Although the novel tells Clarissa’s story, Lovelace is frequently given a chance to narrate the events happening through his letters to Belford. As his part in the story grows, so do the number of his letters included in the text. Lovelace’s identity at the beginning of the story is the man who incites the events. He pursues Arabella and then Clarissa causing Anna to write to Clarissa and begin the discussion of the events happening, and his pursuit of Clarissa leads directly to her family’s decision to try and marry her to Solmes. During this time, Lovelace has very few letters in the text. It is not until plans are being made for Clarissa to leave her home and the actual departure takes place that Lovelace’s letters are included more frequently, and the reader begins to see the various identities that Lovelace constructs in his writing.

The early volumes of Clarissa paint Lovelace as a bit of an enigma. Clarissa’s brother clearly despises the man, and Clarissa isn’t a huge fan either but is more disposed to giving him a chance than anyone else in her family. She writes to Anna at one point that she feels if only he could tell his side of the story, then his actions could be better understood and less faulted by so many. Unfortunately, Clarissa is wrong.

Lovelace’s identity as the villain of the novel is revealed more and more as his letters increase in frequency. These lend a certain sense of doom to the novel. He reveals his true feelings and plans for Clarissa in these letters, and the reader becomes more and more aware of how unlikely it will be that this story will end happily. Within these letters, Lovelace wears a number of masks. While we see different aspects of Clarissa’s self in her writing, particularly in looking at the letters to her family vs. the letter to Anna, Lovelace’s letters seem always to be a type of performance, whether he is writing to Belford, Clarissa, or anyone else. Early on, Lovelace is performing as the most rakelike version of the rake. He wants Belford to think that his pursuit of Clarissa is a good idea. This performance makes it difficult to see when Lovelace is being honest and when he is playing up his abilities with women and desire to conquer them all. Later, Lovelace vacillates between continuing this performance and one in which he acts repentant and desirous of forgiveness for what he has done to Clarissa. We encounter letters where he refuses to take blame for Clarissa’s fate or even alters the events (as he does in his conversation with Mr. Hickman) to make himself appear to be the victim. But we also have letters where he prostrates himself before various other characters including his family, Clarissa, Anna, and Belford, decrying his wish to make things right and begging forgiveness from all. Through these different letters, we encounter several different Lovelaces; he writes so many identities for himself, that it is difficult to identify which part he is playing at times.

At the beginning of the novel, we see only a version of Lovelace revealed to us through other characters, and few people like him. It is through his writing that the reader begins to perceive the multiplicity of Lovelace’s identities, the way he shifts himself to align with whatever it is he wants or needs at the time. In his letters, Lovelace is performing for Belford, but we also see a very clear picture of what he plans for Clarissa and hopes their relationship will be like. His writing is very revealing in that respect. The reader comes away from his letters with a better understanding of who he is and what he wants than is originally seen at the start of the novel. But at the same time, Lovelace often uses writing as a way to get his way or to force a particular view of himself on other people. His letters also reveal other versions of him, depending on the recipient and the situation. He constructs specific identities in his writing, something Clarissa does not do. While Clarissa believes her writing to be somewhat of a spontaneous outpouring of her identity on paper, Lovelace uses writing as a way to construct whatever identity is most useful to him at the time.