Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Clarissa was an epistolatory novel written by Samuel Richardson that he published in 1748. The full title of the book was Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady, and it was published in four volumes. The novel tells the story of a virtuous, beautiful young woman who is brought to tragedy by the wickedness of the people around her. The writer lets the reader know about the events happening in the life of Clarissa with the help of letters written by her, her friend Anna Howe, and the antagonist seducer Robert Lovelace. Another letter correspondent in the novel is John Belford, a friend of Lovelace who sides with Clarissa and tries to help her. Clarissa is one of the longest English novels consisting of more than one million words. The novel is known for the psychological depiction of the protagonist and the antagonist.

Characters of Clarissa:

Clarissa Harlowe is a 17 years old, young, beautiful, virtuous girl who is universally loved and admired by everyone. She belongs to the Harlowe family which is a newly rich and uprising family. Her family possesses great wealth but little social status. Sr. James Harlowe is her father who is a successful businessman. He owns mines, commercial capital, and other properties. He is a bad-tempered and unforgiving man. Jr. James Harlowe is Clarissa’s elder brother. He is not very smart or courageous however he has extreme pride. Arabella Harlowe is Clarissa’s elder sister and eldest child of Sr. James Harlowe. Like her father, she is bad-tempered and overvalues money and reputation. Mrs. Charlotte Harlowe is the mother of Clarissa. She is the obedient and submissive wife of Sr. James Harlowe. Mr. Anthony Harlowe is the uncle of Clarissa, the elder brother of Sr. James Harlowe. Anna Howe is a close friend of Clarissa. She is a lively girl who tries her best to help and save Clarissa. Robert Lovelace is the antagonist of the novel. He belongs to a rich and well-reputed family. He is a playboy and seduces women. He believes that all women are corrupt and he can seduce any woman. He is a vile and selfish character who refuses to stop lusting after Clarissa until he gets what he wants. John Belford is a friend of Robert Lovelace and he is also a playboy. Mrs. Sinclair is a widowed woman who runs a brothel in London. She is an accomplice of Robert Lovelace. Her brothel is the home for many such girls whom Robert Lovelace first seduced and then forced into prostitution. Mr. Hickman is Anna Howe’s admirer. He is a gentleman who always wears formal clothes. Roger Solmes is a selfish, wealthy, and cruel man whom Clarissa's parents wish her to marry. He is obsessed with money and wishes to marry Clarissa only to gain her property. Col. Morden is a cousin of Clarissa who decides to take revenge against Lovelace.

Summary of Clarissa:

The novel begins with a letter to Clarissa from her friend Anna who asks her about the squabble between Clarissa’s brother James Harlowe and Robert Lovelace in which James was wounded. She is also curious about why Clarissa’s grandfather decided to give all his property to Clarissa, but none of his sons or other grandchildren.

Clarissa writes back and informs that Robert Lovelace visited their house to pay court to Clarissa’s sister Arabela. Arabella rejected him because he was not enthusiastic about her. Instead, he got attracted to Clarissa. She writes that she has no interest in Lovelace but her sister is jealous of her and suspects her. She also mentions that James was always jealous of Lovelace because of his aristocratic refinement and ease of communication, which cannot be gained with the help of money, but only by origin. This became the reason for the quarrel between James and Lovelace.

Clarissa writes that all the sons of her grandfather are doing well in their businesses and they created much more wealth of their own. She informs that her brother is secured by his godmother while her elder sister has been given huge property by her father. Clarissa remained with her grandfather since her childhood and always took good care of him and thus, he pronounced her as his heiress. She also informs that she will be able to hold all the property of her grandfather once she turns 18 years old.

