Pamela Violence Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

Upon this she gave me a deadly Slap upon my Shoulder: Take that, said she; who do you call Jezebel?

I was so scar'd, (for you never beat me, my dear Father and Mother, in your Lives). (41.8-9)

So the one good thing about being abducted to Lincolnshire is that Mr. B can't beat her up anymore. Right? Right … but now Mrs. Jewkes can, and that woman is packing some serious guns. Talk about jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

Quote #8

I'll warrant I can take such a thin Body as you are under my Arm, and carry you in, if you won't walk. You don't know my Strength . . . (41.12)

Pamela's at a major disadvantage here: not only is she meek and passive by nature, her body is weak, too. That puts her at risk for mental violence and physical violence—meaning that her only defense is to be really, really virtuous. Virtue is like her superpower: it neutralizes all the violence that people keep directing at her.

Quote #9

Whatever you have to propose, whatever you intend by me, let my Assent be that of a free Person, mean as I am, and not of a sordid Slave, who is to be threatened and frightened into a Compliance, that your Conduct to her seems to imply would be otherwise abhorr'd by her. (42.25)

Not long before she agrees to marry Mr. B, Pamela teaches him (and us) an important lesson: consent is meaningless if it's given under threat of violence. Only slaves can be threatened and beaten into submission—but not good Christian girls protected by their virtue. (And if they are threatened and beaten into submission, well, then, they just weren't trying hard enough, were they? /sarcasm.)