Woman portrait in pamela and clarissa by richardson, moll flanders by daniel defoe in augustan age

VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT PHạM THị THANH HƯƠNG WOMEN POTRAITS IN "PAMELA" AND "CLARISSA" BY RICHARDSON, "MOLL FLANDERS" BY DANIEL DEFOE IN AUGUSTAN AGE (Hình tợng ngời phụ nữ Pamela Clarissa Richardson, Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe thêi kú Augustan) GRADUATON THESIS FIELD: LITERATURE Supervisor : Tran Ngoc Tuong Student: Pham Thi Thanh Huong VINH, MAY 2007 VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT - VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT - WOMEN POTRAITS IN "PAMELA" AND "CLARISSA" BY RICHARDSON, "MOLL FLANDERS" BY DANIEL DEFOE IN AUGUSTAN AGE (Hình tợng ngời phụ nữ Pamela “Clarissa” cña Richardson, “Moll flanders” cña Daniel Defoe thêi kú Augustan) GRADUATON THESIS FIELD: LITERATURE Supervisor : Tran Ngoc Tuong Student: VINH, MAY 2007 Pham Thi Thanh Huong Acknowledgement During working on this thesis, I have met a lot of difficulties, but thanks to all help and encouragement from my teacher, my relatives and my friends, I have finally finished it First of all, I would like to show my deep gratitude and faithful thanks to my supervisor, the teacher Tran Ngoc Tuong (MA) who helped me and supported me enthusiastically during my writing Secondly, I would like to express special thanks to the directorial Board of the foreign language Department that award me the opportunity to this thesis Finally, I am very grateful to my parents, my friends for their great advices, help and encouragement during the process of studying this thesis Vinh, May 2007 Table of content Page Part: introduction … I The Rationale of the Study … II Aims of the Study .…… III The Objectives of the Study .…… IV The Scope of the Study ……………… V The Methods of Study ………………… Part II: content … Chapter I: Background of Augustan Age … 1.1 The Age of Enlightenment … .…… 1.2 The Important Events in the Augustan Age …… 1.2.1 New Scientific and Philosophical Discoveries … 1.2.2 Industrial and Agricultural Revolution 1.2.3 The Growth of the British Empire in the 18 Century Empire… 1.2.3.1 The First Empire .…… 1.2.3.2 The Second Empire …… 1.2.4 Conflicts in Society 1.2.4.1 Political Conflict .……… 1.2.4.2 Religious Conflict .…… 1.2.4.3 Social Class Layers .…… Chapter II: Woman portrait in “Pamela” “Clarissa” by Richardson and 1 1 1 3 6 9 10 10 10 11 12 “Moll Flanders” by Daniel Defoe in Augustan Age ………… 2.1Woman Portrait in the English Literature Periods before Enlightenment Age… 2.2 Woman Portrait in “Pamela” and “Clarissa” by Richardson, and in” Moll 13 13 Flanders” by Daniel Defoe … 2.2.1 The Appearances 2.2.2 Their Position in Society …… 2.2.3 Their Way of Life 2.2.4 The Misfortunate Fate and the Matter of those Fates 2.2.4.1 The Misfortunate Fate 2.2.4.2 The Matter of those Fates 2.2.4.2.1 The Victim of materialism 2.2.4.2.2 The Victim of social class layers 2.2.4.2.3 The Victim of Strong Men for Sexual Desire 2.2.5 Pamela and Clarissa – the Importance of Virtue 2.2 Moll Flanders – the Importance of Experience 15 17 18 21 23 23 24 24 25 26 27 29 Chapter III: Epistolary form in “Pamela“ and “Clarissa“ by Richardson 3.1 Sources of Epistolary Form .……………… 3.2 The Purpose of Using Epistolary Form in “Pamela” and “Clarissa” .… 3.2.1 Epistolary Form in “Pamela” .……… 3.2.2 Epistolary Form in “Clarissa .……… 3.3 Richardson’s Epistolary sensibility …… Part III: conclusion … References 32 33 33 34 35 40 PART I: INTRODUCTION I The Rationale of the Study Woman portrait is usually endless inspiration for poets and writers That portrait has deeply entered the literature world as a center image for a long time and contributes to make treasure house of art literature more and more plentiful and copious Many works are written to praise, respect their beauty and noble virtue with admiration, heartfelt profound, sympathy before their life and fates Some dominant topics mark well-known writers, their career and leave distinctive signs When studying in secondary school, the author had chance to get in touch with women subjects in Vietnam literature and this really attracted her Now, she is a student of the Foreign Languages Department and has opportunity to study more about women subjects in Western, especially English literature It is a great motive her to love more literature She finds a part of herself from characters in that works The more she reads, the more she has a deep understanding for their hurts and saturate in author’s language of a literary style It helps her discover many things and burns her desire to lead her to the decision to work on this thesis Another interesting fact is that woman portrait is a truthful picture of social life It reflects the people’s life in each period of history This portrait is more dominant in the first half of the eighteenth century with the growing of British Empire, the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment movement when start sharp conflicts, class layers in society The author recognizes that it is so interesting to her to study about it All of above things are the reasons why the author chooses “Woman portrait in “Pamela”, “Clarissa” by Richardson and “Moll Flanders” by Daniel Defoe in Augustan age” for her graduation study II Aims of the Study -To help readers understand more about beauty, virtue of England women and reflect their life, fate in the first half of the eighteenth century -To identify deeply the picture of English society in that age and have future viewpoints about the value of life and more humanization opinion about people in society III The Objectives of the Study - Back ground of Augustan age - The Woman portrait in Augustan age - Woman portrait in “Pamela”,” Clarissa” by Richardson and “Moll Flanders” by Danie Defoe IV The Scope of the Study In the frame of this thesis, it is beyond our ability to cover all genres and all works of Augustan age Thus, we concentrate on the woman portrait in three typical novels: “Pamela”, “Clarissa” and “Moll Flanders” V The method of the Study - Collective method - Analysis, contrastive and Synthetic method Part II: Content Chapter I: Background of Augustan Age 1.1 The Age of Enlightenment The age of enlightenment referred to eighteenth century in European and American philosophy or the longer period including the age of Reason It could more narrowly refer to the historical intellectual movement England was considered the cradle of Enlightenment that occurred in Germany, France, Britain and Spain The enlightenment was often closely linked with the Scientific Revolution, for both movements emphasized reason, science or rationality Inspired by the revolution of knowledge commenced by Galileo and Newton and in a climate of increasing disaffection with repressive authority, enlightenment thinkers sought to apply systematic thinking to all forms of human activity, carrying it in to the ethical and governmental spheres in exploration of the individual, society and the state Its leaders believed they would lead the world in to progress from a long period of doubtful tradition, irrationality, superstition, and tyranny that they imputed to the Dark Ages, though not from religious belief The movement helped to create the intellectual framework for the American and French Revolutions, the Latin American independence movement and the Polish Constitution of May 3; and led to the rise of classical liberalism, democracy, and capitalism The Enlightenment was matched with the high baroque and classical eras in music, and the neo-classical period in the arts It received modern attention as being one of the central models for many movements in the modern period It influenced the Jewish Haslcah, which in Western Europe and particularly in Germany resulted in the elevation and eventual replacement of Yiddish by Hebrew, as well as the Jewish reform movement In this period, the enlighteners praised human with their excellent abilities Human always tried to overcome difficulties, trials to change their fate and achieve a better life This differed from the Dark Age that human’s ability was negated by the Church’s preaching and the authority is imposing that God already planned their fate and that they could nothing to change it On the contrary, Enlighteners believed that education could human’s ability and they knew to act correctly Knowledge was the biggest wealth of human to discover and conquer the world, universe We saw in this period, the development of scientific technology made people’s life more convenient and happier That was a source of good education process, which considered being the best way to civilize human society The elevated humanism of Enlightenment also affirmed the equality between man and woman, the friendship and brotherhood among people regardless of their race, religion and nationality Simultaneously, they rejected the forces that duped and trampled on human such as supernatural and miraculous elements, harsh feudal ideas, discrimination and colonialism’s oppression Enlightenment experienced a long period that was not always plain and flat but up and down in different phases from its date of birth to the end Some persons divided the movement into three phrases, but others observed it in two main phases We here approve the second idea The first phrase was counted from the movement’s beginning in the late 17 th to the middle of 18th century This was the blooming Shase when Enlightenment developed to it highest point in its duration England in the first half of 18 th century had just overcome a number of chaos including Civil War, Restoration and rebels, which made a horrible memory in people’s mind At that time, Enlightenment occurred with many progressive ideas immediately met the hope and long of almost people Thus, the ideas received the great approval and marked its blooming development The leading principles of Enlightenment centered round the following ideas: Reason is a principle tool for all humans to think and to act correctly Man is good by nature In addition, man’s good nature can be brought to perfection through education All men and women are born equal in respect of their rationality and should thus be given the right to equality before law Belief, religions customs are to be questioned and accepted on the basic of reason only, not on the basic of authority, sacred