Summary of Letters
311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320
Within
this letter Clarissa is writing to her dear friend Miss Anna Howe.
She is very upset over a letter she has received from Miss Howe.
“… Surely Miss Howe could never repeat so sharply upon her friend,
words written in bitterness of spirit, and in the disorder of head …”
She is very upset with what her friend had to say.
“Alas, my
dear! I was tricked, most vilely tricked back, as you shall hear in this
place.” Clarissa informs Miss Howe of her being brought back to the “vile
house”. She explains this further in Letter 312.
Clarissa is confused as to why Miss Howe mentioned her
appearance on the day the messenger delivered the letter.
The messenger returned to Miss Howe and told quite a story.
“… How then could I be found in such a strange way, bloated, and
flush-coloured; you don’t know how! – Yet what a vile, what a hateful figure
has your messenger represented me to have made!”
Clarissa then begins to suspect a connection to Lovelace.
She believes that Lovelace intercepted the letter and had her messenger
relay a strange story.
Finally Clarissa closes alluding to the events that will be
explained in the following letter.
This letter is also written from Clarissa to her friend Miss Howe.
It further relates the events that Clarissa alluded to in the previous
letter. Lovelace found Clarissa in
Hampstead and presented her with his supposed Aunt and Cousin, Lady Betty
Lawrance and Miss Montague. “They
were richly dressed and stuck out with jewels”.
“I had not the
least suspicion that they were not the ladies they personated”.
Clarissa was not aware at the time that these two ladies had been hired
by Lovelace. Lady Betty apologized
to Clarissa for Lovelace’s behavior. Clarissa
now believes that Lovelace went so far as to write out a script and directions
to these ladies.
Lovelace
then fell to his knees and begged Clarissa’s forgiveness.
Clarissa informed the ladies that she could not yet leave because she was
awaiting a letter from Miss Howe that would ultimately determine her future. The two women offered themselves to be of service to Clarissa
and insisted that Lovelace be happy with her decision.
Clarissa describes to Miss Howe her devastating journey back to the house
of ill repute. She put her trust
into the alleged Lady Betty and Miss Montague to bring her to Cousin Leeson's
unscathed, as quickly as possible.
Clarissa
did not suspect at first that these two fine ladies could possibly be anything
than what they proclaimed to be. They
appeared to be of breeding and intelligence and they seemed to be deeply
concerned for her well being. Although
Clarissa's expectations of them was a little disappointing, she could not
understand why and so she dismissed her feelings. She should have trusted her inner doubts.
Realizing
the reputation of the house and the characters who lived there, Clarissa was
horrified to be brought back to those lodgings under false pretenses.
Still, she placed her trust in Lady Betty and Charlotte even though the
warning bells were ringing loudly in her head.
As Clarissa recalled the
incidents that led her to that awful house, she seemed to be truly amazed of the
acting abilities of all those involved. How Lovelace carried himself and let his aunt have the
advantage over him. She was struck
by the reverent behavior of Miss Montague and the dignity of character upheld by
Aunt Betty. Their apparent closeness was sealed tightly in their little
discussion about their relatives and how the future happiness of the entire
family lay in the addition of Clarissa to their little circle.
These
fakes were excellent in carrying off this deceit against the poor Clarissa.
Aunt Betty was superb in acting the part of a poised lady with breeding
embedded with moral fiber. And the
ever darling Lovelace! He knew
nothing of the characters of the ladies of the brothel.
He knew nothing of the on-goings in that ill-fated house.
What an actor! The future
recipient of an Oscar!
How
could Clarissa possibly question their intentions?
How could she possibly suspect they were not whom they assumed to be?
Aw – but here’s the coach. Let
us mount and be off!
“How happy would a visit so condescending make her cousin
Leeson! –
her cousin Leeson was not unworthy of ”… Clarissa’s acquaintance.
They must, “a supper of Mrs. Moore” would be ready at nine.
They must not linger, Cousin Leeson will be so anxious to meet Clarissa.
These were among the statements thrown at Clarissa to trigger guilt and make her
agree to the journey to Cousin Leeson’s.
Surely, Clarissa had no choice but to accept, especially since Lovelace
seemed to be so much against it. “Hateful
villain!”
Poor
Clarissa, apparently having no sense of direction, was quite surprised when the
coach pulled up in front of the very house she so detested.
Lovelace, quite dumbfounded as to how they could have possibly ended up
there, decided to check his mail and meet with the elusive Mr. Belton.
Memories
flooded back into Clarissa’s mind as she saw Dorcas and the horrible Mrs.
Sinclair. She refused to leave the
carriage and implored the driver to leave at once.
Now
Aunt Betty simply could understand why Clarissa was so upset.
Surely, Mrs. Sinclair could not be the same monster Clarissa had spoken
about. She seemed so nice.
Clarissa
was finally lured into the house by the pretense that Lady Betty was worried
about her. Still Clarissa did not
suspect the deception. Aunt Betty
insisted that Clarissa come into the house only for a moment to revive herself.
Clarissa was speechless and succumbed to Aunt Betty’s bogus concern.
Clarissa
was given tea to calm her nerves and when she declared that the tea tasted odd,
she was immediately told that it was because they used “London milk”.
Aunt Betty left Clarissa to pack up her things.
Clarissa became more and more anxious as time went by and Aunt Betty did
not return. She implored Lovelace
to bring Aunt Betty to her and Lovelace pretended to oblige.
She implored Lovelace to send for a coach, and Lovelace pretended again
to oblige. She begged Lovelace for
mercy, promising to be his, but Lovelace had no mercy for her.
