Pamela: Personification 4 key examples

Pamela's parents personify Virtue and Goodness as the creators of "true Beauty." On the other hand, they tell Pamela not to let herself get "puffed up" by other people's comments that she is pretty. This warning suggests that compliments are, metaphorically, air that can fill Pamela's ego like a balloon. If she sees herself as beautiful because of all this empty "air," she is seeing a sort of illusion that will disappear as soon as the air is let out. If instead she allows Virtue and Goodness to fill her up, she will be truly beautiful. No matter what anyone says, and no matter what happens to Pamela's appearance as she ages, this "true Beauty" will never leave her because it is real and substantive.

The idea that Pamela can make herself beautiful through Virtue and Goodness reflects her parents' deeply Christian worldview. Virtue essentially means abstinence from sex, and Goodness essentially means obedience and demureness. As a Christian girl, Pamela is supposed to do as she is told and guard her virginity at all costs. These two directives are somewhat at odds with each other when obeying Mr. B. would involve having sex with him. Pamela's challenge throughout the book is to be both "virtuous" and "good." Mr. B. makes walking this line very difficult for her, but one way of interpreting his character is as the ultimate test of Pamela's ability to fulfill her parents' wishes for their daughter. By rising to the challenge, she proves her "true Beauty" and her worthiness for marriage and riches (at least according to her parents).

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.

Mr. Andrews is the first one to speak of his heart as though it is its own being "ready to burst with Joy!" But Mr. B. takes the personification to its conclusion. He calls Mr. Andrews's heart "honest" and says that he loves to hear this "honest Heart of yours speaking at your Lips." This kind of personification of the heart during emotional conversations is not unusual in 18th-century writing, or even in certain kinds of writing today. The heart has long been associated with emotion due to its physiological response to strong feelings. Mr. B.'s choice to personify it is significant, though. He has spent the first half of the novel unable to see Pamela or anyone else around him as a full person. He has focused on Pamela's appearance and has repeatedly spoken of her as though she is an object without a psychology of her own. He has dismissed servants when they have proven to have their own inner loyalties to Pamela. He has generally struggled with the notion that "the heart" is important at all. Now, he recognizes the sound of Mr. Andrews's "Heart [...] speaking at your Lips." His ability to recognize the sound of a fellow human's inner joy demonstrates that Mr. B. truly has grown into a more empathetic and moral person since the beginning of the novel. Pamela is not alone in witnessing and believing in this growth, since her father has now witnessed it, too.

Pamela separates herself from her heart, claiming that it "throbs" inside her "Bosom." She imagines that these throbs are "reproaches" that her heart is leveling against her for criticizing its independent wish to yield to "the Love of so dear a Gentleman" as Mr. B. By personifying her heart, Pamela distinguishes between her feelings and her rational mind. Her heart may be falling in love with Mr. B., but in her mind, she still knows that she needs to be cautious. She will continue to look out for signs of a "sham marriage," even as her feelings for Mr. B. grow.

Distinguishing between herself and her "heart" helps Pamela tread carefully in her relationship with the manipulative Mr. B. Additionally, distinguishing between how she feels and how she thinks helps her maintain the idea that she is virtuous and chaste, even if her unruly "heart" longs for Mr. B. In the 18th century, people were very interested in the rational mind as one of the human faculties. They were especially interested in whether reason could override human feeling and instinct; if it could, maybe humans could be trusted to govern themselves. By personifying her heart as a separate being from herself, Pamela suggests that she can overcome her heart's desires, as strong as they might be, in the interest of doing what is right in the eyes of her family and society.