Woman portrait in pamela and clarissa by richardson, moll flanders by daniel defoe in augustan age

VINH UNIVERSITYFOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT ---PH¹M THÞ THANH H¦¥NG WOMEN POTRAITS IN "PAMELA" AND "CLARISSA" BY RICHARDSON, "MOLL FLANDERS" BY DANIEL DEFOE IN AUGUSTAN AGE.. H×nh tîng

VINH UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

-PH¹M THÞ THANH H¦¥NG

WOMEN POTRAITS IN "PAMELA" AND "CLARISSA"

BY RICHARDSON, "MOLL FLANDERS" BY DANIEL

DEFOE IN AUGUSTAN AGE.

(H×nh tîng ngêi phô n÷ trong “Pamela” vµ

“Clarissa” cña Richardson, “Moll Flanders”

cña Daniel Defoe thêi kú Augustan)

GRADUATON THESIS

FIELD: LITERATURE

Supervisor : Tran Ngoc Tuong

Student: Pham Thi Thanh Huong

VINH, MAY 2007

VINH UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

-WOMEN POTRAITS IN "PAMELA" AND "CLARISSA"

BY RICHARDSON, "MOLL FLANDERS" BY DANIEL

DEFOE IN AUGUSTAN AGE.

(H×nh tîng ngêi phô n÷ trong “Pamela” vµ

“Clarissa” cña Richardson, “Moll flanders”

cña Daniel Defoe thêi kú Augustan)

FIELD: LITERATURE

Supervisor : Tran Ngoc Tuong

Student: Pham Thi Thanh Huong

VINH, MAY 2007

VINH UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

-WOMEN POTRAITS IN "PAMELA" AND "CLARISSA"

BY RICHARDSON, "MOLL FLANDERS" BY DANIEL

DEFOE IN AUGUSTAN AGE.

(H×nh tîng ngêi phô n÷ trong “Pamela” vµ

“Clarissa” cña Richardson, “Moll flanders”

cña Daniel Defoe thêi kú Augustan)

GRADUATON THESIS

FIELD: LITERATURE

Supervisor : Tran Ngoc Tuong

Student: Pham Thi Thanh Huong

VINH, MAY 2007

AcknowledgementDuring working on this thesis, I have met a lot of difficulties, butthanks to all help and encouragement from my teacher, my relativesand my friends, I have finally finished it

First of all, I would like to show my deep gratitude and faithfulthanks to my supervisor, the teacher Tran Ngoc Tuong (MA) whohelped me and supported me enthusiastically during my writing

Secondly, I would like to express special thanks to the directorialBoard of the foreign language Department that award me theopportunity to do this thesis

Finally, I am very grateful to my parents, my friends for theirgreat advices, help and encouragement during the process of studyingthis thesis

Vinh, May 2007

Table of content

Part: introduction … 1

I The Rationale of the Study … 1

II Aims of the Study …… 1

III The Objectives of the Study …… 1

IV The Scope of the Study ……… 1

V The Methods of Study ……… 1

Part II: content … 3

Chapter I: Background of Augustan Age … 3

1.1 The Age of Enlightenment … …… 3

1.2 The Important Events in the Augustan Age …… 6

1.2.1 New Scientific and Philosophical Discoveries … 6

1.2.2 Industrial and Agricultural Revolution 7

1.2.3 The Growth of the British Empire in the 18 Century Empire… 9

1.2.3.1 The First Empire …… 9

1.2.3.2 The Second Empire …… 10

1.2.4 Conflicts in Society 10

1.2.4.1 Political Conflict ……… 10

1.2.4.2 Religious Conflict …… 11

1.2.4.3 Social Class Layers …… 12

Chapter II: Woman portrait in “Pamela” “Clarissa” by Richardson and “Moll Flanders” by Daniel Defoe in Augustan Age …………. 13

