# Letter 114: Miss Clarissa Harlowe, to Miss Howe explained — Clarissa

> Chapter companion for Clarissa by Samuel Richardson.

## What happens

Clarissa writes to Anna Howe about her confrontation with Lovelace, expressing her disgust at his manners, contrivances, and threats against her brother and Solmes. Lovelace dismisses his menaces as mere pleasantry and claims his reputation is exaggerated, but Clarissa remains deeply troubled by his lack of moral character and her own desperate situation.

## Themes in this chapter

### Deception and Appearance vs. Reality

Lovelace's claims that his threats are mere pleasantry and that his reputation is exaggerated highlight the gap between his appearance and his true nature.

### Female Agency and Virtue

Clarissa asserts her moral judgment by condemning Lovelace's lack of virtue and questioning how any woman could willingly submit to such a man.

## Character check-ins

### Clarissa Harlowe

Writes to Anna Howe, expressing her disdain for Lovelace's behavior and her despair at being thrown upon such a man.

### Robert Lovelace

Clarissa confronts him; he dismisses his threats as unmeaning pleasantry and claims his reputation is exaggerated.

### James Harlowe Jr.

Lovelace had threatened him, but now claims it was only pleasantry.

### Mr. Solmes

Lovelace had threatened him as well, but now claims it was not serious.

### Joseph Leman

Lovelace says he has suffered Joseph Leman to tell him things that were not true, to make himself formidable.

## Key lines

> He has too great a stake in his country, he says, to be guilty of such enterprises as should lay him under a necessity of quitting it forever.

Lovelace claims he has too much to lose in England to risk exile by committing serious crimes.

_Lovelace defends himself by appealing to his social standing._

> What hope can a woman have of a man who values not his own reputation?

A woman cannot trust a man who does not care about his own good name.

_Clarissa articulates a key concern about Lovelace's character._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/clarissa_se/chapters/letter-114-miss-clarissa-harlowe-to-miss-howe
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