In Letter 24, Pamela describes a moment when Mr. B. becomes violently upset and cannot decide whether to expel Pamela from his sight or to keep her with him. Pamela uses imagery and pathos as she describes this scene in her letter to her parents:
I thought he was mad, for my Share; for he knew not what he would have. But I was going however, and he stept after me, and took hold of my Arm, and brought me in again: I am sure he made my Arm black and blue; for the Marks are upon it still. Sir, Sir, said I, pray have Mercy; I will, I will come in!
Pamela does not just tell her parents that Mr. B. is violent. Rather, she describes how "he made my Arm black and blue." The visual image of the "marks" bruising her arm also conjures the sensory image of how it must have felt for Pamela to have Mr. B. squeeze her arm so tightly. This imagery plays into the pathos of the scene. Pamela is trying to explain to her parents why she would stay in the room with Mr. B. when he is in this state. Her parents have insisted, quite intensely, that it would be better for her to die than to have sex with Mr. B. Drawing attention to her bruised arm helps her emphasize the fear and lack of control she feels in his presence. This scene is one of many in which Pamela demonstrates how herculean the task of resisting his advances really is. It is not that she wants to yield to him, she persuades her parents. Rather, he has her practically in a vice grip. Pamela is in a constant state of danger in his presence.
In Letter 32, Pamela describes her journey "home," which instead turns out to be her journey to Mr. B.'s Lincolnshire estate, where he intends to hold her captive. Pamela uses ominous imagery to describe what the estate looks like; this imagery foreshadows the terrible things that will come to pass in the mansion:
About Eight at Night, we enter’d the Court-yard of this handsome, large, old, and lonely Mansion, that looks made for Solitude and Mischief, as I thought, by its Appearance, with all its brown nodding Horrors of lofty Elms and Pines about it; And here, said I to myself, I fear, is to be the Scene of my Ruin, unless God protect me, who is all-sufficient!
Pamela emphasizes the "brown nodding Horrors of lofty Elms and Pines" all around the big, "lonely" mansion. The poetic image of the "brown horror" of trees was common at this time. For instance, the 17th-century writer and translator John Dryden did a famous translation of Virgil's Aeneid that used this image. It typically signaled danger and adversity to come. Pamela notes that some of the dark trees are elms, which in some traditions are associated with death and are planted near graves. Gothic literature did not really take off until a few decades after Richardson wrote this novel, but Pamela is unmistakably describing a haunted house of the kind that features prominently in gothic novels. She can tell instantly that terrible things are going to happen to her inside the house, just from the way it looks. She uses the imagery to capture her sense of foreboding, which stands in sharp contrast to the hope she felt when she thought she was on her way to her parents' cheery house.
In the Journal, Pamela describes one escape attempt from which she turns back when she encounters a bull that she knows hurt a maid earlier. She uses vivid imagery to describe the bull and explain why she imagines it as a personification of Lucifer:
To be sure, there is Witchcraft in this House; and I believe Lucifer is bribed, as well as all about me, and is got into the Shape of that nasty grim Bull, to watch me!—For I have been down again; and ventur’d to open the Door, and went out about a Bow-shoot into the Pasture; but there stood that horrid Bull, staring me full in the Face, with fiery Saucer Eyes, as I thought.
Mr. B. has often accused Pamela of witchcraft. He does not mean it literally; by the 18th century, very few people really believed in witches. However, it is one of his favorite insults for Pamela when she is not behaving as he wants her to. Here, Pamela demonstrates that Mr. B. has gotten in her head and made her superstitious about witchcraft. She knows that she is not a witch, but she has come to expect all kinds of horrors from Mr. B. and her captors. The bull is effectively one of her "watchers" because she cannot safely leave the Lincolnshire estate without encountering its "fiery Saucer Eyes," from which she is sure the devil stares out. The description of the bull's eyes as "fiery saucers" conjures the image of actual flames. Bulls can have a reddish rim around their eyes, but their eyes are by no means bursting with fire. Pamela might be exaggerating what she sees, but she also comes across as paranoid: she might actually believe what she is writing here. It is no wonder that she is paranoid given how closely Mr. B. is having Mrs. Jewkes and his other servants watch her. She encounters the bull as though it is a sentient guard representing Mr. B. and the devil's collective aim of keeping her trapped inside the house.
In the Journal, Pamela describes one horrifying night when Mr. B. dresses up as Nan and hides in her bedroom so that Mrs. Jewkes can help him assault her once she is in bed. Pamela uses a simile and imagery to describe her powerlessness when Mr. B. springs upon her:
Said I, Is the Wench mad! Why, how now, Confidence? thinking still it had been Nan. But he kissed me with frightful Vehemence; and then his Voice broke upon me like a Clap of Thunder. Now, Pamela, said he, is the dreadful Time of Reckoning come, that I have threaten’d.—I scream’d out in such a manner, as never any body heard the like. But there was nobody to help me: And both my Hands were secured, as I said.
Pamela compares Mr. B.'s voice to a sudden "clap of thunder." Thunder itself can be startling and loud, and the imagery embedded in the simile helps the reader feel how instantaneously Mr. B.'s voice fills Pamela with fear in this moment. Additionally, thunder is associated with the destructive, sublime power of nature and God. Mr. B. holds the kind of power over Pamela that God and nature hold over humans. Pamela describes the piercing sound of her own scream "as never any body heard the like." This image conveys the fear Pamela feels in response to Mr. B.'s thunderous voice: she knows that he is about to assault her, and it is the worst thing she can imagine happening to her. She goes on to describe how her hands are "secured" so that she cannot fight back. The reader can see the image of Pamela being held down by Mr. B. and Mrs. Jewkes working in cooperation, but the reader is helpless to intervene. What's more, because Pamela is narrating her own experience, the reader can imagine the physical sensation of being held down. In this way, the reader's helplessness and Pamela's helplessness are conflated. By contrast, Pamela's imagery serves to amplify the power her simile has already granted to Mr. B.
One day, in the Journal (continued), Pamela describes a walk she took with Mr. B. during which she became upset after he brought up the idea of his own mortality. Mr. B. uses imagery as he comforts her by emphasizing the beautifying effect she has had on his life:
Don’t you with Pleasure, my Dear, said he, take in the delightful Fragrance that this sweet Shower has given to these Banks of Flowers? Your Presence is so enlivening to me, that I could almost fansy, that what we owe to the Shower, is owing to That: And all Nature, methinks, blooms around me, when I have my Pamela by my Side.
Pamela has recently been crying in anticipatory grief on Mr. B.'s shoulder. Mr. B. points out the fragrance and beauty of the flowers around them. He urges Pamela not to dwell on his death, but instead to "take pleasure" in these images of life. He tells Pamela that it is easy to think that she, and not the recent rain shower, is the one responsible for "all Nature [that] blooms around me." He does not outright compare her tears to the rain shower. Still, he tells her that she has an "enlivening" effect on him. Altogether, Mr. B.'s words here suggest the image of Pamela crying on Mr. B. in order to bring him further to life, like the rain making the flowers grow more lush. He wants Pamela to reframe even her grief as a life-sustaining force for him.
Mr. B. is horrible to Pamela for the first half of the book, but he genuinely seems to have reformed by the end. There is a very legitimate argument that he still does not deserve Pamela's loyalty. However, Richardson is invested in his redemption arc as evidence of how powerful Pamela's virtue is. Her convictions, which Richardson wants young women in the real world to emulate, really have nurtured the formerly wicked Mr. B. into a sensitive and honorable husband.
