Samuel Richardson’s Pamela has the subtitle “Virtue Rewarded,” making it clear that virtue is important to the story. In the novel, “virtue” is most often synonymous with virginity, reflecting how most of the novel revolves around protagonist Pamela’s efforts to remain a virgin despite the tricks, assaults, and threats of rape from her master, Mr. B. As the novel goes on, however, particularly after the wedding of Pamela and Mr. B, it soon becomes clear that chastity isn’t Pamela’s only virtue. The Editor himself states directly that he hopes audience will see Pamela as an all-around role model and strive to emulate her virtuous behavior. Among Pamela’s many good qualities are her patience, open-mindedness, and ability to forgive—all of which are tenets of the Christian faith. Even after enduring all of Mr. B’s abuse, for instance, Pamela never hates him, and she ultimately forgives him and all his accomplices, like John and Mrs. Jewkes. Pamela’s behavior, the novel suggests, shows what virtue looks like in action.
Although Pamela suffers during much of the novel—even while acting virtuously—she eventually reaps incredible rewards for her virtue. While Pamela acts virtuously for spiritual reasons, the rewards that she and others receive in the book for good behavior are often material and tangible. For example, as a servant, Pamela was excited to obtain four guineas, but after winning over Mr. B with her good behavior and becoming his wife, she obtains hundreds of guineas to spend on herself or give away as charity. Pamela’s poor but dignified father and mother similarly receive a large income as a reward for their modest lifestyle (Mr. B gifts it to them following his marriage to Pamela), and many characters like Mr. Williams and Mrs. Jervis, who help Pamela, receive their own material rewards. Together, the fates of all these characters help make the case for a Christian God who actively intervenes in earthly life in order to help the virtuous who deserve it. Richardson’s Pamela demonstrates that the value of virtue is both spiritual and material, with the concrete rewards of wealth and status representing the less tangible but even more important spiritual benefits of virtuousness.
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The Value of Virtue Quotes in Pamela
Dear Father and Mother,
I have great Trouble, and some Comfort, to acquaint you with. The Trouble is, that my good Lady died of the Illness I mention’d to you, and left us all much griev’d for the loss of her; for she was a dear good lady, and kind to all us her servants.
I hope the good ’Squire has no Design: but when he has given you so much Money, and speaks so kindly to you, and praises your coming on; and, Oh, that fatal word! that he would be kind to you, if you would do as you should do, almost kills us with fears.
JOHN being to go your way, I am willing to write, because he is so willing to carry any thing for me. He says it does him good at his Heart to see you both, and to hear you talk. He says you are both so sensible, and so honest, that he always learns something from you to the Purpose.
I sobb’d and cry’d most sadly. What a foolish Hussy you are! said he: Have I done you any Harm? Yes, Sir, said I, the greatest Harm in the world: You have taught me to forget myself and what belongs to me, and have lessen’d the Distance that Fortune has made between us, by demeaning yourself, to be so free to a poor Servant.
Say no more, Mrs. Jervis; for by G—d I will have her!
Their Riches often are a Snare;
At best, a pamper’d weighty Care:
Their Servants far more happy are:
At least, so thinketh Pamela.
Now I will give you a Picture of this Wretch: She is a broad, squat, pursy, fat thing, quite ugly, if any thing God made can be so called; about forty Years old. She has a huge Hand, and an Arm as thick as my Waist, I believe. […] So that with a Heart more ugly than her Face, she frightens me sadly: and I am undone to be sure, if God does not protect me; for she is very, very wicked—indeed she is.
This Act of Despondency, thought I, is a Sin, that, if I pursue it, admits of no Repentance, and can therefore claim no Forgiveness.—And wilt thou, to shorten thy transitory Griefs, heavy as they are, and weak as thou fanciest thyself, plunge both Body and Soul into everlasting Misery! Hitherto, Pamela, thought I, thou art the innocent, the suffering Pamela; and wilt thou, to avoid thy sufferings, be the guilty Aggressor? And, because wicked Men persecute thee, wilt thou fly in the Face of the Almighty, and distrust his Grace and Goodness, who can still turn all these Sufferings to Benefits?
Your poor Pamela cannot answer for the Liberties taken with her in her deplorable State of Death.
IF, my dear Parents, I am not destin’d more surely than ever for Ruin, I have now more Comfort before me, than ever I yet knew. And am either nearer my Happiness or my Misery than ever I was.
Since you so much prize your Honour, and your Virtue; since all Attempts against that are so odious to you; and since I have avowedly made several of these Attempts, do you think it is possible for you to love me preferably to any other of my Sex?
Besides, said he, there is such a pretty air of romance, as you relate them, in your plots, and my plots, that I shall be better directed in what manner to wind up the catastrophe of the pretty novel.
My master kindly said, Come, Mr. Andrews, you and I will sit together. And so took his Place at the Bottom of the Table, and set my Father on his Right-hand; and Sir Simon would sit on his Left.
And thus, my dearest, dear Parents, is your happy, happy, thrice happy Pamela, at last, marry’d; and to who?—Why, to her beloved, gracious Master! The Lord of her Wishes!—And thus the dear, once naughty Assailer of her Innocence, by a blessed Turn of Providence, is become the kind, the generous Protector and Rewarder of it.
Oh! What a poor thing is human Life in its best Enjoyments!—subjected to imaginary Evils, when it has no real ones to disturb it!
Are all so many signal Instances of the Excellency of her mind, which may make her Character worthy of the Imitation of her Sex. And the Editor of these Sheets will have his End, if it inspires a laudable Emulation in the Minds of any worthy persons, who may thereby entitle themselves to the Rewards, the Praises, and the Blessings, by which she was so deservedly distinguished.