texts or tradition Supernatural and miraculous elements are discarded as the whole universe in conceived as a rational system accessible to human reason Man to man is brother to brother, regardless of nationality or country of residence Applying these philosophies to reality, the Enlightener-writers concentrated on humanistic studies of Man, his nature and the origin of his good and evil doings To them, vice was due to ignorance that could be done away with by force of reason As a result, they thought it their duty to enlighten the people and insisted upon a systematic education for all The Enlightenment movement was in fact a revolutionary movement As it spread the idea of equality and brotherhood, it had nothing to share with the urging feudal ideology, a system of thought based on hierarchical and patriarchal relations among men Enlightenment, any way, had a great influence on the Augustan literature Its ideas became the main topics and the spirit of this period literary works that we will study some typical ones in later parts Because of this, the Augustan is also called the Enlightenment period in English literature history 1.2 The Important Events in the Augustan Age 1.2.1 New Scientific and Philosophical Discoveries Philosophy and science are usually the aspects whose new theories and discoveries lead to the change of society and open a new era in history of humankind The revolution of science is thought to begin when Copernicus gave the idea that the earth rotated on its axis beneath the unmoving sun In the eighteenth century, new discoveries of scientists among whom, the most dominant one was Isaac Newton, proved that nature had its own law’s which was different from what religion church had taught before Newton’s “principia” (1687) and “Optic’s” (1704) suggested that:” There were indeed intelligible laws in nature which could be demonstrated by physics and mathematics, and, moreover, that the universe exhibited a magnificent symmetry and a mechanical certainty.” This provided a framework of a system that seemed capable of explaining everything in the universe and it was also the basic principle of Enlighteners In the field of philosophy, thinkers, especially Rousseau and Voltaire in France, praised the equality, democracy and ability of man In England, John Lock, Francis, Bacon, Anthony Ashley Cooper gave the birth for Empiricism They explained the way the mind acquired “all materials of Reason and Knowledge are from Experience” They also provided an intellectual basis for easily digested theories of politics, religion and aesthetic and for precepts pertaining to social happiness the image of men in contemporary society of Augustan age The reader could find the realism picture of people’s life, which the fate of women was caused by strong men From sexuality for strong men, Richardson wanted to reflect and made a call to criticize the face of society at that time He also criticized men who blemished all the woman’s life and reputations for his desire In consolidation, the portraits we study in this chapter including the progressive ideas that were extremely approved by Enlighteners as well as by most people However, these bright thoughts did not coincide with what actually happened in society and daily life They were the beautiful theory and the hope of the progressive persons The women portrait in the first half of 18 th century literature was raised to a new level marked a new point of view of women in the Enlightenment principles Women were not the objects for men to rule but they had be respected and treated equally and free to act following their long The forces that trampled on to practice, women like Clarissa, Pamela and Moll Flanders began to arouse to fight for their true love and their right fight to preserve their honor and gained society’s approval and respect, but above all, they were worth to be exalted because of their bright virtue of ages 2.2.5 The Virtue of Pamela and Clarissa The virtue is the most salient point to make women portrait It is defined from whatever angle one considers it, sacrifice of oneself The sacrifice one makes of oneself in imagination is a preconceived inclination to the same in reality In Pamela and Clarissa, Richardson sows in our hearts the seeds of virtue, which at first remain still and inactive: Their presence is hidden until the moment comes for them to stir and come to life Then, they develop and we feel ourselves driven, towards what is good with an enthusiasm we did not know was in us At the spectacle of in Justice, we feel a revulsion for which we can no explanation to all this worthy man, at a time when our unprejudiced hearts were open to the truth Pamela Andrews was a young maidservant in a wealthy household The son of household, Mr B conceived a passion for her and repeated schemes with his servant to have his way with her She protected her virtue successfully and Mr B moved in her favors when he read the journal she had been keeping in secret, was forced to propose to her if he was to have her In the final lines of the novel, author wrote: “ Let the desponding heart be comforted by the happy issue which troubles and trials of Pamela met