Letter 116: Miss Clarissa Harlowe, to Miss Howe explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Female Agency and Virtue

  Clarissa asserts her independence by considering her own living arrangements and writing to her aunt to negotiate terms with her family, while also maintaining her moral caution in dealing with Lovelace.

• Deception and Appearance vs. Reality

  Clarissa is wary of Lovelace's motives and resolves to be cautious, acknowledging the possibility that his promises of reformation may be dissimulation.

• Suffering and Redemption

  Lovelace's account of his illness and temporary reformation, along with Clarissa's hope for his lasting change, explores themes of suffering leading to moral transformation.

Characters to notice

• Clarissa Harlowe

  Narrates the conversation with Lovelace, expresses cautious hope for his reformation, and writes to her aunt Hervey seeking family reconciliation.

• Robert Lovelace

  Reports that Clarissa's family has stopped pursuing her, proposes a move to Windsor, confesses his rakish past, and expresses a desire to reform through Clarissa's example.

• Anna Howe

  The recipient of Clarissa's letter; Clarissa shares her hopes and concerns about Lovelace's reformation with her.

• Hannah Burton

  Lovelace suggests sending for Hannah to attend Clarissa once she is settled; Clarissa had already thought of doing so.

• Mrs. Hervey

  Clarissa writes to her aunt Hervey to plead for her clothes, books, and money, and to seek family reconciliation.

Key passages

• “I will now give you the particulars of a conversation that has just passed between Mr. Lovelace and me, which I must call agreeable.”

  Clarissa tells Anna she will describe a recent pleasant conversation with Lovelace.

  Clarissa sets the stage for recounting the dialogue.

• “I told him, that I would have him leave me directly; and that, when it was known to everybody that I was absolutely independent of him, it would pass, that I had left my father’s house because of my brother’s ill usage of me: which was a plea that I might make with justice, and to the excuse of my father, as well as of myself.”

  Clarissa tells Lovelace she wants him to leave her so she can claim she left home due to her brother's mistreatment, which would justify her actions to others.

  Clarissa seeks to establish her independence and justify her elopement.

• “He mildly replied, that if we could be certain that my relations would adhere to this their new resolution, he could have no objection, since such was my pleasure; but, as he was well assured that they had taken it only from apprehensions, that a more active one might involve my brother (who had breathed nothing but revenge) in some fatal misfortune, there was too much reason to believe that they would resume their former purpose the moment they should think they safely might.”

  Lovelace warns that her family's apparent decision to stop pursuing her is likely temporary, motivated by fear for her brother's safety, and they will resume their efforts when they can.

  Lovelace uses this reasoning to keep Clarissa from leaving him.

• “I told him, that, although I was somewhat concerned at his expression, and surprised at so much darkness, as (for want of another word) I would call it, in a man of his talents and learning, yet I was pleased with his ingenuousness.”

  Clarissa says she is troubled by Lovelace's lack of understanding of grace but appreciates his honesty.

  Clarissa responds to Lovelace's confession about his spiritual confusion.

• “He was once, he said, dangerously wounded in a duel, in the left arm, baring it, to show me the scar: that this (notwithstanding a great effusion of blood, it being upon an artery) was followed by a violent fever, which at last fixed upon his spirits; and that so obstinately, that neither did he desire life, nor his friends expect it: that, for a month together, his heart, as he thought, was so totally changed, that he despised his former courses, and particularly that rashness which had brought him to the state he was in, and his antagonist (who, however, was the aggressor) into a much worse: that in this space he had thought which at times still gave him pleasure to reflect upon: and although these promising prospects changed, as he recovered health and spirits, yet he parted with them with so much reluctance, that he could not help showing it in a copy of verses, truly blank ones, he said; some of which he repeated, and (advantaged by the grace which he gives to everything he repeats) I thought them very tolerable ones; the sentiments, however, much graver than I expected from him.”

  Lovelace tells Clarissa about a time he was wounded in a duel and fell ill, leading to a temporary change of heart and a set of serious verses he wrote, which he recites to her.

  Lovelace uses this story to demonstrate his capacity for reformation.

• “I will not throw cold water, Mr. Lovelace, said I, on a rising flame: but look to it! for I shall endeavour to keep you up to this spirit. I shall measure your value of me by this test: and I would have you bear those charming lines of Mr. Rowe forever in your mind; you, who have, by your own confession, so much to repent of; and as the scar, indeed, you showed me, will, in one instance, remind you to your dying day.”

  Clarissa encourages Lovelace's reforming spirit but warns him that she will judge his worth by his perseverance, and urges him to remember Mr. Rowe's lines and his scar as reminders.

  Clarissa sets a moral test for Lovelace's reformation.