Guilt And The Psychology Of Clarissa

In comparing this exercise to Clarissa the biggest take-away is perhaps that the plight of Clarissa speaks more to fundamental problems within the world she is resigned to, than any of her own follies or missteps. By considering Richardson’s Clarissa in light of this epistolary version of Hogarth’s Marriage à la Mode, it is clear that marriage as an institution was fundamentally flawed. Moreover, both of the key marriages presented in these works are doomed from the beginning, and any of Clarissa’s “options” would have shared a similarly tragic fate.
It is perhaps useful to begin by attempting to discern where the marriages (or lack thereof) in Clarissa and Marriage à la Mode ultimately went wrong. One of the most striking resemblances between

It might be easy to simply assume this persistence speaks to a hunger for financial or social advancement, but there are textual clues that indicate it might be more complicated. In his book, Anger, Guilt, and the Psychology of Clarissa, Victor J. Lams argues that it is important to understand there isn’t a real distinction between wealth and love for the Harlowes. When the Grandfather reveals the will in Clarissa’s favor, he essentially rewards her monetarily for being his favorite. In doing so, he reinforces that wealth and love are interchangeable. Lams argues that this creates a “love deficit” which destabilizes the entire household, and consequently, it is not just property that is at stake when Lovelace disrupts the marriage to Solmes (Lams 7). Another literary critic, Donnalee Frega, argues Clarissa’s family almost “[holds] their love for her as a hostage in their battle for authority” (Frega 48) and uses this emotional blackmail to pressure her. As a result, her mother attempts to guilt her into compliance when she begs her “not to willfully break that peace which costs [her] Mother so much to preserve” (79), her siblings treat

For example, imagine Clarissa obeyed her parents and reluctantly married Solmes. While she certainly would have avoided family drama, harm to her reputation, and hopefully her sickening rape, it is not like Clarissa would have lived happily ever after. Clarissa would instead spend her entire life married to a man she despises. If that is not tragic enough in itself, consider another trajectory. The Earl’s moral repugnance might also liken him to Lovelace. Consider Clarissa had instead married Lovelace. Lovelace is perhaps preferable to Solmes in some ways, yet he is still somebody she simply isn’t morally compatible with. If Marriage à la Mode is any indication, her unhappy marriage might even end similarly tragic to that in Hogarth’s tale—her husband dead, lover fled, sick, pregnant, resigned to suicide. The problem is not that Clarissa makes any wrong choices, but that any choice she can make leads to a tragic end. The very fact that Clarissa’s virtue is unwavering, despite all of this, speaks to the fact that Clarissa’s only real “choice” would be to compromise herself, values, and adjust her expectations for a fulfilling life, which, ultimately might be a fate worse than