2.1Woman Portrait in the English Literature Periods before Enlightenment Age… 13

2.2 Woman Portrait in “Pamela” and “Clarissa” by Richardson, and in” Moll Flanders” by Daniel Defoe … 15

2.2.1 The Appearances 17

2.2.2 Their Position in Society …… 18

2.2.3 Their Way of Life 21

2.2.4 The Misfortunate Fate and the Matter of those Fates 23

2.2.4.1 The Misfortunate Fate 23

2.2.4.2 The Matter of those Fates 24

2.2.4.2.1 The Victim of materialism 24

2.2.4.2.2 The Victim of social class layers 25

2.2.4.2.3 The Victim of Strong Men for Sexual Desire 26

2.2.5 Pamela and Clarissa – the Importance of Virtue 27

2.2 6 Moll Flanders – the Importance of Experience 29

Chapter III: Epistolary form in Pamela and Clarissa by“Pamela” and “Clarissa” by ” and “Clarissa” by “Pamela” and “Clarissa” by ” and “Clarissa” by Richardson 3 2 3.1 Sources of Epistolary Form ……… 32

3.2 The Purpose of Using Epistolary Form in “Pamela” and “Clarissa” … 33

3.2.1 Epistolary Form in “Pamela” ……… 33

3.2.2 Epistolary Form in “Clarissa ……… 34

3.3 Richardson’s Epistolary sensibility …… 35

Part III: conclusion … 40

References

PART I: INTRODUCTION

I The Rationale of the Study

Woman portrait is usually endless inspiration for poets and writers That portrait has deeply entered the literature world as a center image for a long time and contributes to make treasure house of art literature more and more plentiful and copious Many works are written to praise, respect their beauty and noble virtue with admiration, heartfelt profound, sympathy before their life and fates Some dominant topics mark well-known writers, their career and leave distinctive signs

When studying in secondary school, the author had chance to get in touch with women subjects in Vietnam literature and this really attracted her Now, she is a student of the Foreign Languages Department and has opportunity to study more about women subjects in Western, especially English literature It is a great motive her to love more literature She finds a part of herself from characters in that works The more she reads, the more she has a deep understanding for their hurts and saturate in author’s language of a literary style It helps her discover many things and burns her desire to lead her to the decision to work on this thesis

Another interesting fact is that woman portrait is a truthful picture of sociallife It reflects the people’s life in each period of history This portrait is moredominant in the first half of the eighteenth century with the growing of BritishEmpire, the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment movement when start sharpconflicts, class layers in society The author recognizes that it is so interesting to her

to study about it

All of above things are the reasons why the author chooses “Woman portrait in

“Pamela”, “Clarissa” by Richardson and “Moll Flanders” by Daniel Defoe inAugustan age” for her graduation study

II Aims of the Study

-To help readers understand more about beauty, virtue of England women andreflect their life, fate in the first half of the eighteenth century

-To identify deeply the picture of English society in that age and have futureviewpoints about the value of life and more humanization opinion about people insociety

III The Objectives of the Study

- Back ground of Augustan age

- The Woman portrait in Augustan age

- Woman portrait in “Pamela”,” Clarissa” by Richardson and “Moll Flanders”

by Danie Defoe

IV The Scope of the Study

In the frame of this thesis, it is beyond our ability to cover all genres and allworks of Augustan age Thus, we concentrate on the woman portrait in three typicalnovels: “Pamela”, “Clarissa” and “Moll Flanders”

V The method of the Study

- Collective method

- Analysis, contrastive and Synthetic method

Part II: Content Chapter I: Background of Augustan Age

1.1 The Age of Enlightenment

The age of enlightenment referred to eighteenth century in European andAmerican philosophy or the longer period including the age of Reason It couldmore narrowly refer to the historical intellectual movement England was consideredthe cradle of Enlightenment that occurred in Germany, France, Britain and Spain.The enlightenment was often closely linked with the Scientific Revolution, forboth movements emphasized reason, science or rationality Inspired by therevolution of knowledge commenced by Galileo and Newton and in a climate ofincreasing disaffection with repressive authority, enlightenment thinkers sought toapply systematic thinking to all forms of human activity, carrying it in to the ethicaland governmental spheres in exploration of the individual, society and the state Itsleaders believed they would lead the world in to progress from a long period ofdoubtful tradition, irrationality, superstition, and tyranny that they imputed to theDark Ages, though not from religious belief The movement helped to create theintellectual framework for the American and French Revolutions, the Latin

American independence movement and the Polish Constitution of May 3; and led tothe rise of classical liberalism, democracy, and capitalism.

