key areas: first, the establishment of Pamela’s textual authority as a form of moral desire; second, the failure of Mr. B’s masculine desire to dominate the epistolary space and his enforced reform; and finally, the ultimate fate of Pamela’s radical textuality upon her transformation into Mrs. B.



Pamela's Textual Authority: Desire for Autonomy and Authorship :


Pamela’s primary desire, the unwavering insistence upon her “virtue,” is articulated as a sustained act of self-authorship. Unlike the male libertine whose desire is physically assertive and requires no written justification, Pamela’s desire must be continually textualised to maintain its very existence. The simple impulse to write to her parents transforms into a complex, moral imperative to document her suffering, her resistance, and her interior moral life. This process of textual production is, in itself, a form of feminine desire for autonomy. By narrating her experiences as they happen, Pamela assumes the role of an author, imposing structure and meaning on the chaos of her imprisonment and objectification. This self-documentation elevates her from a mere victim into a figure of active, if textual, resistance, demonstrating that the only true escape available to her is the creation of an inviolable narrative self.




The Letter as Material Embodiment :


The letters function as a material surrogate for Pamela's body and agency. While Mr. B can imprison her, steal her clothes, and physically threaten her, he cannot fully possess the narrative she creates. The epistolary form guarantees her an audience (her parents, and by extension, the reader) and a voice, which is the only true possession she controls. Her constant commitment to recording events, reflections, and even her despair transforms the passive victim into an active chronicler, asserting a moral agency that supersedes her lower social and economic standing. This desire for narrative fidelity and moral consistency a deeply intellectual and emotional desire is powerfully gendered, standing in sharp contrast to the shallow, transactional nature of Mr. B’s initial seduction attempts. The letter, therefore, becomes the critical interface where her desire for self-preservation is encoded as narrative truth, granting her a textual authority that ultimately compels Mr. B to accept her terms for marriage. This textual power, born of a private, feminine necessity, proves to be the most potent weapon against the public, patriarchal power structure that Mr. B represents.


Affective Gendering and Moral Sincerity :


Furthermore, Pamela’s writing is marked by an affective depth characteristic of feminine discourse in the novel. Her letters are filled with spontaneous emotional outbursts, pious reflections, and detailed accounts of her terror, appealing directly to the sentiment and morality of her audience. This 'sentimentality' is not a weakness but a strategic gendering of her narrative; it is the language of virtue, which, unlike the language of power (Mr. B’s commands), carries intrinsic moral weight within the Enlightenment context. By writing with such passionate sincerity, Pamela not only solidifies her own virtue but also constructs an image of herself that Mr. B, upon reading her words, finds himself incapable of morally corrupting. She writes herself into a moral heroine, and it is this textual identity that Mr. B ultimately desires to possess, rather than simply her physical form. Her authorship, thus, creates the very 'reward' of her virtue. Her epistolary style, marked by its immediacy and vulnerability, establishes an ethical standard against which Mr. B's cold, calculated actions are harshly judged by the implied reader, effectively turning her private crisis into a public moral drama.


The Politics of Interception and Suppression: Mr. B’s Failed Masculine Desire :




Mr. B’s desire is fundamentally a desire for acquisition and control, a masculine impulse rooted in his socio-economic authority. Initially, his methods of expressing this desire are physical and spatial: locking her up, manipulating her environment, and initiating direct assaults. However, the true conflict of the novel is not resolved through physical struggle, but through the battle for epistolary dominance. Mr. B's first significant error, and the moment that shifts the balance of power, is his decision to move from physical coercion to textual surveillance---intercepting and reading Pamela’s private letters.


Surveillance as Sublimated Violence :


The act of reading Pamela’s text constitutes a profound crisis for Mr. B’s masculine authority. His desire, previously brute and unreflective, is suddenly held up to the mirror of Pamela’s detailed, moral, and self-aware narration. When he reads her account of his own actions, he is forced to confront the moral ugliness of his behaviour as documented by the object of his desire. His masculine desire, which asserts itself through action, fails utterly when confronted by her feminine desire, which asserts itself through narrative truth. The intercepted letters force him to witness her interiority, her unwavering moral fortitude, and the spiritual cost of his persecution. This unsolicited, intimate access to her soul is the mechanism of his reform. Mr. B’s interception is a sublimation of his violent impulses; unable to conquer her physically or morally, he attempts to possess her voice. Yet, this act of textual possession leads to his own ethical undoing, as the narrative he attempts to suppress becomes the mirror of his own moral deficiency.


Epistolary Conversion and the Desire for Authorship  :


Richardson masterfully deploys the epistolary structure to expose the inherent limitations of masculine desire when it remains purely physical and acquisitive. Mr. B, as the patriarch, believes he possesses the right to control all aspects of his domain, including his servant’s communications. However, when he physically seizes her letters, he unknowingly hands Pamela the most powerful weapon: the text itself. The reading is not a simple act of espionage; it is a forced identification with the victim. His desire for her body is complicated and eventually superseded by a desire for her textual and moral self. He falls in love not with the real, frightened servant girl, but with the eloquent, virtuous, and self-fashioning heroine she constructs in her letters. His conversion, therefore, is an  epistolary conversion his desire must be literally re-written by Pamela’s hand. He must abandon his role as the master who controls the narrative and become a reader who submits to Pamela's authority. His eventual marriage proposal is, in essence, an acknowledgement of his epistolary defeat and a submission to the textual definition of 'virtue' that Pamela has so meticulously created. He desires her not as the servant he can coerce, but as the author who has morally reformed him, demonstrating that the only way for his desire to be legitimised is to align itself with the moral authority of her text.


