In Volume IV, we see Clarissa and Anna constructing competing narratives—one “regressive” (Clarissa’s) and the other “progressive” (Anna’s), to use Gergen and Gergen’s terms (1983). In her response to Letter 177, Rachel commented that “Clarissa seems to perceive herself as part of a regressive narrative—a fall from the previous grace she once inhabited that, though she holds out small hope for escape now, cannot ultimately be regained. I think Clarissa seems to have positioned herself like Eve, cast out from paradise, never to reenter… But it’s Anna’s job as a good friend to try to ‘write’ Clarissa in a more progressive narrative—even for this micro-narrative moment.” Similarly, Debra added “I think Anna too understands how Clarissa’s life has become circumscribed. But she offers a version, one might say, of the ‘fortunate fall.’ Though Clarissa may suffer, her story will be an excellent example for others, and will have the capacity to relieve further suffering.” Rachel and Debra thus both noted how Anna’s narrative attempts to repair Clarissa’s in a way that allows her “ADVERSITY [to be her] SHINING-TIME”; Clarissa’s and Anna’s narrative are competing views of “fall” from grace Clarissa has experienced.

Also in Volume IV, Lovelace’s narrative becomes tightly tied into Clarissa and Anna’s because of his successful retrieval of the letters between the two women, which then propels his “revenge narrative” forward. As Rachel noted in her response to Letter 198, “Lovelace seems to need the ‘very words’ from Clarissa—which we have established are often her only sense of individual agency or expression in the novel—in order to fuel his own revenge. In essence, he wants the ‘actual’ evidence of her seeming agency in order to heighten his own agency in taking hers away.” This response is very relevant to Lovelace’s revenge narrative as a whole that becomes fueled when he gains access to the “very words” interchanged between Clarissa and Anna.