with, when they see, in her case, that no danger for distress, however inevitable, or deep to their apprehensions, can be of the power of providence to obviate or relieve; and which, as in various instances in her story, can turn the most seemingly, grievous thing to its own glory and the reward of suffering innocence, and that too, at that time when all human prospects’ seem to fail” There was no reward without trials and difficulties, especially the trials of material temptation In the first part of the story, perceiving clearly about the social class difference between them and special design of her master, Pamela refused his beautiful closes as well as refused to become his property as an action considered selling herself And in the most difficult situation in which it seemed that only death could release her from the misery, she was in a moment, had thought of capitulation by suicide, but her strong would be asked her to fight and overcome it To escape from a man’s physical desire was difficult but to win his truthful heart was even harder, but Pamela did and she was worthy reward Another woman, character in Richardson’s novel who won thousands hearts of readers all over the world by her virtue since the eighteenth century until now was Clarissa, who was a young lady of “ great beauty and merit” and discretion The life of Clarissa was a chain of misery and agony Before escaping with Lovelace, she was a respectable wench of honor but finally; the libertine spoiled her life Losing honor, becoming mad and death, someone said that is was the praise Clarissa had to pay for her discretion However, most believed that Clarissa was only the victim of cunning stratagems, which such a weak girl could not avoid A beautiful and honorable young lady among such a family, and society in which materialism clung firmly to people’s mind, a light heart with fatal scheme of sexual desire, Clarissa’s tragedy was symbolic for women victims in the contemporary society However, the death of Clarissa did not mean that she was failed in her fighting process “And who that are in earnest in their profession if Christianity, but will rather envy than regret the triumphant death of Clarissa Whose steady virtue, whose piety from her early childhood, whose diffusive charity, whose meekness and resignation, heaven only could reward” Those words in her funeral oration needed no more explanation for what other has thought and affection for Clarissa Unlike Pamela and Clarissa, although Moll’s life is recounted in an almost off hand manner, it is quite exceptional, by what as well as what is contains We should remember that Pamela was a champers maid who stubbornly resisted the “fate worse than death” until her master, stunned by her fantastic virtue, finally decided to marry her In Pamela, the girl’s parents continually remind her that they would rather she be dead than deflowered The loss of virginity takes on a supreme importance, and it was really not that important She did not immediately change from an innocent maiden to a debauched and wicked harlot It did not even prevent her from following Pamela’s path and marrying her master – a different master, though she did not even get pregnant In a novel, which was thought by many to be all about sex, sex was not a big issue The effect that sex did have on Moll was to deepen her feelings for her lover: before, she did not seem to care for him very much out of her ordinary, and afterwards, she was genuinely in love 2.2.6 The Experience of Moll Flanders The Contingency, unexpectedness, hardship of striving life often creates experiences for people In Moll Flanders, Daniel Defoe described the life of Moll from experiences, beginning as a pauper and ending up as a wealthy woman Moll Flanders tells the story of a woman who has been a prostitute, a thief, committed incest and has been to prison However, when she tells the story she has reformed and changed her life The novel contains some following themes Sometimes, it is necessary to spend life to get experiences in order to become experienced person Indeed, the life of Moll included a series of experiences She began her life in a wretched condition and had an unlucky childhood Moll Flanders, the whole story had to spend a terrible life even When she was only a small child, her mother committed to crime and a good foster mother raised Moll until adolescence When she was eight the magistrates decided, she was old enough to work for a living as a servant However, she knew and understood making her living doing spinning and needlework Instead, she wanted to be a “gentlewoman”, Moll found anyway to persuade her adopted mother kindly to decide to keep her It is too experience for a child to think about that When she attached to household as a servant, where she was loved by both of the sons, married one son and had children Since then Moll’s husband died, Moll had started suffer great difficulties in life in order to achieve high position in society She always took advantages of her beauty and witted to attract man and lead them to marry her so that she would have comfortable and secured life However, in seemed that all Moll’s plans and prediction were