In Volume VIII, Clarissa’s gradual death allows us to see and interact with overarching parts of her identity in her final moments. Several of us commented on how Clarissa’s values—virtue, religion, truth—are reinscribed by the choices she makes at the end of her life. Tony and Kendra were not surprised by Clarissa’s admission in Letter 440 that she “lied” to Lovelace by suggesting that she would soon be in her “father’s house” (with God in Heaven). Though the remark implies to Lovelace that she would be returning to the house in which her family lives, Clarissa does not see this subtle dishonesty as being in conflict with her values because she privileges a different kind of truth, one that enables her to protect herself from Lovelace. Clarissa’s heavily symbolic letters, Kendra reminded, bring her religiousness to the foreground.

We also noticed and admired how Clarissa, even in death, insists on doing as much as she can on her own. She intends to die in the way that she desperately wanted to live her life: independently and without too much burden on others. In Letter 451, Belford records Clarissa saying, “I love to do everything for myself that I can do. I ever did.” Some of us read these later actions—ordering her coffin, preparing her will, writing letters to be sent after her death—as Clarissa’s desire not to be a burden, even in death. Others noticed how these actions reinscribe her as self-sustaining. Debra made a similar point in response to Letter 413: despite severe constraints on her life, Clarissa actively valued her own autonomy.