A Look at Samuel Richardson's Pamela, Or, Virtue Rewarded

In Samuel Richardson’s Pamela or, Virtue Rewarded, it is Pamela’s virtue that she strives to protect and maintain. But is this a mere trick to sway Squire B. into marrying her? As can be seen through Pamela’s letters and her own accounts of the ongoing situations, Pamela is not as virtuous as she wants others to view her. Her tricks, fronts, and fits are seen as conniving behaviors that will move her closer to her ultimate goals of high social status and wealth, both of which can be obtained by marrying the squire. 

Although Pamela is only a young woman, her naivety cannot be the blame of her sexual unawareness. Pamela grew up in poverty with both of her parents who were equally poor and virtuous. Pamela’s childhood conditions can be escaped by one thing: an upward movement in the class hierarchy to truly escape poverty. This can only be done by marrying into a higher and wealthier class. Not only is Pamela well aware of her predicament, she is well aware of the solution as well. 

Through Pamela’s accounts in her letters to her parents and then in her own journal we can only see her as an unreliable narrator. She is always unsure about her feelings towards the squire, sometimes feeling hatred, sometimes drawn to him in ways she can’t explain. Pamela pretends that she doesn’t know why the master wants her and appears to be shocked at the idea that servants are merely mistresses. In her letter to her parents, Pamela states, “I’m sure ‘tis time you was marry’d, or at this Rate no honest Maiden will live with you,” (p.70). Pamela suggests that the squire will possess no companion until he is married because no virtuous woman would accept her role as a mistress, yet that is exactly what Pamela is doing herself. Despite her unsure feelings, Pamela continuously denies the squires advances, seemingly putting up a front claiming her virtue but only causing the squire to pursue, respect, and want her more.