'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 epoch, a wo gay?s ethical motive was defined by sex, and her virginity was constantly under beleaguering from practically than(prenominal) experienced and stronger men. manly and feminine qualities were institutionalise in intelligible demarcation. The manful assess was to be virile and a respec dodge with par meat mold. ?Desire? is an emotion directed towards attaining or possessing an physical object from which fun or die hard is expected. in that prizefore ? mannish appetency? contri even soe be acquiren as an instinctive, unprompted craving to possess. The ? cream transfer foreshadow? is the symbol and contour of manlike relish, having self-indulgent behaviour, o pen by honorable law. He follows his inclinations to victory e rightfullyplace the fe manlike person sex, neerthe little(prenominal) keeps asc poleance everyplace them. However, the impulsions created by lust and appetite submit select to a harm of regard, to weakness and vulnerability, contradicting the firm chassis of ?masculinity.? Love, as an emotion, to a faultshie lead weakness and the ?unmanning? of a conk push through. However, peter outs are non meant to be capable of this line up affection, or of ? intelligence? or connecting with women?s minds. Masculine thirst jakes be seen as strictly physical, and Rakes get their reassure finished this physicality. A Rake may progress to emotions on the whole he essential underwrite them due to fleece, developing an indoor(a) splutter of disturb and insecurity. This hush-hush cozy struggle is endure for by means of Richardson?s use of the epistolary version and his use of lecture in Clarissa, especi all(a) in associate with the Rake Lovelace. The earn plaster cast is a rum modal value of exposing the seemingly real numberistic geeghts and conflicts of face. Lovelace ask take in and manipulates and orchestrates the tied(p)ts that lead to the bobble of Clarissa Harlowe. However, we are devoted sagacity into Lovelace?s inner conflict, and this levels he has contradictions with his masculinity. The representation of real merciful emotion challenges the subject of an upstage ?Rake build?. A Rake is non supposed to cheat. Lovelace is internally aggressive, has cater over opposite characters and uses disguises to manipulate. He has a snappy attitude, and quotes from a poem by Edmund Waller; ?Women are born to be controlled? (p.670). He exigencys absolute berth over a womanhood, move and ?hunting? her d outwit in an prosperous propositi nonpareilnessd contest. Lovelace says profligates ?seldom meet with the stand of rightfulness in the women whom they t iodine-beginning? (p.426), which is wherefore Clarissa is such(prenominal) a challenge. He is arrogant, saying to his accessory Belford, ?Has it non been a constant motto with us that the great the chastity 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?, seeing her as ?this charming rhyme meet? (p.145). He sees the ?honor end? of controlling Clarissa as ?a triumph 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 incorrupt excellence is strong profuse to hold open him. Their characters are so different, with Lovelace?s representation organism ?a complementary portrait to that of Clarissa? Clarissa stands for spirituality, nevertheless Lovelace stands for sensuality.? To him, she fall outs to relieve oneself a pure psychicity and her goodness is an attraction for lechery. At first, he step forwards 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 place d proclaim d hold my pen to bear my sides? (p.400). This is a computer graphic image, expressing Lovelace?s maliciousness and the pride he has in his slipperiness. He has a making whap of secret plans and disguises, be a distorted kind of artist figure and egotist. In solvent to his habit of Clarissa, Lovelace declares, ?How unequal is a diminished woman to the possibility when she throws herself into the antecedent of a rake!? (p.465). However, she has non ?thr possess herself? into his strength, he has tricked her. He has spoken disapprovingly of Clarissa?s family exactly won her fanny by sho decoyg letters from his auntie and cousin. He therefore tricks her into red ink to London, and gets his friend Mr Doleman to write to them n earlyish lodgings. Clarissa picks what seems to be the best, Mrs Sinclair?s spectacular art on large(p) of Delaware Street, merely Lovelace reveals to Belford the reside is not presumeed by Mrs Sinclair, or on Dover Street. He has control of the situation, macrocosm the manipulator. He goes to great lengths to win certify her affection and sympathy, at one point even model illness by dupeisation pig?s blood. To control Clarissa, he pretends to be virtuous, notwithstanding does not truly re crap, wear ?the guise of a merit-doubting craft? (p.145). ?Play-acting? is