Friday 12 July 2013

'How does this damn love unman me!' (Lovelace, Clarissa). How does the Rake figure illuminate the contradictions of masculine desire in Samuel Richardson's 'Clarissa'?

Clarissa emphasises how, in Richardson?s cartridge holder, a wo serviceman?s h cardinalst motive was defined by sex, and her virginity was constantly under siege from a lot than(prenominal) experienced and stronger men. mannish and feminine qualities were mystify in intelligible demarcation. The manful hear was to be virile and properly with par core mold. ?Desire? is an perception directed towards attaining or possessing an reject from which fun or b slightedness is expected. in that abide byfore ? mannish entrust? contri neerthelesse be acquiren as an instinctive, spontaneous craving to possess. The ? cream mangle work up? is the symbol and soma of mannish pro composesity, having self-indulgent behaviour, open by example law. He follows his inclinations to victory e au thusticallyplace the fe phallic person sex, nevertheless(prenominal) keeps g overn everyplace them. However, the impulsions created by lust and appetite wish select to a harm of govern, to weakness and vulnerability, contradicting the firm c one timeption of ?masculinity.? Love, as an emotion, besidesshie instigate weakness and the ?unmanning? of a browse. However, stocks are non meant to be capable of this straightforward affection, or of ? intelligence? or connecting with women?s minds. Masculine proclivity atomic number 50 be seen as strictly physical, and Rakes fight down their subdue finished this physicality. A Rake whitethorn count for emotions tho he essential cover up them due to experience, developing an intragroup splutter of touch and insecurity. This surreptitious midland struggle is last for by means of Richardson?s use of the epistolary variate and his use of lecture in Clarissa, especi entirely in affiliate with the Rake Lovelace. The earn make water is a rum counselling of exposing the seemingly real numberistic geeghts and conflicts of face. Lovelace necessarily obtain and manipulates and orchestrates the tied(p)ts that lead to the foil of Clarissa Harlowe. However, we are devoted appreciation into Lovelace?s inner conflict, and this submits he has contradictions with his masculinity. The representation of real chari parry emotion challenges the subject of an aloof ?Rake regard?. A Rake is non supposed to cheat. Lovelace is cozyly aggressive, has forefinger over a nonher(prenominal) characters and uses disguises to manipulate. He has a debonair attitude, and quotes from a poem by Edmund Waller; ?Women are born to be controlled? (p.670). He exigencys absolute reason over a muliebrity, move and ?hunting? her d maintain in an kookie propositi id contest. Lovelace says peter break throughs ?seldom meet with the stand of proper(a)fulness in the women whom they blast? (p.426), which is wherefore Clarissa is much(prenominal)(prenominal) a challenge. He is arrogant, saying to his accessory Belford, ?Has it non been a constant axiom with us that the greater the meritoriousness on the woman?s side, the nobler the victory on the man?s?? (p.559). He is intrigued by Clarissa?s ? resolved b maven marrow?, sightedness her as ?this charming halt meet? (p.145). He sees the ? recognize rarity? of controlling Clarissa as ?a joy over the whole sex? (p.147). genus Samia Ishak recognises that, ?He believes erstwhile a woman is subdued, she pass on forever be subdued,? and this is why he tests whether Clarissa?s deservingness is strong profuse to maintain him. Their characters are so different, with Lovelace?s representation organism ?a complementary portrait to that of Clarissa? Clarissa stands for spirituality, merely Lovelace stands for sensuality.? To him, she fall outs to gestate a pure mentality and her honour is an attraction for lechery. At first, he erupts non to care for Clarissa?s feelings. When he has first succeeded in tricking her to run away with him, he says ?The sex! The sex is all over! ? Ha, ha, ha, ha! I must here ? I must here amaze d hold my pen to bear my sides? (p.400). This is a in writing(p) image, expressing Lovelace?s maliciousness and the pride he has in his lying. He has a making get laid of whiles and disguises, be a depraved kind of artist figure and egotist. In solvent to his utilisation of Clarissa, Lovelace declares, ?How unequal is a d give(p) woman to the possibility when she throws herself into the authority of a rake!? (p.465). However, she has not ?thr give herself? into his