unsuccessful and she started to commit to crime When being desperate, she decided to begin a career of artful thievery, which by employing her wits, beauty charm and felinity, brought her the financial security she always sought It was obvious that because of spending terrible life with the death of her husband, Moll had become disappointed and fell in to a wrong direction that she difficultly turned back Because of this, she was caught and sent to prison Readers think that Moll’s life will be ended with isolating place in prison Nevertheless, she was forgiven and found new happiness in Mary land – a new place together with her new husband Evidently, passing many difficulties and sufferings, Moll finally had already found her own way of living and became a propertied woman Indeed, the life taught her to know Schemes, animosity, ruthless and expedient The more she failed the more experience she became Now, she was an experienced person who used her wits, felinity to apply to business and working Thus, she could establish a successful farm with her husband in Mary land and lives peacefully here Moll is a person who needed enlightenment to become good Why Moll Flanders can turn back her life and become a right and successful woman? Thank to enlightenment a profound ideology of 18 th century, Moll Flanders finally proved her powerful would and repentance The Representative for this thought was manifested through the character, the clergy (a man of the cloth) Being advised and counseled by him, Moll gradually realized her wrong actions in her life She decided to start everything from her deeply repentant soul When she was enlightened, she began working hard and established a propitious plantation in Maryland Needless to say, Daniel Defoe is the representative who applies strongly the ideology of enlightenment in this novel: He clearly confirms that person can be bad and makes many mistakes in their life, however, if he is enlightened and educated, he well turn into an idealized and successful man Chapter III: Epistolary form in “Pamela” and “Clarissa” by Richardson 3.1 Sources of Epistolary Form By the standards of polite society, Samuel Richardson was scarcely better off socially than his narrating heroine Richardson (1689-1761), son of a respectable working-class man, had a little schooling and always loved reading However, by the standards of his contemporaries he was not an educated man (he had no knowledge of Latin and Greek), and he was certainly not a gentleman In 1739 Rivington and Osborne, booksellers, asked him to produce a little book of sample letters, a known sort of helper-book at the time, which provided models of business and personal correspondence to assist the semi-literate The letter-writer had been a minor genre of popular literature for over a century, and it was customary for their authors to indulge in a certain amount of character drawing and humor, especially in capturing the speech of the country folk and the working classes Richardson became unexpectedly fascinated by his new project, and a small sequence of letters from a daughter in service of a young and sexually aggressive gentleman, asking her father’s advice when she is threatened by her master’s advances, became the germ of Pamela Familiar letters on important occasions was put aside until the novel was finished The novel in letters (epistolary novel) had existed before Richardson, but not in the context in which he used it Since the publication of Lettrers portugaises of 1669, which was thought of as a collection of real-life letters by a Portuguese nun to the French cavalier who had abandoned her, the epistolary mode had been recognized as presenting the voice of love A classical precedent for the form can be found in Ovid’s Heroides 3.2 The purpose of Using Epistolary Form in “Pamela” and “Clarissa” 3.2.1 Epistolary Form in “Pamela” When Richardson began writing “Pamela”, he conceived of it as a conduct book, but when he was writing, the series of letters turned into a story Richardson then decided to write in a different genre, the novel He attempted to instruct through entertainment In fact, most novels from the middle of the eighteenth century and well in to the nineteenth century, following Richardson’s lead claimed legitimacy through their ability to teach as well as to amuse He spent a lot of breath at the beginning of the novel trying to convince the readers that Pamela was based on a true story The connection between truth and literature was meant to persuade the reader that the moral of Pamela’s character’s story was “real” , and therefore an efficient tool of ethical edification of Young women who were at the time dewing all kinds of prose , regardless of its moral turpitude Pamela is an epistolary novel Like Benn’s Love letters, but its purpose is to illustrate a single chapter in the life of a poor country girl Pamela Andrews enters the employ of a “Mr B” As a dutiful girl, she writes to her mother constantly, and as a Christian girl, she is always on guard for her “virtue”, for Mr B lusts after her The plot is somewhat melodramatic, and it is pathetic The reader’s sympathies and fears are engaged throughout, and