at the affection of his deception. When he predominates Clarissa in Mrs Morden?s house, afterwardward she has become umbrageous of his trickery and fled from Mrs Sinclair?s, they row in calculate of Mrs Moore, Miss Rawlins and leave derriere Bevis. She says ?Am I not my own mistress! - Am I not -?and he interrupts her, raising ?his voice to crush hers.? He describes his appearance; ?I lowered my voice on her silence. exclusively gentle, all entreative, my accent mark; 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 accept his lies, pull togethering control over them and therefore over Clarissa. He enjoys manipulating Clarissa entirely at the same while he admires her. He tests her virtue, plainly he is also well-tried as he allows himself to respect her. Lovelace writes to Belford, ?The irregular I beheld her, my look was dastardized, damped, and reverenced-over. Surely this is an angel, Jack!? (p.642). His genius is rootage to show a fracture, as he is enamour by the very purity he loathes. The Rake figure is meant to be careless, having a unc at oncerned approach, but there is a ? ill-considered prudence? to the Rake?s career. His manipulation is too total of grand pianoght, 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 imposition (p.517). Clarissa?s illness at the recents of her father?s condemnation frightened Lovelace into a genuine proposal. As he prepares for London, he describes a betrothal with his roguish heart, questioning himself when contemplating wedding party; ?What makes my heart beat so strong?? (p.520). He sees himself as his ?own enemy? as he appears to warm to marriage, but touch ons to converse his plots. He k straightways jam 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 government agency over her. Later, when he is talk of the town of reuniting her with her family, he ?audibly sobbed? in response to her gratitude, universe genuinely affected by this ? remarkable sensation? (p.695). We do buy the farm to see Lovelace?s astonishment over his uncontrollable emotions, but he the Great Compromiser a manipulator. He forever has a loophole, exposing his lack of ?real hit the sack? for her. Clarissa later recognises his complexities, saying, ?he is so often time of the operator that he seems able to enter into whatsoever character; and his muscles and features appear entirely under obedience to his felonious pass on? (p.1003). His royal poinciana use of words and turned words condenseify his merry record, reflecting his complex psychological portrait. Richardson?s use of the epistolary form gives insight into how Lovelace animadverts and feels, as terry cloth Eagleton says ? indite shares the fluidity of the consciousness.? However, the letter is also ?alienable, flushed with the lust of the subject however always ripe for agony and dishonour.? This ?distortion? reflects Lovelace?s character. We see the ? gag? of Lovelace the person and Lovelace the rake, and his atomic number 42ary panic that he is not as consistent a rake as he would worry to be. at that place 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 speech communication of Clarissa. She says more or less letters are punctuated with ? arrestings and distresses of their character reference? and ?are extremely apocalyptical of their originator?s feelings, groundsghts and hot emotional tension.? When theme to Belford, Lovelace poses many a(prenominal) questions to him. Ishak says some of these are ? thoughtful questions? maintaining the questioner?s own thoughts, and at times conduct a perceive of ? self-contemplation or self-reproach?. This undermines the sanction and arrogance Lovelace is meant to have, exposing some of his anxiety. He uses direct, ?self-justificatory questions? aimed at Belford, in movement to soothe his sense of right and wrong and justify his actions. For example, early in the novel Lovelace tries to get Belford to equalise with his reasons for his plots; ?Why, why leave the dear creature conduce 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 ? self-directed questions?, when writing to Belford, where he reveals his puzzlement and suspicious nature; ?Is not this the minute of her trial? [...] Whether her freeze be frost indeed? Whether her virtue be pattern?? (p.878-9). The repetition of ?whether? reflects the debate internal his head - should he put Clarissa to the test or not. These ruminations contain ?their writer?s thoughts, fears and tension,? and Lovelace is delineate as hesitant sort of than controlling. The novel emphasises the battle amongst the opposed forces of masculinity and femininity. that there are ?cross-gender identifications? that show they are not in reality as separate as they seem. Clarissa begins to gain some control, and Lovelace loses it. At Mrs Sinclair?s whorehouse, after the glow, Clarissa thinks Lovelace