Clarissa · Chapter
Letter 18: Miss Clarissa Harlowe, to Miss Howe explained
Clarissa recounts a painful morning interview with her mother, who coldly rebukes her for sullenness and disobedience.
What happens
Clarissa recounts a painful morning interview with her mother, who coldly rebukes her for sullenness and disobedience. Despite Clarissa's tearful pleas and embrace, Mrs. Harlowe remains distant, leaving Clarissa distraught and faint. The chapter underscores the family's relentless pressure to force her into marriage with Solmes.
Themes in this chapter
Family Obligation and Rebellion
Clarissa's desperate attempt to reconcile with her mother clashes with her refusal to submit to the family's marriage plan, highlighting the tension between duty and personal will.
Female Agency and Virtue
Clarissa asserts her own judgment and virtue against her mother's accusations of sullenness, striving to maintain her integrity under familial pressure.
Characters to notice
- Clarissa Harlowe
Describes her sleepless night and the emotional confrontation with her mother, feeling the weight of her family's displeasure.
- Mrs. Harlowe
Appears cold and solemn, rebukes Clarissa for supposed sullenness and perverseness, yet shows a momentary softening before dismissing her.
- James Harlowe Jr.
Referenced as the architect of the plan against Clarissa, which she has tried but failed to obtain a copy of.
- Mr. John Harlowe
Mentioned as dining out at brother Antony's; Clarissa notes her father's impatience and his conditional permission for her to appear at breakfast.
- Antony Harlowe
Mentioned as the host where Mr. John Harlowe plans to dine.
- Hannah Burton
Assists Clarissa after the interview, bringing salts and spring-water to prevent fainting.
Key passages
“Would you not have thought something might have been obtained in my favour, from an offer so reasonable, from an expedient so proper, as I imagine, to put a tolerable end, as from myself, to a correspondence I hardly know how otherwise, with safety to some of my family, to get rid of?”
Clarissa wonders why her reasonable proposal to end the correspondence with Lovelace in a way that protects her family was not accepted.
Clarissa reflects on her failed attempt to negotiate a safe end to the correspondence.
“One of the most provoking things in this world is, to have people cry for what they can help!”
Mrs. Harlowe scolds Clarissa for crying, implying her tears are willful and manipulative.
Mrs. Harlowe dismisses Clarissa's emotional distress as deliberate defiance.
“O thou ever-moving child of my heart! (folding her dear arms about my neck, as mine embraced her knees) Why was this task—But leave me!—You have discomposed me beyond expression!”
Mrs. Harlowe momentarily embraces Clarissa with affection, then pushes her away, overwhelmed by the conflict.
A brief moment of maternal tenderness is quickly suppressed by Mrs. Harlowe's duty to the family plan.