None of the members of Harlowe’s family is happy about Clarissa being declared the heiress of her grandfather. The whole family threatens Clarissa to give away her inheritance and marry Roger Solmes, a wealthy man belonging to a reputed family. Roger Solmes is interested in marrying Clarissa for her wealth but Clarissa doesn’t like him as she understands how greedy and selfish he is. Clarissa’s father didn’t wish to break all ties with Lovelace’s family as his father Mr. M is an influential person who could harm Sr. James Harlowe’s business interest. Thus, James Harlowe asks Clarissa to write a letter to Robert Lovelace to pacify him. This offers Lovelace a chance to communicate with Clarissa. Lovelace decides to take revenge on Harlowe’s family by using Clarissa. Meanwhile, Clarissa’s family strictly forces her and confines her in a solitary room until she agrees to marry Roger Solmes. Clarissa continues to reject the marriage. Arabella then accuses her of being involved with Lovelace but Clarissa insists that she has no interest in Lovelace. Lovelace pretends to be a wellwisher of Clarissa in his letters to her while he writes a letter to his friend John Belford informing him how he plans to seduce another 18 years old beautiful girl and will have his way with her.

James and Arabella decide to search Clarissa’s room for the letters written by Lovelace to prove that Clarissa is having an affair with him. They send Clarissa’s trusted caretaker away and harass Clarissa brutally. None of the family members help Clarissa and thus, she finds herself trapped. Meanwhile, Lovelace began living in an inn near Harlowe’s mansion and succeeded in planting a spy in Clarissa’s house to gain all vital information. Anna sends a letter to Clarissa warning her about Lovelace’s intentions and informs her how he exploited a naive good girl living in the inn in which he resides now. However, Clarissa writes her back that it is a false rumor and Lovelace actually helped that girl in marrying the boy she loved by offering her dowry for the marriage.

Sr. James Harlowe decides to send Clarissa to her uncle’s home where only Roger Solmes will be allowed to visit and meet her. Clarissa realizes that if she is transferred to her uncle’s home, she will fail to save herself from the clutches of Roger Solmes. She shares her worries with Lovelace and he suggests that she should run away from her home. Clarissa is not willing to run away but she doesn’t have many options. Yet, she decides to meet Lovelace in person and tell him that she is not willing to run away from her home as she doesn’t wish to betray her father. When she walks to the garden where she is supposed to meet Lovelace, she notices that her family members are following her. She trusts Lovelace and believes that he is a devoted friend. When she meets Lovelace, she clearly says that she has no intention to run away from her family but Lovelace says that her family has seen her meeting him and now they will never trust her. He tries to persuade Clarissa to run away and takes her to a carrier coach that he had prepared to run away with her. Clarissa hears the voices of her relatives nearby and sees that a persecutor is running towards her as if to catch her. She gets frightened and decides to run away with Lovelace. She hopes that soon she will be 18 years old and then she will be able to stand by herself. Lovelace, on the other hand, had other plans. The apparent persecutor was his own servant who pretended and frightened Clarissa to make her run away. Clarissa doesn’t realize that she has been abducted by Lovelace.

Lovelace takes Clarissa to an inn where two prostitutes pretending to be noble kinswomen of Lovelace accompany him. Lovelace then proposes to Clarissa for lovemaking but Clarissa refuses. Lovelace forgets about it and continues to treat her well. Lovelace loves Clarissa but doesn’t wish to marry her, rather, he wants her to cohabitate with her. He already had ruined many girls by seducing them to have sex with him and then leaving them on their own as he doesn’t believe in marriages and responsibilities. He continues to change hotels without letting Clarissa that she is his prisoner. Clarissa realizes that she is in complete control of Lovelace as her reputation has already been ruined and her family is unwilling to support her or forgive her. Yet, she continues to strictly follow her virtues. Lovelace continues to tempt her to compromise her strict morals. He continues to write letters to Belford, informing him how is experimenting with Clarissa. He writes that if Clarissa is truly an exemplary woman, she will withstand his contrivances and remain a model of goodness. However, he believes that all women are corrupt at their core and Clarissa too will break soon.

After a few months, he persuades Clarissa to go to London with him where he keeps her at Mrs. Sinclair’s house which is a brothel. Most of the prostitutes in this brothel were the girls who had been involved with Lovelace in the past. He fooled and ruined them and then forced them into prostitution under the wing of Mrs. Sinclair. These prostitutes are jealous of Clarissa and when they see that she is not willing to compromise with her virtues and chastity, they encourage Lovelace to rape her. Lovelace continues to write letters to Belford, informing him about Clarissa’s behavior who is not ready to fall for his temptation. He says that Clarissa is not sure of the sincerity and seriousness of his feelings.