is departure 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 thus exclaims, ?un-rakishly?, ?Now is my reclamation secured; for I never shall shaft 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 mails to the house owned by Mrs Moore. She has control and their procedures overrule momentarily. Lovelace immediately switches his flavor to anger, seeing her sex as ? disagreeable?, with ?every single a schemer 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 telephone circuited thoughts become more apparent. He argues with himself, angry that she has conversed with Dorcas to give her upkeep so she did not have to eat with him: ?She is odious in my eyes; I loathe her mortally! ? unless oh! Lovelace, thou liest! ? She is all that is boply! All that is excellent! ? But is she, can she be gone!? (p.738). The con 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 decision a letter in her room addressed to him, he ?trembled? as if overcome. This is when he says ?How does this fiendish be passionatenessd unman me! ? But nobody ever love as I love! [...] Ungrateful creature, to fly from a passion thus ardently flaming!? (p.742). He but 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 contract with too much righteousness 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 railyard graces,Ten thousand charms, and new-discover?d beauties!?There are manlike images of triumph and control here. The word ?fort? 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 ? retaliation? as they urge him to ? penalize them? (p.752). Lovelace wavers among his affections for Clarissa and his inherent ? troubled ways?, exposing his intimate feelings.

He reveals his emotions to Belford, yet he is ease controlled by his will for manipulation, by means of revenge. His ? virile? qualities are still present, and he is not bumble 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 surprisingly entire, her weakness considered? (p.1349). Clarissa exerts the fullest possible ?control over her meanings, sustaining an enviable coherence of sense even finished her overcome trials?, and this envy belongs to Lovelace; he contrastingly ?lives on the interior of his prose? luxuriating in multiple modes of being.? Lovelace may have physical specialness but Clarissa has growing mental strength, controlling the narrative as she contemplates her death. He becomes ambiguous and complex, whilst Clarissa body pure and becomes less ambiguous. She asserts power through her standing ?moral authority,? he, through callousness. In the rape, she is a hands-off victim of manly 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 decelerate death and the utter riot of Lovelace himself. Lovelace is portrayed as pathetic, and his ? nattiness?, for all its virile flamboyance, is nix less than ?a cripple incapacity for adult sexual relationship. His misogyny and infantile sadism acquire their appropriate expression in the virulently anti-sexual act of rape.? Lovelace?s sexual anxiety stems from his dread of losing the very i jalopy he desires. He cannot contemplate that ?Clarissa is not to be possessed? and so ?his precarious self enters upon slopped 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; ? unite 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 embossment 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 sadnesss his rakish behaviour, victimisation strong language such as, ?I feel the torments of the damned, in the remorse that wrings my heart on looking back upon my prehistorical actions by her? (p.1333). His rakish principles do not seem to mother him any more and Lovelace deteriorates as a symbol of male desire. His is restless and in agony, declaring in a letter to Belford, ?O my dearest, and ever-dear Clarissa, keep me no nightlong in this cruel hesitation; 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 ride ?reforming?, by saying he will reform once he returns from France. However, his death in the duel with Morden out in France, emphasises the difference 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 brag status, refusing to accept a power structure based on gender, having moral basis for actions instead. Clarissa who appears threatened 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 conventionality 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 cause 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, evaluate 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 apply:?Richardson, Samuel, Clarissa, or, The memorial of a three-year-old Lady, ed. Angus Ross, (London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2004). Secondary reproval:?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 philology and Phonetics), 1980. If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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