I believe I looked surprised to hear her confess that her letter was a stratagem only; for she said, You wonder, Mr Belford, I observe, that I could be guilty of such an artifice. I doubt it is not right. But how could I see a man who had so mortally injured me; yet, pretending sorrow for his crimes, and wanting to see me, could behave with so much shocking levity as he did to the honest people of the house? Yet, ’tis strange, too, that neither you nor he found out my meaning on perusal of my letter. You have seen what I wrote, no doubt?
…
I read it to myself — Indeed, madam, I can find nothing but that you are going down to Harlowe Place to be reconciled to your father and other friends: and Mr Lovelace presumed that a letter from your sister, which he saw brought when he was at Mr Smith’s, gave you the welcome news of it.
She then explained all to me, and that, as I may say, in six words — A religious meaning is couched under it, and that’s the reason that neither you nor I could find it out.
Read but for my father’s house, Heaven, said she; and for the interposition of my dear blessed friend, suppose the mediation of my Savior; which I humbly rely upon; and all the rest of the letter will be accounted for.
I read it so, and stood astonished for a minute at her invention, her piety, her charity, and at thine and my own stupidity, to be thus taken in.
And now, thou vile Lovelace, what hast thou to do (the lady all consistent with herself, and no hopes left for thee) but to hang, drown, or shoot thyself, for an outwitted triumpher?
Belford irresistibly shares Clarissa's “stratagem” with Lovelace. I'm floored by Clarissa's inventiveness. Did anyone catch this on a first reading? Even though her letter was, in a sense, “true,” she constructed that truth knowing it would deceive. Surprise anyone?
To be honest, I was not as surprised as I could have been because of how heavily symbolic all of Clarissa's letters have become. I thought the letter was more of a decoy to something else because I didn't think if her father had forgiven her by the last volume, he was not going to do so anytime soon. Not to mention all the deception we went through with Lovelace — I learned to be wary of what were in the contents of the letters and if there was any possibility of a double meaning. BUT I was more impressed at the implications that the letter was religious and neither Belford or Lovelace could catch the true meaning. Obviously because Lovelace and Belford had lived such evil lives they were not able to read the religious meaning of the letter.
It's so interesting. Knowing how religious Clarissa is, knowing her power of writing and invention, how could so many people–actually everyone who read the letter–not get the LEAST clue. I mean, even Belford and Lovelace know a ton about Christianity and the Bible (as their own quotings reveal. And who doesn't know that there are “many mansions in my father's house”?) And forget Belford and Lovelace–how did even cousin Morden miss this? Sheesh!
I didn't really think that Clarissa would be willing to see Lovelace, but I also didn't catch Clarissa's intended meaning in the letter. It doesn't surprise me that she would be willing and able to write in such a way as to obscure her meaning if necessary. We cannot forget that we learned VERY early on that Clarissa's family was so persuaded by her letters that they stopped receiving them. She is very crafty. She knows how to write to particular audiences, and clearly she believed that Lovelace would not catch the double meaning intended in this letter.
I was saddened by how bad she felt about sending it. “You wonder, Mr. Belford, I observe, that I could be guilty of such an artifice. I doubt it is not right. But how could I see a man who had so mortally injured me; yet, pretending sorrow for his crimes, and wanting to see me, could behave with so much shocking levity as he did to the honest people of the house?” What does it take for Clarissa to do something for her own benefit without feeling bad about it? I am sure she feels bad for even such a small lie, but she shouldn't have to justify hiding herself away from someone who has already caused her so much harm! She shouldn't even have to lie to keep him away if he was still just threatening her. Yet, she feels bad about it. Mind you, it's not much, but it makes me sad that it's there at all.
I find Clarissa's craftiness here so interesting, too. I was very skeptical of the letter to Lovelace, but I certainly did not see the meaning Clarissa explains here. A few letters later, Clarissa describes her letter to Lovelace as an “allegory,” which I find fascinating because the allegory is often described as containing veiled meaning that one must uncover to discover its moral message. Similarly, in scholarship that addresses allegory in medieval texts, several scholars note that the reader must have certain tools and/or insight in order to see the veil of allegory and remove its veil. I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm not sure that Lovelace (or Belford, for that matter) have the religious insight to “uncover” Clarissa's message without her explicitly unveiling it for them. Furthermore, if the letter is truly allegorical, then Clarissa's intentions would be seemingly didactic rather than deceitful (as Lovelace suggests when he responds to the letter).
I think Clarissa's craftiness here is less shocking considering a couple of other events in the novel. She's very capable of calculated deception — remember the misdirection when she “hid” a few pens and some paper in places that were obvious so that her parents would confiscate those instead of her real cache that was hidden more carefully elsewhere? Or the whole ruse of taking meals outdoors in order to make escape from her parents house easier?
I think Lovelace would like to construct Clarissa as an “Angel,” but I don't think she is. More importantly, I don't think SHE thinks she is. I'm uncomfortable with the vision of Clarissa as an angel incapable of deception; it seems like seeing her as an “Angel” puts her on a pedestal in a quite disempowering way. What I especially liked in this letter was her ability to use everyone's failure to see her as a real person against them.