The Enlightenment was matched with the high baroque and classical eras inmusic, and the neo-classical period in the arts It received modern attention as beingone of the central models for many movements in the modern period It influencedthe Jewish Haslcah, which in Western Europe and particularly in Germany resulted

in the elevation and eventual replacement of Yiddish by Hebrew, as well as theJewish reform movement

In this period, the enlighteners praised human with their excellent abilities.Human always tried to overcome difficulties, trials to change their fate and achieve abetter life This differed from the Dark Age that human’s ability was negated by theChurch’s preaching and the authority is imposing that God already planned their fateand that they could do nothing to change it On the contrary, Enlighteners believedthat education could human’s ability and they knew to act correctly Knowledge wasthe biggest wealth of human to discover and conquer the world, universe We saw inthis period, the development of scientific technology made people’s life moreconvenient and happier That was a source of good education process, whichconsidered being the best way to civilize human society

The elevated humanism of Enlightenment also affirmed the equality betweenman and woman, the friendship and brotherhood among people regardless of theirrace, religion and nationality Simultaneously, they rejected the forces that dupedand trampled on human such as supernatural and miraculous elements, harsh feudalideas, discrimination and colonialism’s oppression

Enlightenment experienced a long period that was not always plain and flat but

up and down in different phases from its date of birth to the end Some personsdivided the movement into three phrases, but others observed it in two main phases

We here approve the second idea

The first phrase was counted from the movement’s beginning in the late 17th tothe middle of 18th century This was the blooming Shase when Enlightenment

developed to it highest point in its duration England in the first half of 18th centuryhad just overcome a number of chaos including Civil War, Restoration and rebels,which made a horrible memory in people’s mind At that time, Enlightenmentoccurred with many progressive ideas immediately met the hope and long of almostpeople Thus, the ideas received the great approval and marked its bloomingdevelopment.

The leading principles of Enlightenment centered round the following ideas:

1 Reason is a principle tool for all humans to think and to act correctly

2 Man is good by nature In addition, man’s good nature can be brought

to perfection through education

3 All men and women are born equal in respect of their rationality andshould thus be given the right to equality before law

4 Belief, religions customs are to be questioned and accepted on the basic

of reason only, not on the basic of authority, sacred texts or tradition

5 Supernatural and miraculous elements are discarded as the wholeuniverse in conceived as a rational system accessible to human reason

6 Man to man is brother to brother, regardless of nationality or country ofresidence

Applying these philosophies to reality, the Enlightener-writers concentrated onhumanistic studies of Man, his nature and the origin of his good and evil doings Tothem, vice was due to ignorance that could be done away with by force of reason As

a result, they thought it their duty to enlighten the people and insisted upon asystematic education for all The Enlightenment movement was in fact arevolutionary movement As it spread the idea of equality and brotherhood, it hadnothing to share with the urging feudal ideology, a system of thought based onhierarchical and patriarchal relations among men

Enlightenment, any way, had a great influence on the Augustan literature Itsideas became the main topics and the spirit of this period literary works that we willstudy some typical ones in later parts Because of this, the Augustan is also calledthe Enlightenment period in English literature history

1.2 The Important Events in the Augustan Age

1.2.1 New Scientific and Philosophical Discoveries

Philosophy and science are usually the aspects whose new theories anddiscoveries lead to the change of society and open a new era in history ofhumankind

The revolution of science is thought to begin when Copernicus gave the ideathat the earth rotated on its axis beneath the unmoving sun In the eighteenthcentury, new discoveries of scientists among whom, the most dominant one wasIsaac Newton, proved that nature had its own law’s which was different from whatreligion church had taught before Newton’s “principia” (1687) and “Optic’s” (1704)suggested that:” There were indeed intelligible laws in nature which could bedemonstrated by physics and mathematics, and, moreover, that the universeexhibited a magnificent symmetry and a mechanical certainty.” This provided aframework of a system that seemed capable of explaining everything in the universeand it was also the basic principle of Enlighteners