The Paradox of Rewarded Virtue: Marital Closure and Narrative Domestication :


The conclusion of the first volume of Pamela, culminating in the marriage to Mr. B, signals a profound shift in the novel’s gendered architecture and the ultimate fate of Pamela’s radical textuality. The second volume, Pamela in her Exalted Condition, details her life as Mrs. B, and it is here that the complex relationship between feminine desire and the epistolary form is domesticated and, arguably, muted. The marriage, while presented as the "reward" for virtue, simultaneously functions as the closure of Pamela’s rebellious, autonomous narrative voice.


From Resistant Correspondence to Didactic Journal :


Prior to marriage, Pamela’s letters were documents of resistance, addressed to her parents a connection outside of Mr. B's controlling social sphere and were inherently subversive. Post-marriage, her writing transforms into a series of lengthy journals, letters to Lady Davers, and moral treatises primarily addressed \textit{to} Mr. B, or written \textit{for} his approval. Her desire shifts from a defensive desire for self-preservation to a domestic desire for assimilation and instruction. The woman who once wrote in secret to save herself now writes in the open to validate her social standing and instruct others on proper conduct. The immediate, "writing-to-the-moment" style of Volume I, which gave her narrative its dynamic energy, is replaced by the retrospective, edited reflection of Volume II, transforming her private voice into a public, social tool. The original function of the letter to seek escape is abandoned for the function of the journal: to confirm and solidify her new status.


The Co-option of the Female Text :





This transformation represents the patriarchal co-option of female textual power. The raw, immediate, and emotionally charged voice of the besieged servant girl is replaced by the measured, didactic, and socially approved voice of the conduct-book wife. The textual authority she earned through suffering is now redirected toward reinforcing the very social order that once threatened to destroy her. The radical energy of the letters their capacity to expose male tyranny and assert a lower-class female’s moral superiority is neutralised. Her desire is no longer for an autonomous self  the patriarchy, but for acceptance within it. The novel’s ultimate social commitment is to confine that desire within the acceptable bounds of matrimony and hierarchy. The final irony is that Pamela’s triumph her marriage is simultaneously the defeat of her most potent, independent form of self-expression. Her final act of authorship is essentially to surrender her narrative to the domestic sphere, transforming her revolutionary correspondence into a stabilising force for the patriarchal order.


Virtue Rewarded as Narrative Containment :


The second volume’s focus on Pamela winning over the upper-class characters, particularly Lady Davers, further highlights this co-option. Her letters are displayed as proof of her worthiness, transforming them from private records of resistance into public testimonials of her conduct. The subversive text becomes the legitimising document, completing the cycle of gendering desire where the woman’s initial desire for self-hood is rewarded by the man’s desire for possession, followed by her complete assimilation into his social identity. Richardson, by concluding the novel with this image of the reformed patriarch and the newly assimilated heroine, performs a masterful act of narrative containment, demonstrating that even the most radical form of female self-authorship can ultimately be folded back into the dominant social paradigm, sacrificing textual freedom for social reward.


 CONCLUSION :





Richardson’s Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded remains a pivotal text because its epistolary form externalises and dramatises the inherently gendered nature of desire in the eighteenth century. This essay has argued that Pamela’s letters are the architecture of her feminine desire, representing autonomy, moral authorship, and self-preservation---a desire enacted through continuous textual production. This stands in sharp opposition to Mr. B’s masculine desire, which is initially characterised by physical acquisition, proprietary impulse, and an aggressive, failed attempt at textual suppression.


The novel’s central tension is resolved when Mr. B’s crude, masculine desire is forced to submit to the moral authority encoded in Pamela’s text. His transformation is not merely one of moral conviction but of epistolary submission, where he accepts Pamela’s narrative as the true version of events, desiring the virtuous author over the vulnerable servant.


However, the "reward" of marriage ultimately casts a shadow over the initial radicalism of the text. The marital closure of the narrative necessitates the domestication of Pamela’s textual authority. Her vibrant, subversive correspondence is transformed into a didactic, approved narrative that reinforces the social hierarchy rather than challenging it. The gendering of desire in \textit{Pamela} therefore reveals a powerful paradox: the female subject’s desire for self-authorship is the agent of her social ascent, but that ascent requires the eventual silence and assimilation of the radical, independent voice that made her ascent possible. This enduring tension ensures the novel remains a fertile ground for feminist and formalist critique, demonstrating how the very form of the novelthe written word can be both a source of individual liberation and an instrument of social control.


REFERENCES :

    • Blanchard, Jane. "Composing Purpose in Richardson's 'Pamela.'" South Atlantic Review, vol. 76, no. 2, 2011, pp. 93–107. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43050924.





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