| I wonder if anyone would like to comment on Clarissa's dialogue with Betty (Let 63, Tuesday, 3 o'clock, March 28, Ross Penguin, pp 263-6). I think Richardson meant the reader to triumph with Clarissa; Clarissa is irritated at Betty's "could but my parents _have let go as fast as I pulled_" because she sees in it a sharp reference to her own situation, i.e., Betty thinks Clary would like the Harlowes to let go as she pulls towards Lovelace; although Clarissa's situation is felt plangently here and there ("I wish thou wouldst leave me to myself"), basically for this reader there is only the arrogance of the wealthy young woman pitted against the nastiness of the envious servant who the wealthy girl believes is beneath her because of her lack of money or class. Just some thoughts. Ellen Moody |