In the field of philosophy, thinkers, especially Rousseau and Voltaire inFrance, praised the equality, democracy and ability of man In England, John Lock,Francis, Bacon, Anthony Ashley Cooper gave the birth for Empiricism Theyexplained the way the mind acquired “all materials of Reason and Knowledge arefrom Experience” They also provided an intellectual basis for easily digestedtheories of politics, religion and aesthetic and for precepts pertaining to socialhappiness

In short, the philosophers and scientists used nature and universe law andhuman being center to observe and explain everything They celebrated Reason,ability of man to use his scientific knowledge to discover natural phenomenon whichhad been associated to supernatural power before, simultaneously opposed tointolerance, restrain, spiritual authority and disoriented religious belief

These ideas were gradually acquired and changed the way of thinking ofpeople They believed that their ability, not supernatural authority or the God could

drive their fate The main character Robinson Crusoe in the name- coincided novel

by Daniel Defoe is a typical image of a hero who fights bravely to overcome harshdestiny They believed in education and learning which could help them tounderstand and control nature, believe in human’s ability to drive their fate andimprove society In addition, it was not only necessary to man but also woman Wecan find in “Robinson Crusoe”, “Gulliver’s Travels”, “and Pamela” and especially,

in the essay “The Education of Women” by Daniel Defoe the spirit of praisinglearning and education that were thought could improve society and bring to people

a brighter future

1.2.2 Industrial and Agricultural Revolution

Britain is the first place on the world where the Industrial Revolution tookplace This important event made a great influence on changing the whole country’sface Power was seen as the first field touched by the Revolution with James Watt’sinvention of steam engine Since then, the application of new inventions anddiscoveries into many aspects created a major change in producing method.Machines released people from hard work in factories and made a jump in industrialdevelopment, especially in coalmine, textile or transportation industries Theindustrialization with its enormous strength made Britain become the workshop ofthe world

Under the effect of the industrial revolution, Britain gained position in top ofthe richest countries At the same time, it was the foremost condition to carry out anAgricultural revolution Throughout the country, the “open field” system was re-divided Labouredly productivity was raised and more food was produced

It was said that Britain had a new face under the two revolutions’ influence.Until the middle of the eighteen century, Britain was still an agricultural countrywith most of the population lived in villages or small towns and earned their livingworking on land Nearly seventy percents of the population inhabited in big townsand cities in the end of the century A large number of factories were built, a lot of

towns and large cities developed rapidly, such as Birmingham, London, and Leeds,

so on

However, this means that the land for farming was restricted The farmers losttheir land, became unemployed Some of them went to cities to get a job as workers.Most of them had a poor life This situation led to another important issue of societythat was class division and growth of working and bourgeois The poor farmers andworkers were liable to a distress It was one of the roots of social evils

In addition, pragmatics and capitalism’s idea of praising money devaluedhuman beings’ morality and virtue Marriage even became an economic exchange.The picture of the complicated society in this time was reflected truthfully inthe literature works “The New Atlantis” by Mary de la Manley and “The MollFlanders” by Daniel Defoe described a society with political crisis, homosexuality,rape, social evils, etc Some other works, such as “Gulliver Travel” and “A modestproposal” by Jonathan Swift showed devaluation of human being in front of theattraction of money and other authorities Even in “Robinson Crusoe” which manypositive ideas of Enlightenment was expressed materialism and capitalism ideascould be found

1.2.3 The Growth of the British Empire in the 18 Century

England began its colonial expansion a century later than Spain, Portugal, andFrance In the 16th century whereas Britain was just a small kingdom withoutoverseas possessions, Spain and Portugal had sent expeditions on discoveries acrossthe Atlantic and opened the route to India They claimed a monopoly of trade withnew lands After defeating Spain was invincible Armada in 1588, England wasready to enter the race for overseas trade and possessions The British Empire wasbuilt partly through discoveries and settlement

1.2.3.1 The First Empire

The British Empire at first had two poises: America in the West and India in theEast

Nevertheless, the stream of immigrants was directed mainly towards Americaand was increased by religious persecution In 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers landed onthe shores of New England (in the Northeastern part of the United States includingthe territories of Main, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,Connecticut) Between 1620 and 1640, about 25.000 pilgrims went to live in NewEngland In addition, English civilization was steadily spreading.