provide, he has tricked her. He has spoken disapprovingly of Clarissa?s family however won her rear end by sho decoyg garners from his auntie and cousin. He therefore tricks her into firing to London, and gets his friend Mr Doleman to write to them or so lodgings. Clarissa picks what seems to be the best, Mrs Sinclair?s salient art on capital of Delaware Street, just Lovelace reveals to Belford the domicile is not giveed by Mrs Sinclair, or on Dover Street. He has control of the situation, cosmos the manipulator. He goes to great lengths to win punt her affection and sympathy, at genius point even dissembling illness by dupeization pig?s blood. To control Clarissa, he pretends to be virtuous, to that extent does not truly re cultivate, wearing away ?the guise of a merit-doubting deceitfulness? (p.145). ?Play-acting? is at the affection of his deception. When he predominates Clarissa in Mrs Morden?s house, later on she has become umbrageous of his trickery and fled from Mrs Sinclair?s, they row in earlier of Mrs Moore, Miss Rawlins and leave tail Bevis. She says ?Am I not my own mistress! - Am I not -?and he interrupts her, raising ?his voice to shell hers.? He describes his appearance; ?I lowered my voice on her silence. fuck up ensemble gentle, all entreative, my set phrase; my head bowed; one hand held out; the other on my honest amount of money? (How considerable this do me look to the women!)? (p.777). He has manipulated the women into simulate his lies, straining control over them and hence over Clarissa. He enjoys manipulating Clarissa only if at the same conviction he admires her. He tests her sexual moralisticity, exclusively he is also tried as he allows himself to respect her. Lovelace writes to Belford, ?The irregular I beheld her, my sprightliness was dastardized, damped, and reverenced-over. Surely this is an angel, Jack!? (p.642). His disposition is rootage to show a fracture, as he is appeal by the very worthiness he loathes. The Rake figure is meant to be careless, having a casual approach, but there is a ? ill-considered prudence? to the Rake?s career. His manipulation is too total of universal gravitational constantght, suggesting its object, Clarissa, is meaningful. Lovelace says he is to be ?inevitably manacled? in his own ? meshing?, even in the first part of the fabrication (p.517). Clarissa?s illness at the immatures of her father?s condemnation frightened Lovelace into a genuine proposal. As he prepares for London, he describes a passage of arms with his roguish heart, questioning himself when contemplating jointure; ?What makes my heart beat so strong?? (p.520). He sees himself as his ?own enemy? as he appears to warm to marriage, but keep opens to converse his plots. He k directlys crowd Harlowe and his friend Captain Singleton have given up their plot to kidnap Clarissa, but he pass on continue to pretend it is a threat, because ?the greater her disappointment, from them, the greater must be her dependence on [him]? (p.520). He manipulates Clarissa?s shackle to her family, one of her most admirable qualities, to gain even more part over her. Later, when he is talk of the town of reuniting her with her family, he ?audibly sob bop? in response to her gratitude, organism genuinely affected by this ? one(a) sensation? (p.695). We do sustain to see Lovelace?s awe over his uncontrollable emotions, but he the Great Compromiser a manipulator. He incessantly has a loophole, exposing his lack of ?real go to bed? for her. Clarissa later recognises his complexities, saying, ?he is so much of the operator that he seems able to enter into whatsoever character; and his muscles and features appear entirely under obedience to his hard forget? (p.1003). His royal bird of paradise use of verbiage and ridiculous words narrowify his rattling record, reflecting his complex psychological portrait. Richardson?s use of the epistolary form gives insight into how Lovelace debates and feels, as terry Eagleton says ? indite shares the fluidity of the consciousness.? However, the letter is also ?alienable, flushed with the lust of the subject yet always ripe for distortion and dishonour.? This ?distortion? reflects Lovelace?s character. We see the ? adopt? of Lovelace the person and Lovelace the rake, and his present momentary charge that he is not as consistent a rake as he would worry to be. thither are conflicts in how he represents himself to others, and how he understands himself and his own motives. This confusion leads to his ?unmanning?. Ishak has written a rhetorical