EXTEND – A father’s plea for virtue

The focus of the passage is on how important the social order was in the Augustan age despite the relative mobility enjoyed in the upper part of the hierarchy. Complete the text with the words given. Then look at the prompts in bold and write some extra reflections in your exercise book. You can use the final text as revision material for your test.

Samuel Richardson's Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded is celebrated not only as a novel teaching moral values, as its title suggests, (Refer to section 5.8 of your textbook and consider how this is connected to religious beliefs.) but also as a profound demonstration of the importance of ________ the social order in ________ society. Like Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, it shows how individual ambition plays out within the social classes that already exist. (Refer to section 5.8 of your textbook for evidence of how 18^th-century novels reflected middle-class values and struggles for success.) This dual purpose explains why the central event of Pamela's ________ to Mr B occurs relatively early in the novel. The latter part of the book is then dedicated to Pamela's ________ to adapt and fit into her new role as a ________ navigating the complexities of aristocratic life and asserting her moral integrity within a higher ________ sphere. (Do some research online to get more information on the plot and the second part of the novel.)

Analyse the emotional impact of Pamela's parents' letter. Match the rhetorical devices (1-3) they use to the main effects (A-C) they create in the letter. Write the correct letters in the gaps.

Rhetorical devices
1 Repetition (e.g. 'Indeed, indeed,' 'we fear – yes, my dear child, we fear') ________
2 Rhetorical questions (e.g. 'But what avails all this...? ', 'Why should he smile so kindly... ?') ________
3 Exclamation marks (e.g., 'oh, that fatal word!', 'ruined and undone!') B ________

Effects created
A To emphasise the gravity of the situation.
B To convey strong emotion, urgency, and shock.
C To highlight their doubts and suspicions.

Read the passage and choose the correct alternative.

1 The main reasons why Pamela's parents are troubled by her letter are ________.
2 The mistress is referred to as a 'good lady' because she ________.
3 Pamela's parents would be more willing to live in poverty than to see their daughter lose her ________.
4 Her parents are concerned at the news that Mr B ________.
5 The 'fatal word' that 'almost kills Pamela's parents with fears' is that Mr B shall be ________.
6 The widow Mumford says it is not unusual that ________.
7 Pamela's virtue is defined by her parents as the ultimate ________.

Match each core value of Pamela's parents (1-4) with the sentence or phrase from the text that best illustrates it (A-D). Write the correct letters in the gaps.

Values
1 Humble origins and experience of poverty. ________
2 Reliance on community wisdom and experienced elders for guidance. ________
3 Fear of Pamela being between social orders, not fully belonging to the poor but neither to the rich. ________
4 Prioritisation of their daughter's moral integrity and virtue over any material gain. ________

Evidence
A But we would sooner live upon the water, and, if possible, the clay of the ditches I contentedly dig, than live better at the price of our child's ruin.
B We are, 'tis true, very poor, and find it hard enough to live; though once, as you know, it was better with us.
C I have spoken to good old widow Mumford about it, who, you know, has formerly lived in good families...
D … you should be brought to anything dishonest or wicked, by being set so above yourself.