Cowed by Bulls

Pamela's inaction during vol. 1 of Virtue Rewarded frustrates. By her own admission, her fears do much to prevent her escape from Squire B.'s clutches in Lincolnshire. At best, one might argue that Pamela's "action" is translated into writing. She seeks to manipulate her circumstances by "subscribing" others-- her father, Rev. Williams-- to her aid through her epistles.

By contrast the volume's "villains," Squire B. & Mrs. Jewkes, are violent characters. B. of course is always seizing Pamela's hand, breast, mouth, etc. Jewkes, aside from assisting B. in one of his attempted to rapes, hits Pamela-- an affront which seems to strike our protagonist as even more alien than her frequent sexual persecutions.

Pamela's attempts at escape from "bondage" reflect her unfamiliarity with violent action. On her first attempt, she is frightened by bulls. This encounter-- in which violence is precluded by Pamela's fear-- is again translated by the heroine into literary metaphor: "Here seems to be the spirit of my master in one bull, and Mrs. Jewke's in the other." The joke of this sequence is that Pamela has been frightened not by bulls, but by two cows, "that my fears had made so terrible to me" (192).

While this leads to considerations about the portrayal of literature in relation to virtue and action-- Pamela is often accused of having her mind befuddled by reading too many romances-- the observation does nothing to explicate the respective behaviors of Pamela and Squire B. What motivates the apparent passivity of one and the violence of the other? Furthermore, how does Pamela's passivity succeed against Squire B.'s violent onslaughts?

My answers next week... but here's a hint: Freud's First Essay on sexuality, the one that talks about the proliferation of sexual perversions...