Britain regarded the colonies as a source of raw materials and markets Thesearch for markets was the cause for the Seven Years War (1756-1763) throughwhich England took over the control of India and Canada front France

Shortly after the Seven Years War, the American colonies began to rebaptismagainst the police of Great Britain The Independence War of the America coloniesbegan in 1775 and lasted for 8 years On July 4, 1776, 13 Britain colonies in NorthAmerica proclaimed their independence from Great Britain The most valuable part

of the then British Empire was lost, and thus making the end of the First Empire

1.2.3.2 The Second Empire

In the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution spread in England and turned thecountry into the unrivaled workshop of the world English manufactures neededmarkets for their goods, and food and raw materials for their factories Britishshipping grew enormously, within 25 years after the loss of the American colonies;the second British Empire was strongly developing in size and in strength In the 19th

and early 20th centuries, territories in Africa, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Asiaand the Pacific were colonized and became dependent on the British Empire It was

a common saying that the sun never set on the British Empire

Consequently, many literary works in this period paid attention on the themes

of equality, brotherhood among human beings, projection of colonialism andslavery, unfairness and discrimination Alpha Ben in her “Oronoco” raised the voiceagainst trade of slavers and power of colonialism, and in “Robinson Crusoe”,although it was not so clear as others, the author shows his attitude cleverly to the

problem of capitalism and colonialism which will be considered in more details inthe later part.

1.2.4 Conflicts in Society

After the monarchy Restoration in the seventeenth century, British were afraid

of any violent event like that to make their life chaotic However, this was the time

of some deeply contradictions and unsettling in society

1.2.4.1 Political Conflict

In 1660, when the son of Charles I was restored the throne to be the KingCharles II, England became a Monarchy Constituent nation Queen Anne, KingGeorge II sat the crown in sequence in the eighteenth century The monarch ruledthe country, but in fact, most of real power was held by parliament Conflicthappened between the monarch and parliament for some reasons In realty, theKing’s power was lessened and he was forced not to decide important nationalproblems without parliament permission Another reason that partly caused thepolitical conflict was religion, which would be started clearer in the next part

Political conflict also happened between parliament’s parties: the Whig andthe Tory There was a little difference between them in this period Tories mostlyincluded great landowners whose privilege was gradually declined with the growing

of bourgeois and capitalism while those whole property was mercantile and financialwere likely to form the Wings

The problem of politic drew considerable attention of writers In “GulliverTravel”, Jonathan Swift indirectly claimed the heads of the country, the unsuitablepolicies, the court and the parties’ quarrel Other works in which political issue wastouched were “The New Atlantic” by Mary de la Manley, in works of EdmundBurke like: Speech on America Taxation”, “Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol”, etc

1.2.4.2 Religious Conflict

This direct conflict caused social division, even more serious than the politicalone The opposition was between the Church of England, which was preceded by themonarch and both Protestants, and Roman Catholics The Protestants who did not

belong to the Church of England or did not accept the Monarch as the head of theChurch were called Dissenters or Nonconformists There were resent laws such asCorporation Act and the Test Act that banned them and Roman Catholics frombecoming MPs or having a government job In a royal family, nobody that did notbelong to the Church of England could get the throne.

Religion had such an important effect on society that many authors considered

it as a plentiful ground for their writing John Banyan wrote “The pilgrim’sprogress”; Jonathan Swift: “A tale of Tub”; Daniel Defoe: “The shortest way withdissenters”, so on They exploited the theme of belief, faith in religion but alsocriticized the forces that took its advantage for bad aims

1.2.4.3 The Social Class Layers

The perception of class division was going to intense There were sevengroups in society:

-The great who live excessively hereditary nobility

-The rich who lived very plentifully, great and owners dominating the countrylife

-The middle sort who lived well: professions, church bishops, lawyers, doctors,and teachers

-The working trades who worked hard but felt no want, no need or demand-The country people, farmers, etc who fared indifferently