Letter 315, as it says at the beginning, is a
continuation of the one prior. It
proceeds to give a detailed list of the things Clarissa explains to her dear
friend, Anna Howe. A majority of
this letter concerns itself with her attempts to free herself from Lovelace’s
grip, as well as her perpetual failure to do so.
Along the way, she enlists the help of Dorcas who first agrees to help
her, but then later betrays her by “dropping the promissory note,
undoubtedly…on purpose”.
After seeking help in others only to be back at square one, Clarissa
laments to Anna about her predicament, but at the same time, apologizes
furiously for the problems she had caused Anna.
She makes one request of Anna as she lays down her pen; she may never
speak of the violence Clarissa mentions in her letter.
She fears the outcome of having to “prosecute him and his accomplices
in a Court of Justice”.
She ends the letter in this fashion:
…and since all my own hopes of worldly happiness are entirely over; let me slide quietly into my grave; and let it not be remembered, except by one friendly tear, and no more, dropped from your gentle eye, my own dear Anna Howe, on the happy day that shall shut up all my sorrows… (1013)
In this letter, Anna responds to Clarissa’s last letter with such
vehemence in taking revenge against men. She
thought that Clarissa was sagacious, but apparently “not watchful, not
sagacious enough, for the horrid villain [she] had to deal with”.
She also comments on how the letter Clarissa enclosed
as Anna’s last letter, was a forgery and obviously written by Lovelace.
It contains a few excerpts from the original, but is not nearly as long.
Her original letter also discussed how the house in which Clarissa is
taking up residence is detestable and gave Clarissa reason to be suspicious of
Tomlinson. The forged letter that
Clarissa received makes no mention of any of this.
Anna worries greatly for Clarissa.
She states that if a woman as virtuous, and vigilent as Clarissa could
not escape the vileness of a man like Lovelace, then no woman is secure.
She ends her letter reassuring Clarissa that future letters
will be delivered securely by the usual hand (Collins’s) but will be limited
in content due to her mother’s conditions to their correspondence.
This letter is solely based around Anna’s mother’s reaction to
Clarissa’s predicament. According to Mrs. Howe, Clarissa’s problems hinge off her
first error when she left with Lovelace that first night. As for her “latter sufferings from that vilest of
miscreants” Clarissa has one option: to take them up in court and prosecute
him and his “devilish accomplices”. If
she fails to do so, she will not only be answerable to future acts he takes
against her, but others get away with doing the same to other innocent girls.
Ultimately, Mrs. Howe stresses the importance of taking action “not
only for her own sake, [but for her family], her acquaintance, and her sex which
are all highly injured and scandalized by his villainy to her”.
Mrs. Howe also brings up something of questionable
nature: “will it not be rather
surmised that she may be apprehensive that some weakness, or lurking love, will
appear upon the trial of the strange cause?”
Is it possible that maybe Clarissa has hidden feelings for Lovelace?
Anna ends the letter stating that Clarissa’s reluctance to
prosecute Lovelace will therefore hinder their correspondence (as requested by
Anna’s mother).
Clarissa has fled from London and the grasp of Lovelace but she still does not feel safe. This is shortly after she has discovered that Lovelace had forged letters to her from Anna. She states in Letter 318 that she is “far from thinking myself out of the reach of this man’s further violence. But what can I do? Whither can I fly?” She has no were to go and no other options at this time in her life. She feels that her best option for protection is her bad state of health. She is at her ropes end. The only way out for her seems to be the option of death. She does not want to go to a public prosecution she states that she “would soon suffer every evil, than appear publicly in a court to do myself justice.” Clarissa in this letter also tells Miss Howe that her friendship is the thing she now treasures most, because it is of the heart. She continues on in this letter to express a belief that some critics’ ( Mullan, Brissenden) say is crucial to the sentimental novel: that in a corrupt world, virtue is indeed in constant distress and benevolent feelings are rare. Clarissa says, “Let me repeat that I am quite sick of life; and of an earth in which innocent and benevolent spirits are sure to be considered as aliens, and to be made sufferers by the genuine sons and daughters of that earth.”
Letter 319 is a response to Clarissa from Miss Howe. In this letter she is trying to build up Clarissa. She does this by telling her she is not at fault, and is innocent of any wrongdoing. She tells her not to lose hope. She tells her she wants Rogers to look at her so he can report back to her on Clarissa’s health condition. She then tells Clarissa that she is being watched by Lovelace, and she too is becoming fearful. She ends the letter with telling Clarissa to be comforted.
Clarissa tells Miss Howe that is Lovelace plots against her or Mr. Hickman, that she will seek to prosecute him. She continues to tell her that she hopes that she is safe in her private lodgings. And that she runs the risk of being seen by Lovelace or his accomplices, because she goes to church to pray three times a day. She then proceeds to tell Anna about where she is living. She then tells Miss Howe her thoughts about marriage and she states that “for even persons who have bad hearts will have veneration for those who have good ones.” Applied to Lovelace this reflects Clarissa views that he could be reformed, because of her goodness. Clarissa goes on to thank Anna for the comfort she extends towards her. She tells her that she thinks of a higher reward, which comes from her religious faith and addresses the theme of obedience God, as the highest authority. She states, “and I presume to imagine, from principles which I hope will, in due time, and by due reflection, set me above the sense of all worldly disappointments.” She goes on to tell Anna that she no longer feels like herself, and she can’t think straight, partly because of her fathers curse.