the novel comes dose to the She-tragedy of the close of 17th Century in its depiction of a an angel for the reformation for Mr B , and the novel ends with her marriage to her employer and rising to the position of Lady “Pamela”, like its author, presents a dissenters and a Whig’s view of the rise of the classes It emphasizes duty and perseverance of the saint, and the work was an enormous popular success It also drew a nearly instantaneous set of satires Henry Faulding’s response was linked Richardson’s virtuous girl with Colley Cribber’s shamefaced Apology in the form so Shamela, or an Apology for the life of the Miss Shamela Andrews (1742) and it is the most memorable of the “answer” to Richardson First, it inaugurated the rivalry between the two authors Second, beneath the very loose and ribald satire, there is a coherent and rational critique of the Richard son’s themes In Fielding’s satire, Pamela, as Shamela, writes like a counter peasant instead of a learned Londoner, and it is her goal from the moment she arrives in Squire Booby’s house to become lady of the place by selling her “virtue” Fielding also satirizes the presumption that a woman could write of the dramatic, ongoing events (“He comes abed now, Mama O Lund, my virtue!”) Specifically, Fielding thought that Richardson’s novel was very good, very well written and very dangerous, for it offered serving women the illusion that they might sleep their way to wealth and an elevated title In truth, Fielding saw serving women abused and lords reneging on both their spiritual conversions and promises 3.2.2 Epistolary Form in “Clarissa” In 1747 through 1748, Samuel Richardson published Clarissa in serial form Like Pamela It is an epistolary novel Unlike Pamela, It is not a tale of write rewarded Instead, it is a highly tragic and affecting account of a young girl whose parents try to force her into an uncongenial marriage, thus pushing her into arms a scheming rake named Lovelace Lovelace is far more witched than Mr B is He imprisons Clarissa and tortures her psychologically in an effort to get her consent to marriage Eventually, Clarissa is violated (whether by Lovelace or the household maids is endear) Her letters to her parents are pleading, while Lovelace is friend, Anna Howe, Lovelace is not consciously evil, for he will not simply rape Clarissa He desires her free consent, which Clarissa will not give In the end, Clarissa dies by her own will The novel is a masterpiece of psychological realism and emotional effect In addition, when, Richardson was ending in the serial publication, even Henry fielding wrote him, begging him not to kill Clarissa There are many themes in Clarissa Most obviously, the novel is a strong argument for romantic love and against arranged marriages Clarissa will marry, but she wishes to have her own say in choice of mate As with Pamela, Richardson emphasizes the individual over the social and the personal over the class His work was part of general valuation of the individual over and against the social good 3.3 Richardson’s Epistolary Sensibility When Samuel Richardson, an honorable printer of London published his first novel-in-letters and became famous for it, he not only established a literary genre, but also became probably the first English man to gain renowned abroad purely for his literary achievement His Pamela was almost immediately translated into all major continental languages and was to all affects a genuine early world best-seller For some reason however, today’s reader does not find Pamela or Clarissa quite as exciting and there early samples of fiction it prose have gradually, gathered dust as object of pedantic interest of literary historians This may partly be so, because their role as thrilling entertainment for wide commoner readerships has in the meanwhile been taken over by other genres and diffident media Part of such change in taste however might perhaps be attributed to a difference in perception of the relative importance of the letter and the act of letter writing itself between our age and Richardson’s Richardson choose the epistolary form for his first novel that in terms of plot is basically a variation on the Cinderella theme, he was not opting for a formal experiment On the contrary, he quite naturally reached out for a form of narrative that was the most familiar to him and majority of his readers Richardson himself had already earlier in his life compiled a short of manual of letter writing This noble art of cultivated interaction provided channels of expression to the commercial urban society Yet the letters written by his heroes are certainly more than a collection of recycled clinches The epistolary narrative contains plenty of direct speech along side faithful rendition of thought and feeling and many scenes have a dramatic thrill unhampered by the form like some pitched exchanges between Clarissa and her suitor, and finally rapper, the libertarian Lovelace, or the tense debate on the verge of a duel between the latter and Clarissa’s cousin, colonel Mordent Letter becomes not only form of the narrative, but also its crucial subject matter and often a focal point of the plot The act of