Letter 317: Miss Howe, to Miss Clarissa Harlowe explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Female Agency and Virtue

  Mrs. Howe and Anna argue that Clarissa must overcome modesty to prosecute Lovelace, asserting that justice for her sex requires public action.

• Suffering and Redemption

  Anna encourages Clarissa to write her story as an example of virtue and warning, framing her suffering as a means to redeem others.

Characters to notice

• Anna Howe

  Writes to Clarissa, conveying her mother's opinions and urging prosecution of Lovelace; expresses remorse for her earlier harshness.

• Clarissa Harlowe

  Recipient of the letter; urged to prosecute Lovelace and to write her story as a warning.

• Mrs. Howe

  Dictates her opinion that Clarissa must prosecute Lovelace; makes this a condition for future correspondence and family reconciliation.

• Robert Lovelace

  Described as a 'vilest of miscreants' and 'beast of prey'; subject of the call for prosecution.

Key passages

• “She still harps upon the old string, and will have it that all your calamities are owing to your first fatal step; for she believes, (what I cannot), that your relations had intended after one general trial more, to comply with your aversion...”

  Mrs. Howe insists that Clarissa's troubles began with her elopement, believing her family would have eventually accepted her refusal of Solmes.

  Anna relays her mother's persistent view that Clarissa's initial choice caused her downfall.

• “She says, that the good of society requires, that such a beast of prey should be hunted out of it: and, if you do not prosecute him, she thinks you will be answerable for all the mischiefs he may do in the course of his future villainous life.”

  Mrs. Howe argues that prosecuting Lovelace is a social duty, and failing to do so would make Clarissa responsible for his future crimes.

  Highlights the moral imperative for public justice over private shame.

• “To this purpose the custom in the Isle of Man is a very good one⁠— 'If a single woman there prosecutes a single man for a rape, the ecclesiastical judges impannel a jury; and, if this jury find him guilty, he is returned guilty to the temporal courts: where if he be convicted, the deemster, or judge, delivers to the woman a rope, a sword, and a ring; and she has it in her choice to have him hanged, beheaded, or to marry him.'”

  Anna cites the Isle of Man's law allowing a rape victim to choose the punishment of death or marriage for the convicted man.

  Anna uses this custom to advocate for severe punishment of Lovelace.