Pamela: Hyperbole 3 key examples

Pamela has sent her parents four guineas that Mr. B. has given her, and she has described Mr. B. as a nice man who has been somewhat forward in complimenting her. There is nothing immediately wrong with Mr. B.'s behavior, but it raises suspicions for Pamela's parents. Her father tells her that no matter how much money Mr. B. offers them via Pamela, it will never be worth "our dear Child's Ruin." In fact, he and Mrs. Andrews would rather live on water and clay than compromise Pamela's virtue. This is an exaggeration. Pamela's parents are far less wealthy than Mr. B., but they are not poor enough that they are really considering eating mud to survive. What Mr. Andrews means is that he and Mrs. Andrews have accepted a lower standard of living than they once had because it allows them to live according to their morals. Mr. B. is offering Pamela attractive wealth, but Mr. Andrews wants her to understand that her virtue (her virginity and especially the public appearance that she has never had sex) is worth the sacrifice of material comforts. Social status is important, but not nearly as important as moral status.

The trade-off Mr. Andrews advocates between social status and moral status is not as straightforward as he makes it out to be because of course, Pamela's "moral" status has everything to do with her social status; losing her "virtue" by having sex would endanger her marriage prospects at least as much as Mr. Andrews believes it would endanger her soul. Repeatedly, Pamela and her parents avow that any kind of poverty, no matter how dire, would be preferable to Pamela's moral endangerment. As it turns out, preserving Pamela's "virtue" is actually her ticket to greater riches. She proves that she "deserves" to marry Mr. B. and share his wealth as his wife.

Pamela's parents have been urging her in every letter to be cautious of Mr. B. Pamela has grown more wary of him over time, especially as she has realized that he is keeping a close watch on her, but she has been reasonably sure that he will not assault her. This assault occurs after Mr. B. rescinds an earlier offer to send Pamela to wait upon his sister, where she thought she would be safer from his attention. Pamela tells her mother that she knows "all his Wickedness appear'd plainly." She seems to be worried that her mother will be disappointed in her for failing to recognize Mr. B.'s agenda. She tries to save face by telling her mother that the assault placed her in a strange state of mind. It was not a "fit," she insists (a seizure or some kind of psychological meltdown), but she was "not [herself]." She emphasizes how he physically overpowered her before telling her mother that he kissed her "as if he would have eaten [her]."

Mr. B. is a violent man, but there is nothing to suggest that Pamela is really ever in danger of being eaten. Pamela uses this exaggerated comparison to emphasize Mr. B.'s voracious sexual appetite. He sees Pamela's body not as something over which she has sovereignty, but rather as something he can use as he wants to satisfy a craving, even if it destroys her. Pamela is making sure her mother knows that nothing about this encounter was consensual.

Pamela has told Mr. B. that she wants to be married on a Thursday because many important events in her life have happened on Thursdays. Mr. B. laughs at her superstition but argues that she should consider Monday. After all, important events in his life have occurred on Mondays. In any case, he tells her, he hopes that their marriage will turn every day of the week into a happy one. Pamela still insists that Thursday would be best, but she panics when Mr. B. suggests the coming Thursday—she has imagined that she will have more time to prepare herself before her wedding day. When she counters that Monday might work instead, Mr. B. panics her even more by suggesting that they get married immediately. She asks about the following Monday, and Mr. B. hyperbolically complains that next Monday, seven days from now, may as well be seven months away. He does not want to wait any longer than he must to marry her. Pamela eventually agrees to Mr. B.'s original idea: the Thursday three days from now.

It is not immediately obvious what the power dynamic is in this conversation. On the surface, Pamela and Mr. B. make one of their first marital compromises: Pamela gets the day of the week she wants for her wedding day, and Mr. B. gets an earlier date than Pamela envisioned. However, it is notable that Pamela, who has long been the one insisting that Mr. B. must marry her if he wants to have sex with her, is now the one with cold feet. She still wants to marry Mr. B., but she is concerned about rushing into things. She does not fully trust his sudden eagerness to be married; the question lingers of whether he could be planning a sham-marriage to trick her into having sex with him. As it turns out, Mr. B. seems to be genuinely excited to marry Pamela as soon as possible. Nonetheless, his exaggeration about how difficult it will be to wait comes across as a bit manipulative.