-The poor that fared hard

-The miserable that really pinched and suffered

The social class conflict led to the Glorious Revolution, which took placebetween the old aristocracy and the new bourgeoisie

Chapter II: Woman portrait in Pamela , “Pamela” and “Clarissa” by ” and “Clarissa” by

Clarissa by Richardson and Moll Flanders by

“Pamela” and “Clarissa” by ” and “Clarissa” by “Pamela” and “Clarissa” by ” and “Clarissa” by

Daniel Defoe in Augustan age

Until present time, society and men had a rather equal view to women and theirrole in family as well as in society However, to gain this result, women have tomake great effort to prove themselves This is not an easy progress but a long termand difficult one

Until the age of Enlightenment, the opinion about Women was evaluated tomark an obvious advance in compare with the previous periods Enlighteners saidthat: Women and men were equal by their nature and law

To have a correct reorganization of the Enlightenment’s progressive Ideasabout Women, we will study some typical literary works on this theme, such as

“Pamela” and “Clarissa”, “Moll Flanders” by Daniel Defoe, but firstly the women’simage in the periods before Enlightenment age

2.1 Woman Portrait in the English Literature Periods before Enlightenment Age

In literature, women’s position in family and society was getting moreimportant and this was reflected in different periods in literature

In old English literature, women portrait was very dim, even rarely appeared inworks which was mostly unwritten It is easy to understand this Ancient society wasnot a developed one in which man was the ruler Only man was worthy to mention

in people’s mind Women appeared with very little role beside men, even when they

played an important role in society “Beowulf” was the most famous work in thisage It was the story about the hero Beowulf with his extolled deeds to Defeat a firebreathing Dragon, monster Grendel and his mother The three women in this epicwere Grendel’s mother, and two Queens, but their part was only to brightenBeowulf’s action We hardly saw a woman with her normal life in literature if shedid not own a special position such as Queen, or princess, or a member of a royalfamily.

In medieval time or the Dark Age, under the draconian feudal institution,women had no voice in society In family, they totally depended on their husbands.They did not get any opportunities to have jobs because they thought social workswere not for women Their works were to take care of children, sew, embroider orcook In this period, drama started to grow and attracted audience, but there were noactor on the theatre Actors played all characters The noble Women in the Romancetrend of literature remained in the reader’ mind was the image of a beautiful girl orwoman standing and waving after the shadow of her knight in the end of a path Onthe other hand, women’s life through George Chaucer’s famous work: “CanterburyTale” was not peaceful They had their own circumstances, which they had used toassociate to fate, but in fact caused by the feudal institution In short, despite socialclass, they belonged to, the suffering and gloomy covering the women’s life was thecommon situation of feudalism, from the East to the West

The prejudice to women and belittlement of their ability was still dominatedduring the Dark Age and remained for a very long time Afterward, with thedevelopment of society, these disoriented thoughts were gradually improved In theRenaissance, one of the brilliant periods in English literature history that usuallymentioned with the reputation of William Shakespeare, women’s value was moreconsiderably acknowledged than in the previous periods in literature Women dared

to fight for their love, for equality, even for power Shakespeare’s great humanismdid not allow him to ignore women who were the subject to be protected

The period following the Renaissance was the Restoration, which was namedafter the historical event when son of Charles I restored his reign and becameCharles II and his court from France had an important significance to thedevelopment of English literature That was the entering of the French style thatcontained Moliere’s impact on the London theatres, comedy of manner, and theGallicism (A vogue that English like to use French idioms or phrases) Most literaryworks in this period reflected the luxurious life of aristocrats In society and a verysmall number of them reflected the dim life of county people, especially countywomen They were the victims of an unequal regime, of men’s patriarchal behaviorand sexual desire We can find all of these features in Dryden’s “Marriage a lamode”, William Wycherley’s “The country wife”, John Van burghs “The prvok’dwife”, etc Especially, there was the appearing of “She-tragedy” which focused onthe suffering of innocent and virtuous women.

