In Volume III, we see Clarissa struggling to hold onto her virtue in the new narrative she has found herself in after she leaves her family’s home with Lovelace. Steve commented that Clarissa keeps trying to come back to what Gergen and Gergen (1983) would call her “stability narrative,” or “a narrative that links incidents, images, or concepts in such a way that the individual remains essentially unchanged” (p. 258). This narrative, for Clarissa, would be one where she is still living at her parent’s house, the issues with those she loves resolved. Tony amplified on Steve’s thoughts, saying that though Clarissa clings to this narrative, it has been lost, though she still remains hopeful. Keri, using Gergen and Gergen’s (1983) terms for “progressive” and “regressive” narratives, added that Clarissa has moments where she wishes she would die because of the social position she now finds herself in. But, Keri also noted she retains hope.

In our blog posts, we also discussed both the actual construction of the narrative, noting the different ways the major characters often characterize the story’s events. In the discussion of Letter 93, Megan mentioned how Anna frequently “has a better view of the world at large than Clarissa does.” Keri added that, instead of “analyzing each individual episode that Clarissa describes in isolation, Anna often references others and tries to track the trajectory of Lovelace’s actions and overall character.” Anna evaluates Lovelace’s character carefully, using all the examples of his recent conduct she can think of to do so.

We also began to notice the role of a fictional “editor” in Letter 103. Meghan wondered what that editor is leaving out of the text. Debra explained that there are at least three levels of mediation in the novel: Richardson, fictional editor, and letter-writer. Steve added that he is skeptical of the fictional editor’s interests, as several accounts of events are taken out of the text seemingly for brevity.