Meanwhile, Clarissa starts suspecting Lovelace and the woman with whom she is living. She feels something sinister is going on. Lovelace decides to rape her and forcefully enters her bedchamber. Clarissa understands his intentions and tries to placate him and vigorously opposes his assault. Under the threat of rape, she promises to forgive him and marry him. However, she considers this promise made under duress as void; soon after she makes her first successful escape from Lovelace, concealing herself in lodgings in Hampstead. Lovelace gets enraged and decides to take revenge. He engages many men to find her out and when he gets the information of her whereabouts, he hires some men to pretend to be his family members and then goes to meet Clarissa with them. He begs her forgiveness and the fake family members vouch for his true intentions to marry her. Clarissa returns back to Mrs. Sinclair’s house where Mrs. Sinclair offers her a drink corrupted with a sleeping potion. Unaware of the trick, Clarissa takes the drink and falls unconscious. Lovelace then rapes her. When Clarissa wakes up, she realizes what had happened in her unconscious state. She soon realizes that all good behavior of Lovelace was a sham and that she is being forced to live in a brothel for many months. She comes to know that the women whom she considered relatives of Lovelace are actually prostitutes who almost hate her. Clarissa is deeply affected by her rape and falls insane. Even in her insanity, she continues to follow a strict moral code and accuses Lovelace of cheating her. Gradually, she recovers her sanity while Lovelace realizes that despite all his efforts he failed to corrupt her. He continues to write letters to Belford, informing him about his acts.

Belford, on the other hand, starts praising Clarissa’s virtuous character and believes that she is a divine human being.

Lovelace starts feeling that he cannot corrupt the virtues of Clarissa and decides to release her. But soon he starts thinking that his efforts failed because he raped her when she was unconscious. He thus decides to rape her again and this time, he decides to rape her in her conscious state, without using drugs. He pretends that he has caught a servant whom Clarissa bribes to help her escape and starts harassing Clarissa. Clarissa realizes that he is willing to rape her again but she refuses to give up and picks up a pen-knife. She threatens to kill herself if Lovelace tries to rape her. Lovelace gets shocked by her determined virtuous behavior and decides to go away. He asks Mrs. Sinclair to keep good care of Clarissa until he returns. Meanwhile, Clarissa succeeds in making contact with real family members of Lovelace through letters. She also manages to have correspondence with John Belford. She decides to leave Mrs. Sinclair’s home but Mrs. Sinclair manages to get her imprisoned for some unpaid bills. Lovelace continues to send marriage proposals to Clarissa but she refuses all such proposals and claims that it would be better for her to take her own life than marrying her rapist. She gets very ill and weak. Belford tries to help her but finds that she has no desire to live anymore. Clarissa buys a coffin for herself and wishes to be buried next to her grandfather. She writes a will offering all her property to her relatives equally and declares John Belford as the executioner of her will. Meanwhile, Col. Morden finds out Clarissa and comes to know all about her ordeals. Clarissa says that she doesn’t want her relatives to pursue Lovelace. She dies in front of him and he vows to take revenge. John Belford informs all the relatives of Clarissa of her death and her last will. Her family members realize their mistake in understanding the true intentions of Clarissa but they cannot help her now when she is already dead.

Belford writes a letter to Lovelace, informing him about the death of Clarissa and Col. Morden’s vow to take revenge. Col. Morden then challenges Lovelace to a duel that he accepts. Col. Morden kills Lovelace in the duel while he too gets some minor injuries. Mr. and Mrs. Harlowe die soon after, and James and Arabella marry badly and are miserable for the rest of their lives. Anna Howe gets married to Mr. Hickman, her admirer, while John Belford reforms and gives up his libertine ideas. He decides to collect all the letters of Clarissa and create a book of them that may help other girls how to lead a virtuous life.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!