The Forty-Eight Commandments

Mr. B, in the space of three pages, provides Pamela with a “faint sketch” of the conduct he expects from his wife. While Mr. B admits that he has “many and great imperfections” as he concludes his speech, he states that he doesn’t need Pamela to remind him of his faults as he is already aware of all of them (466). Conversely, through the use of her amazing ability to memorize dialogue and her journaling habit, Pamela seeks to constantly be reminded of her faults and opportunities for improvement based on Mr. B’s comments concerning the duties of a wife. She chooses to utilize her memorization and writing skills to fashion “rules,” or commandments, for herself from Mr. B’s comments.

In my addition of Pamela, the page breaks after rule eight. So, at first glance, I assumed that she, in the vein of her religious nature, had sketched out her own personal Ten Commandments, two of which would be waiting at the top on the following page. I was astounded to see that she was able to compose forty-eight commandments, stretching over the course of four pages, out of only three pages of Mr. B’s comments. What Pamela chooses to include in these commandments that can or cannot be found in Mr. B’s comment, as well as her own thoughts on these rules is worthy of scrutiny.

While these commandments begin with “I must not,” which is reminiscent of the Bible’s “Thou shall not” and concern Pamela’s actions in particular, they soon descend into generalized comments concerning the education of future children (ten commandments) and the duties of a wife to her husband (fifteen commandments). Twelve commandments out of the forty-eight go so far as to explicitly mention what “he thinks,” “he says,” “he insists,” seemingly placing Mr. B in the position of God.

While distinct outlines for the husband/wife relationship can be found in Ephesians, Pamela makes no use of including or commenting on what the Bible calls her to as a wife, despite continuous claims to her spiritual nature and religious fervor. Though she does provide comments on some of her rules, she does not expressly disagree with any of them. At the end, she offers up no summary save for a remark to her parents stating that she will be “very unworthy” if she does not “make the obliging of him my whole study” (470). We can therefore ask: in consideration of these commandments that she pledges to live her life by, why does Pamela substitute her husband for the role of God in her life?