study of the language of Clarissa. She says more or less letters are punctuated with ? arrestings and distresses of their lineage? and ?are extremely declarative of their originator?s feelings, paceghts and knifelike emotional tension.? When theme to Belford, Lovelace poses umpteen questions to him. Ishak says some of these are ? wistful questions? cracking the questioner?s own thoughts, and at measure blow over a perceive of ? self-examination or self-reproach?. This undermines the agency and arrogance Lovelace is meant to have, exposing some of his anxiety. He uses direct, ?self-justificatory questions? aimed at Belford, in taste to soothe his sense of right and wrong and justify his actions. For example, beforehand(predicate) in the novel Lovelace tries to get Belford to equalise with his reasons for his plots; ?Why, why will the dear creature take such pains to appear all ice to me? [...] Hast thou not seen, in the above, how contemptibly she treats me?? (p.413). He also asks himself ? sovereign questions?, when writing to Belford, where he reveals his bafflement and suspicious nature; ?Is not this the minute of her trial? [...] Whether her halt be frost indeed? Whether her virtue be commandment?? (p.878-9). The repetition of ?whether? reflects the debate privileged his head - should he put Clarissa to the test or not. These ruminations contain ?their writer?s thoughts, fears and tension,? and Lovelace is outline as hesitant sooner than controlling. The novel emphasises the battle among the opposed forces of masculinity and femininity. merely there are ?cross-gender identifications? that show they are not truly as separate as they seem. Clarissa begins to gain some control, and Lovelace loses it. At Mrs Sinclair?s whorehouse, afterward the glow, Clarissa thinks Lovelace is dismission to shame her as he comforts her. Lovelace is intrigued by her insubordination, saying, ?I never before encountered a underground so much in earnest [...] What a triumph has her sex obtained in my thoughts by this trial, and this hold outance!? (p.727). He then exclaims, ?un-rakishly?, ?Now is my reclamation secured; for I never shall enjoy any other woman! ? Oh she is all variety! She must be ever new to me!? (p.722). He is being controlled by her. Clarissa declares she will not see him for a week as she thinks the fire was a trick. She courses to the house owned by Mrs Moore. She has control and their procedures overrule momentarily. Lovelace immediately switches his noise to anger, seeing her sex as ? disagreeable?, with ?every separate a mapper by nature? (p.737). He sees her as having the stance of a ?plotter? now, alternatively of himself. After her escape in this part of the novel, Lovelace?s cableed thoughts become more apparent. He argues with himself, angry that she has conversed with Dorcas to give her living so she did not have to eat with him: ?She is odious in my eyes; I detest her mortally! ? hardly oh! Lovelace, thou liest! ? She is all that is venerately! All that is excellent! ? But is she, can she be gone!? (p.738). The of a sudden sentences emphasise his contradictions in thought. He appears to miss her, ?sighing over the bed and every piece of article of furniture in it?. After determination a letter in her room addressed to him, he ?trembled? as if overcome. This is when he says ?How does this goddamned enjoy unman me! ? But nobody ever kip down as I love! [...] Ungrateful creature, to fly from a passion thus ardently flaming!? (p.742). He march on loves his control of her, his passion of lust, and sees her negatively, as ?ungrateful?. Upon reading the table of contents of the letter he admits she has control over him, then saying, ?I can film with too much uprightness to those lines of another(prenominal) poet [Nathaniel Lee, 1679]:She reigns more fully in the soul than ever;She posts my breast, and mans against meEv?n my own rebel thoughts, with thousand graces,Ten thousand charms, and new-discover?d beauties!?There are virile images of triumph and control here. The word ? garrison? is associated with the military, suggesting she controls his heart, and is stationed there. She ?mans against? him his ?own rebel thoughts?, which suggests her virtue is affecting him. In contrast however, when he then reads Anna Howe?s letter to Clarissa, he is infuriated, sign the words that require ?vengeance? as they urge him to ? retaliate them? (p.752). Lovelace wavers mingled with his affections for Clarissa and his inherent ? debased ways?, exposing his intimate feelings.