In fact, the blooming phase of Enlightenment was just after the Restoration.This explained why there were some similarities between them in the point of view

of women However, compared with the previous ones, the physical life, especiallyspiritual life of women was never described and explored more truthfully and deeplythan in this period

Samuel Richardson and Labeled his reputation on literature ground with thework “Pamela” (or “Virtue Rewarded”) and later with “Clarissa” (or “History of ayoung lady”); Daniel Defoe wrote about women’s fate with “Moll Flanders” whichmarked his literature career All of them were successful works beside a largenumber of works on the same topic about women of other authors

2.2 Woman Portrait in “Pamela” and “Clarissa” by Richardson, and in” Moll Flanders” by Daniel Defoe

Women and children are usually the objects who need to be more protected,more cared and receive more affection than anyone else Of all age, we found inliterature images of poor women with intricate situations that were the exposition ofauthors’ deep humanism Writers in the first period of 18th century not only gave

women a sympathy but also raised their voice to reset to the anti-women powerwhich were arranged marriage, the nets of man and society and even higher, found

in women moral, worthy virtue, experience to be extolled and appreciated abilitywhich were deserved

Richardson’s women portrait were described with full traditional virtue,wonderful morals of Pamela and fighting spirit for love and against the wickedforces, which considered love, marriage and women as a kind of goods of Clarissa.While Daniel Defoe’s women portrait were described with terrible experience ofMoll The readers share her life in order to learn what life should be This reflectsthe age’s concern with experience and how to live Such concern contrasts with theinterest in the Renaissance in exploration of new worlds and ideas

Richardson wrote Pamela (or “Virtue Rewarded”) in 1740 This created a newepoch in history of English novel and became “the Joy of Chambermaids of allnations” as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s saying.” Larissa” or “History of a younglady” (1747-1749) was the constituency of his success after “Pamela” Both novelswere written in the form of letters (epistolary genre), that were contemporaryfashion Clarissa and Pamela had different life and fates, but what Richardsonwanted to convey through them was the same That was his humane viewpoint towomen in which women did not only need the affection and protection of men butthey also had right to act following their want and right to fight for their happiness.Daniel Defoe wrote Moll Flanders in 1722 This portrait was completelydifferent from Pamela and Clarissa, and was considered as a picaresque The storywas believed by some to be a tale of capitalism due to the numerous allusions tomoney, contracts and other currency – related items Everything, including people,had a monetary value This gave the reader a feeling of Moll’s calculatingpersonality Moll Flanders often caused the reader to question if doing somethingamoral out of necessity was amoral at all The novel explored both contemporary

18th century conservation and liberal ideologies Defoe himself is a noted puritan.His views were ambiguous, in that he believes and writes for hard work, devotion,

and the work of providence as grace There is some debate, however, as to whetherDefoe intended Moll as an entirely sympathetic character The novel, devoting manypages to crime and sin and very few to repentance or even remorse, leaded thereader to question Moll’s desire for forgiveness She was therefore an ambivalentcharacter Some have even speculated that Defoe intended the book partially as atitillating moneymaker These arguments often all aided to Defoe’s preface in which

he mentioned “Lewd ideas” and “Immodest teams” that could lead the audience toread the work for scandalous entertainment instead of moral value The novelcombined Defoe’s interests in conversion narratives with his experience and interest

in crime Moll Flanders was a popular novel, and Defoe’s reputation was aided by it

He had earlier written about Criminals for various Journals and Moll Flandersincreased his cachet as a writer of criminal lives

In this part, women portrait is only presented in three characters: Pamela,Clarissa and Moll Flanders From that characters, the authors reflect truthfullygeneral women portrait in Augustan age, reappears their characteristics and innerlife

2.2.1 The Appearances of Three women

The important point in works is that these heroines are beautiful women Thishas a great influence on the plot of stories and attracts reader’s attention Althoughthe authors do not describe their appearance clearly and exactly, we can be easy torealize their beauty by situation and details in stories

Pamela was a young maid with the modest and agonized delicacy Mr B wascarried away by her beauty and even conceived a passion for her Pamela recognizedher beauty and knew that could make her inconvenient when many young menattended to her Therefore, Pamela always tried to protect herself

Clarissa was a virtuous young woman of “Great beauty and merit” anddiscretion whose family had became very wealthy Her family was proud of theirdaughter’s beauty and asked high requirements to men who wanted to get marriage