letter writing itself is depicted Letters serve as solemn evidence of one’s true and unrehearsed intentions Letters are intercepted and different letters forged to deceive the addressee, letters are written about other letters parcels of correspondence are exchanged as powerful evidence of events and states of mind Copies of letters are meticulously taken for future reference and letter writing becomes suspect as an activity potentially politically charged in the sense of threatening the borderlines of class In the centuries to follow, the type of literary fiction that renounces the omniscient disembodied narrator and turns the multiple voices of situated storytellers emerged out of concern about ambiguity of truths and parallel versions of reality More modernists followed Joyce and Virginia Woofs into the minds of storytellers who were at the same time participants in the story So does Faulkner or Lawrence Darrell, Even a Tanizaki, in Kari sakes the reader’s comfortable faith in an unproblematic unity of narration and reality when he lets him see the stage if events only through diary notes of the characters, which might but well might not give an honest and undistorted report of facts Richardson’s aim in employing the multiple narrative voices was not to render truths ambiguous His world appears still to hold together by the categorical visions of chaste and pious virtue opposed to licentious vice although the unshakeable validity of the same visions has already begun to crumble under the skeptical eye of his contemporary Daniel Defoe say in the cynical view from below of a Moll Flanders, which seems to offer a rather unflattering picture of strong social and class conditioning latent behind many moral categories But we are in an England of rising sensibilities, in an England of emerging commercial empire, an England whose Scots have just asserted that morality does not equal subjecting crude passions in noble reason It has a lot to with cultivating of emotions in civilized social intercourse Richardson’s novels not even the happy-ending: Pamela with the heroine’s virtue ultimately rewarded by marriage with Squire B to say nothing of the much more complex and longer Clarissa with her virtue asserted to the point of selfsacrifice full of forgiveness amount to more than simple illustrations of catechism Conventional chaste virtue is exalted but so is the pure feeling of uncorrupted heart and still alongside those it is accomplished manners and mastery of complex patterns of accepted behavior what provides the standard for practical evolution of individuals For the extent that, they offer thrills of excitement to the readers to enticing their imagination to recreate the realities implied by the words Richardson’s novels are unmistakable children of the age of sensibility, regardless of their ostensible moralist bend The same is manifest in a slightly earlier sample of roughly contemporary prose written for wide audience in the first decade of Richardson’s, Defoe’s, Hume’s and Rousseau’s century Addison and Steele publish their famous periodical “The spectator”, which at times enjoys a circulation of an impressive 3000 copies Frequently, the contributions take the form of letters, authored by Mr Spectator himself in response to enquiries written by readers Ostensibly committed to moral cultivation of the general public, the spectator does not unswervingly stick to the course of moral upbraiding Describing, in one issue of 1711, Plato is commendably persuasive and morally elevating notion of hell, the author proceeds to illustrate his point by a story brimming with mischievously provoking eroticism of Boccaceian proportions In Plato’s underworld, Spectator explains the voluptuous and lustful souls have to go on suffering their burning desires for things, which there is no gratification, like king Tantalus they must forever reach out for fruits which dries up the moment they bend to drink Desire can sentence us to the same kind of suffering in this world; in addition, the author goes on to argue A fictitious letter is promptly presented by a French gentleman He having courted two ladies simultaneously, was taken terrible vengeance upon by them when they swaddled him up so he could not move and made him spend a night with both of them in the same bed The truly tantalizing effects of torture described in excitingly vivid detail clearly exceeding all requirements of moral purpose of the story, in need presumably undermining such purpose altogether The ironic contradiction presumably provides an answer to itself The sensibilities of the first commercial century inevitably consider themselves superior on cultivation and hell’s horrors The mind of this early modernity needs to embrace both the Boccaccian erotic innuendo and thrill of imagined debauchery on the one hand and social codes of conformity, restraint and pious virtue on the other Social appreciation of wit and sophistication requires one to be master over both sides of experience and to restrict one merely to the aloof ascetic virtue carries a distinct of absoluteness A concept of manners that makes its unobtrusive appearance in moral and political thought of