She has just now given from her bosom, where she always wore it, a miniature picture set in gold of Miss Howe: she gave it to Mrs Lovick, desiring her to fold it up in white paper, and direct it To Charles Hickman, Esq.; and to give it to me, when she was departed, for that gentleman.
She looked upon the picture before she gave it to her — Sweet and ever-amiable friend — companion — sister — lover! said she — and kissed it four several times, once at each tender appellation.
We're reminded of the loving relationship Clarissa and Anna had. Does this letter prompt any new reflections after our conversation in class on Clarissa and Anna's (possible love?) relationship?
I think it is problematic to apply anachronisms to their relationship considering the time period in which Clarissa is written. Women had intense relationships with each other during the 18th and 19th century and they often wrote impassioned letters to one another. Not that there weren't romantic relationships between women but they would not have been identified as someone in the 20th century would identify them. That being said, however, I think if their relationship was to be examined with a modern lens then you could read their relationship as a potentially romantic one. There's also implications that can be found in Clarissa and Anna desiring the single life together. While we can read this modernly, I believe the point that Richardson is making is that both Anna and Clarissa are young, inexperienced, and essentially don't know any better. Otherwise I believe that this letter shows the deep connection that Clarissa had to Anna. The relationship is also reflective of the time period because women often times did not know the men that courted them because it was not appropriate for a woman to be in the company of a man without a chaperone. So of course Clarissa's closest confidante would be another woman who would know all of her fears, hopes, and so on — someone she could spent time with and not need a chaperone or be limited in her time with.
I like Kendra's comments here about anachronisms. And also like her recognition of the very probable “romantic” relationship between Anna and Clarissa. Modernly (to steal Kendra's word), we can hardly avoid expecting “romantic” to also be “sexual.” But we're wrong (I think) to project the later sense onto the earlier sense. (Just ask any two guys in a contemporary bromance how much they want to have sex with each other. Okay, maybe they do . . .)
I find it easy to imagine a marvelous and life-long and cohabiting relationship between Clarissa and Anna. They both see through the male need for possession and domestic dominance; they both long to possess their own bodies for themselves; they both are utterly clever and linguistically gifted people (oh yes, even as females); they both want to be granted peace–as human beings, as women. They could even lie together in bed each night, enjoying the warmth of sleeping human contact, without the least desire for “sex.” (Now there's a possibly problematic term.)
For me, this is a very human way to read them, and to wish them happiness. Would that it had happened.
There are so many words here that we do use differently today in contrast with the 18th century–Jessica used “love,” Kendra added “romantic” and Tony added “sexual.” I would argue that these have all been going on in women's relationships since…always, although they are certainly represented differently from century to century.
I was assuming from the first volume–when we see Clarissa and Anna writing to each other so frequently and passionately, as the bulk of the narrative early on–that there was a deep love between these two young women that did surpass the seeming simplicity of the term “friendship.” But I don't think we have to (or can) determine the level of “sexuality” in any “romance.” I think it matters most to focus on the word Jessica used to start–Love–but without the question mark! And then unpack what depths of love and attachment we see in operation at different moments in the narrative. Because, I would also argue, part of the Love we see here is the Narrative itself–the sharing and constructing of stories in time (which even Belford and Lovelace do–and thus, they describe their relationship as one of love, too), and the construction of this environment where someone tells, and someone listens to, their deepest fears, and desires, and secrets. Hence, the “danger of writing” that might have been perceived by men during their time–and ours!–if they had perused their letters (as Lovelace did, and as Belford will).
I like the word “Love” here as Rachel uses it; the characterization of the relationship we're looking for here is homosocial. I think Richardson is very interested in characterizing different kinds of friendships. If we think back to the David and Jonathan allusion earlier in the novel, it seems like Richardson is aware of and characterizing here a very special kind of friendship where two souls are “knit” together. David “loved Jonathan as himself,” which I think is a particularly apt way to describe the relationship between Clarissa and Anna. Each is necessary for the construction of self in the other.
I'm not an eighteenth century expert by any means, but at least in terms of the novel itself, “friendship” takes on several meanings we don't normally associate with it. Belford and Lovelace are friends, as are Belford and Bolton, but the two relationships seem very different. Certainly friendship for Belford involves care in a way that it doesn't for Lovelace. Clarissa and Anna are friends, but frequently Clarissa describes her self as “friendless” where “friends” include her mother and father and sister and brother. If the kind of love Clarissa has for her mother is characterized as friendship, then there's room for the term friendship between Clarissa and Anna to imply a bond that is intense even by “bromance” standards.
Friend, companion, sister, lover. This catches the range and depth of their relationship. They share each other's lives as friends. They live together in companionable ways, sharing the kind of life they want. They are sisters of the heart, suggesting great mutual understanding and intimacy. And their feelings are deep and intense love. More than anyone else, they wish to be with one another.
I agree it would be problematic to project a modern view of love/sex relationships onto Clarissa and Anna. I was reaching more for what Debra says: “their feelings are deep and intense love. More than anyone else, they wish to be with one another.” Anna is Clarissa's “other” (maybe the term “significant other” wouldn't be off-base here). Whether they experienced sexual desire for each other probably isn't (as others have already said) a helpful question for us. I like Rachel's remark about “depths of love and attachment.” If they could have lived together instead of being pushed into marriage, they likely would have been satisfied in each other's company for their whole lives.
It also seems really significant that Clarissa removes it and asks Belford to give it to Hickman. Symbolically it read like Clarissa, now dying, is handing Anna off to Hickman. Presumably Hickman would wear or keep this piece of jewelry, and he could admire it as Anna's husband, like Clarissa did as her friend.
Debra and Rachel said in comments on another letter that there are some real emotions being provoked by this story now. This is the letter that hit me. I was so surprised that all this time she has been wearing a tiny picture of Anna. When Clarissa called Anna a “sweet and ever-amiable friend — companion — sister — lover!” and kissed the picture, my heart was broken.
I think one of the reasons people can't quite find the right word for Clarissa and Anna's friendship is the lack of attention paid to female friendships in our culture. Friendship, particularly for women, is just not as respected or revered as a romantic relationship.
I found this article (http://therumpus.net/2012/01/transformation-and-transcendence-the-power-of-female-friendship/) to be particularly illuminating on the topic, and I think it relates well to Clarissa and Anna's feelings for one another.