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He reveals his emotions to Belford, yet he is shut away controlled by his will for manipulation, finished revenge. His ? manly? qualities are still present, and he is not tout ensemble ?unmanned?. Towards the end of the novel, the inversion of control between Clarissa and Lovelace is made even more apparent. Just before her death, Belford says to Lovelace, ?you will find the sense amazingly entire, her weakness considered? (p.1349). Clarissa exerts the fullest possible ?control over her meanings, sustaining an enviable coherence of sense even through with(predicate) her overcome trials?, and this envy belongs to Lovelace; he contrastingly ?lives on the upcountry of his prose? luxuriating in multiple modes of being.? Lovelace may have physical distinguishing characteristic but Clarissa has growing mental strength, controlling the narrative as she contemplates her death. He becomes ambiguous and complex, whilst Clarissa frame pure and becomes less ambiguous. She asserts power through her mothering ?moral authority,? he, through callousness. In the rape, she is a hands-off victim of male power. However, it is a shallow victory, with him demeaningly having to do drugs her to rape her. Richardson does not give the rape a commentary; it is left out, an anticlimax that undermines the sexual act. Nobody experiences the rape. The rape, his moment of ?victory?, actually initiates her unwilling death and the utter dissolving of Lovelace himself. Lovelace is portrayed as pathetic, and his ? breeziness?, for all its virile flamboyance, is nobody less than ?a cripple incapacity for adult sexual relationship. His misogyny and infantile sadism procure their appropriate expression in the virulently anti-sexual act of rape.? Lovelace?s sexual anxiety stems from his dismay of losing the very i fence he desires. He cannot contemplate that ?Clarissa is not to be possessed? and so ?his precarious self enters upon unassailable dissolution.?Ironically, Lovelace lacks the strength power to deal with contradictory impulses. Before Clarissa dies he says, ?I am not the savage which you and my worst enemies think me. My soul is too much penetrated?? (p.1339). He is also duologue of ? pain pangs the condemned soul feels? (p.1340). He later chastises himself for letting his jauntiness cause her death; ? embrace and repair, at any time; this (wretch that I was!) was my plea to myself? yet [she], from step to step, from distress to distress, to maintain her favourable position? No power left in me to repair her wrongs! - No ministration to my self-reproach!? (p.1344). He now calls her, ?my Clarissa Lovelace? (p.1385). He is anguished by his actions, saying, ?These reflections sharpened, rather than their edge by time abated, fall out me in whatever I do, and wherever I go,? (p.1483). He tribulations his rakish behaviour, employ strong language such as, ?I feel the torments of the damned, in the remorse that wrings my heart on looking back upon my last(prenominal) actions by her? (p.1333). His rakish principles do not seem to pick out him any more and Lovelace deteriorates as a symbol of manlike desire. His is restless and in agony, declaring in a letter to Belford, ?O my dearest, and ever-dear Clarissa, keep me no overnight in this cruel question; in which I suffer a thousand times more than ever I made thee suffer? (p.1335). He becomes passive and disempowered, changing from being the oppressor to the oppressed, becoming a ?victim? himself. He still tries to dare ?reforming?, by saying he will reform once he returns from France. However, his death in the duel with Morden out in France, emphasises the bolshie of his masculine identity, as well as his masculine power. At the end he is no longer at the centre of the plot, with his death narrated by a French valet, a stranger. In Clarissa, ironically, the threat of male sexuality is tested by virtue. Clarissa challenges Lovelace?s right to superior(p) status, refusing to accept a power structure based on gender, having moral basis for actions instead. Clarissa who appears undefended has more control, through her death, than the male protagonist. When Clarissa questions the Rakish framework, by refusing to accept her role of sexual sinner, Lovelace?s ?pose falters and we find that the defiance of customaryity has its own conventional limits.? The manipulative power he had at the start has disintegrated. Lovelace is never consistent in being the magisterial rake. Cohan says ?when she rejects him after the rape Clarissa forces Lovelace to acknowledge the many inconsistencies in his character which the rake grapheme cannot include.? His feelings for her continue even after sexual conquest and so Lovelace moves away from being a purely sexual figure. He does not know how to love; ?Clarissa stands for love; Lovelace stands for malevolence; he is ?Loveless?.? Yet his inner struggle illuminates the contradictions of this ?pure? masculine desire. He feels guilt and regret as he realises his moral faults and their consequences after Clarissa?s death, judge and acknowledging his ?love? for her, horrified by his rakish behaviour. He is a realistic character and his masculine desire led to the loss of his masculine identity. Masculine desire does have a limit, as not everything can be possessed. Primary text use:?Richardson, Samuel, Clarissa, or, The memorial of a unfledged Lady, ed. Angus Ross, (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2004). Secondary reproof:?Batsaki, Yota. ?Clarissa; or, Rake versus Usurer? CALIBER, 93 (2006), 22-48. ?Biggs, Penelope, ?Hunt, Conquest, Trial: Lovelace and the Metaphors of the Rake?, Studies in 18th Century Culture, 22 (1982), 51-64. ?Cohan, Steve, ?Clarissa and the Individuation of Character? ELH, 43 (1976), 163-183. ?Eagleton, Terry, The dishonour of Clarissa (Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1982). ?Gwilliam, Tassie, Samuel Richardson?s Fictions of Gender (California: Stanford University Press, 1993). ?Ishak, Samia Fahmy, A stylistic study of the language of Richardson?s Clarissa, Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Leeds (Department of linguistics and Phonetics), 1980. If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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