Letter 488
TO THE EVER-HONOURED JAS. HARLOWE, SEN. ESQ.
MOST DEAR SIR,
With exulting confidence now does your emboldened daughter come into your awful presence by these lines, who dared not, but upon this occasion, to look up to you with hopes of favour and forgiveness; since, when this comes to your hands, it will be out of her power ever to offend you more.
…
Still on her knees, let your poor penitent implore your forgiveness of all her faults and follies; more especially of that fatal error which threw her out of your protection.
…
TO THE EVER-HONOURED MRS. HARLOWE
HONOURED MADAM,
The last time I had the boldness to write to you, it was with all the consciousness of a self-convicted criminal, supplicating her offended judge for mercy and pardon. I now, by these lines, approach you with more assurance; but nevertheless with the highest degree of reverence, gratitude, and duty. The reason of my assurance, my letter to my papa will give; and as I humbly on my knees implored his pardon, so now, in the same dutiful manner, do I supplicate your’s, for the grief and trouble I have given you.
…
But HE, I presume to hope, has forgiven me; and, at the instant this will reach your hands, I humbly trust, I shall be rejoicing in the blessed fruits of his forgiveness. And be this your comfort, my ever-honoured Mamma, that the principal end of your pious care for me is attained, though not in the way so much hoped for.…
Letter 490
TO JAMES HARLOWE, JUN. ESQ.
SIR,
There was but one time, but one occasion, after the rash step I was precipitated upon, that I would hope to be excused looking up to you in the character of a brother and friend. And NOW is that time, and THIS the occasion. NOW, at reading this, will you pity your late unhappy sister! NOW will you forgive her faults, both supposed and real! And NOW will you afford to her memory that kind concern which you refused to her before!
I write, my Brother, in the first place, to beg your pardon for the offence my unhappy step gave to you, and to the rest of a family so dear to me.
…
Letter 491
TO MISS HARLOWE
Now may you, my dear Arabella, unrestrained by the severity of your virtue, let fall a pitying tear on the past faults and sufferings of your late unhappy sister; since, now, she can never offend you more.
…
Thus already, even while she writes, in imagination purified and exalted, she the more fearlessly writes to her sister; and now is assured of pardon for all those little occasions of displeasure which her forwarder youth might give you; and for the disgrace which her fall has fastened upon you, and upon her family.
Letter 492
TO JOHN AND ANTONY HARLOWE, ESQRS.
HONOURED SIRS,
When these lines reach your hands, your late unhappy niece will have known the end of all her troubles; and, as she humbly hopes, will be rejoicing in the mercies of a gracious God, who has declared, that he will forgive the truly penitent of heart.
…
At the same time I write to thank you both for all your kind indulgence to me, and to beg your forgiveness of my last, my only great fault to you and to my family.
…
Rejoice with me, then, dear Sirs, that I have weathered so great a storm. Nor let it be matter of concern, that I am cut off in the bloom of youth. ‘There is no inquisition in the grave,’ says the wise man, ‘whether we lived ten or a hundred years; and the day of death is better than the day of our birth.’
Once more, dear Sirs, accept my grateful thanks for all your goodness to me, from my early childhood to the day, the unhappy day, of my error! Forgive that error!—And God give us a happy meeting in a blessed eternity…
The posthumous letters to Mr. LOVELACE and Mr. MORDEN will be inserted hereafter: as will also the substance of that written to Mrs. Norton.
I wanted to post some excerpts from these letters, which are delivered to Clarissa's family after her death. As I read, I picked up on how much she references forgiveness and pardoning. Might this be one of the places where we can see Richardson elevate Clarissa to an archetype or symbol, something far beyond even an idol or an ideal? Where characters and their actions are subsumed under the didactic function of the letters?
Were there other things that you picked up on in her posthumous letters that you also thought deserved mentioning?
There is so much going on in these letters that I am not sure where to start. Clarissa definitely seems to become an archetype but not one that I can pinpoint unless she has become a martyr of sorts. She asks for forgiveness from her family despite the situation not really being her fault. Once again Clarissa becomes dutiful daughter and virtuous Christian. I found it interesting that she never directly told them that she forgave them for the way they mistreated her.