Hume and other Scots might represent a tool for such impossible synthesis It is precisely the civilized cultivation of sensibility, accompanied by a relatively conservative commitment to existing social norms as embodying cumulated experience what characterizes not only the Scottish Enlightenment, but also the literary achievements Samuel Richardson Read as a portrayer of manners incidentally, he is much more readable than as a puritan moralist obsessed with dread of sex Part III: Conclusion Through out three typical characters in three novels, authors partly drew a perfect picture about the representative woman portrait in Augustan age Although they have own positions, different fates, life, all of them brighten a clear souls: that are the beauty of honest, good-natured, hard working characteristic Especially, passing many gaps and trials, they still keep their virtue forever until the death Furthermore, an important point that we have to respect them is about women who are born in sin but they finally rouse and change their life to a respectable citizen to have a better life Richardson praises Pamela by full of his respective feelings The kindhearted, pious girl loves her parents and takes care of people around and self-controls to protect her virtue The author also shares and understands deeply the hurt of Clarissa – the girl has to flee from the hose because of her circumstance with the right purpose to find the true happiness However, the irony of life pushes her to the final step is the death It is seemed that, Richardson also hurts with the pain of Clarissa, the innocent girl must die when very young old with the pure soul That is humanity notion of Richardson that writers cannot find in this period Daniel Defoe also writes about women but his character is a crime girl who is considered the lowest class in society With the guilty past, desiring fame, wealth and money, Moll Flanders is from a normal person changing in to a corrupt person and ignored by society Daniel Defoe makes his character rouse to realize the fault and find the enlightenment Identifying, understanding the normal women is too enough for us to be touched, but the heroin in this story is a crime who Daniel Defoe open his hands to save, understands and shares her fate From that, the readers realize the humanism of a talent writer From the women portrait, Richardson and Daniel Defoe want to raise their voice to criticize society at that time The society where the materialism destroy their life, the class division take them to the dark fate, the sexual for strong men causes them the pains The victims of these are honest, beautiful girls The women portrait in the first half of 18 th century literature is raised to a new level marked a new point of view of women in the Enlightenment principles Women were not the objects for men to rule but they have be respected and treated equally and freely to act following their long The forces that trampled on their life should be blamed and punished From the theory to practice, women like Clarissa, Pamela and Moll Flanders begin to arouse to fight for their true love and their right fight to preserve their honor and gained society’s approval and respect, but above all, they are worth to be exalted because of their bright virtue of ages Indeed, Samuel Richardson and Daniel Defoe label their reputation on literature ground with the works: “Pamela”, “Clarissa” and “Moll Flanders Pamela Clarissa and Moll Flanders together with their authors will be lasted forever (for all time and for all age) These three novels are three of the most meaningful novels, which write about women existing with the time References Nguyen Xuan Thom (1997) A history of English and American Literature The World Publisher Nguyen Chi Trung (2000) English literature Nha xuat ban Giao Duc Ha Noi Nguyen Kim Loan (1998) Hstory of English literature Ha Noi Foreign Language University Press, Ha Noi Andrew, Sander (1996) The short Oxford History of English literature Clarendon Press Oxford G.C, Thornley., & Gwyneth, Roberts (1984) An outline of English literature Longman House, Burnt Mill, Harlow, England Christopher, Garwood & Guglelmo,Gardani & Edda, Peris (1992) Aspects of Britain and the USA, Oxford University Press Lcornes, Ninfo Kova (1995).English literature Ha Noi Hanoi university for teacher of foreign language Department (1995) English literature Ha Noi Websites: http://www Gutenberg.org/etext/6124 http://www Gutenberg.org/dirs/etext/17157 http://www Angelfire.com/mn3/mixed-literature/defoe-swd.htm http://www Bartleby.com ... .…… Chapter II: Woman portrait in ? ?Pamela? ?? ? ?Clarissa? ?? by Richardson and 1 1 1 3 6 9 10 10 10 11 12 ? ?Moll Flanders? ?? by Daniel Defoe in Augustan Age ………… 2. 1Woman Portrait in the English Literature...VINH UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT - WOMEN POTRAITS IN "PAMELA" AND "CLARISSA" BY RICHARDSON, "MOLL FLANDERS" BY DANIEL DEFOE IN AUGUSTAN AGE (Hình tợng ngời phụ nữ Pamela. .. Enlightenment Age? ?? 2.2 Woman Portrait in ? ?Pamela? ?? and ? ?Clarissa? ?? by Richardson, and in? ?? Moll 13 13 Flanders? ?? by Daniel Defoe … 2.2.1 The Appearances 2.2.2 Their Position in Society