What really struck me was the authority that Clarissa seemed to possess in these letters. She was asking for forgiveness but it felt like she was obviously aware that she had somehow transcended the people that she was writing to. Clarissa pretty much tells her mother that it doesn't really matter if they forgive her or not because “HE […] has forgiven [her]” and she “shall be rejoicing in the blessed fruits of his forgiveness.” She is speaking with an authority in regard to God and Jesus, although she says she “presumes to hope” and “humbly trust” that she will be forgiven. Clarissa even blesses each one of them in her letters to the family; she writes to her brother “May Heaven preserve you in safety, health, and honour, and long continue your life for a comfort and stay to your honoured parents!”
I agree with Kendra. These letters are quite fascinating for a number of reasons. As Belford indicates in his introduction to these letters, the letters are sealed with a black wax, which I find such a unique paratextual feature, because it signals the letter's content before the reader opens and reads the letters. The wax also seals the letters to protect them from being prematurely opened and read, preserving Clarissa’s posthumous narrative.
On another more important note, though, I really love Rachel's question about Richardson's attempt “to elevate Clarissa to an archetype or symbol, something far beyond even an idol or an ideal.” I think one way that he *does* do this is through these posthumous letters because it occurred to me while reading these letters that this could, in fact, be one way that Clarissa is able to author the end of her narrative herself by sending these thoughts to her family members even after her death. I have really been obsessed with this idea of the autobiographical end that we discussed in class a couple of weeks ago, and I think that Clarissa's letters here certainly add an interesting layer to the conversation. Certainly, several authors' works are published posthumously and could be seen very much in the same light, but I think it's still worth noting when we try to analyze Clarissa’s “complete” story.
Furthermore, in terms of the content, I was thinking a lot about the word “prideful” and whether or not Clarissa could be described as such because of the way she talks about and prepares for death. While reading these letters to her family, I certainly see a lot of humility and forgiveness (as Kendra noted), but I was really struck by her response to her brother who was so adamant in the family’s shunning of her. Clarissa writes:
There was but one time, but one occasion, after the rash step I was precipitated upon, that I would hope to be excused looking up to you in the character of a brother and friend. And NOW is that time, and THIS the occasion. NOW, at reading this, will you pity your late unhappy sister! NOW will you forgive her faults, both supposed and real! And NOW will you afford to her memory that kind concern which you refused to her before!
The exclamatory remarks and the repetition of “NOW” seemed almost vengeful and showed a rather demanding side of Clarissa that did not emerge in the letters to the other family members. In short, this letter really caused me to question whether or not we could actually characterize Clarissa has “prideful” in these final moments. I had not previously thought so, but this letter might convince me otherwise.
Keri makes a number of really important points in her post: the paratextual black wax, the attempt to write the “end” of her (earthly) story and her anger at her brother and sister and maybe her uncles. I wonder if Richardson wants us to see her as “perfect,” in her vengefulness (and possibly anger) in these letters. Of course, as Kendra notes, Clarissa does suggest she's transcended it all. Are we meant to agree? A central puzzle, for me of the novel.
Like Keri, I thought Clarissa's letter to her brother read as vengeful – as if (having written this letter alive) she was enjoying, or just predicting, that her brother might read the letter with guilt and sadness. When I read these opening lines, I thought, “Clarissa is finally letting him have it! And from her death bed!” Then it became difficult to reconcile such a move with her family and loved ones repeatedly referring to her as an “angel,” a “perfect woman,” and so on. Toward what end would she be forceful with her brother in this way? Is it possible she is doing what she can to persuade him to change himself for the better?
I loved the balance of genuine forgiveness and unavoidable judgement in these letters. (After all, the God Clarissa worships is both merciful and just.) I think she's sincere in her forgiveness and in her sense of her own repentance for her naive mistaken steps–but her real repentance is to God, not to her family, as is proper. In judging them, she lets them know that naive and controllable as they once thought her, she has matured into a thoughtful sense of their own roles in her fate–and finds it proper that they should be reminded of this at the end. The fact that their own “forgiving” letters ALL take a mean swipe at her is interesting. She never reads them, so we know she's not giving tit for tat here. But I find their low and continuing and uninformed judgements of her nothing like her elevated and just judgments of them.