# Letter 405: Miss Clarissa Harlowe, to Miss Howe explained — Clarissa > Chapter companion for Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. ## What happens Clarissa writes to Anna Howe, enclosing a large packet of letters and papers for her perusal, but not all that she has received, as she finds her family's letters too severe. She defends her choice of executor, insisting she is too far engaged to recede. She includes transcribed passages from Mr. Belford's letters, extracted from Lovelace's correspondence, and demands strict secrecy and their return to prevent harm. She reflects on her fatigue, her disillusionment with the world, and her longing to escape her wretched situation. ## Themes in this chapter ### Suffering and Redemption Clarissa expresses deep fatigue and disillusionment with the world, lamenting her ignorance of its cruelty while under her parents' protection, and aspires to rise above her wretched situation. ### Deception and Appearance vs. Reality Clarissa reflects on her former book-learned ignorance of the world, contrasting the protective appearance of family life with the harsh reality she now faces, and she insists on secrecy to prevent further mischief from Lovelace's letters. ## Character check-ins ### Clarissa Harlowe Writes to Anna Howe, enclosing a packet of letters and papers, defending her choice of executor, and expressing fatigue and disillusionment with the world. ### Anna Howe Recipient of Clarissa's letter; Clarissa insists on secrecy and the return of enclosed papers. ### John Belford Transcribed passages from Lovelace's letters for Clarissa, which she encloses for Anna's perusal under strict confidence. ### Robert Lovelace Original writer of the letters from which Belford transcribed passages; Clarissa fears mischief may arise from their disclosure. ## Key lines > I will send you a large packet, as you desire and expect; since I can do it by so safe a conveyance: but not all that is come to my hand⁠—for I must own that my friends are very severe; too severe for anybody, who loves them not, to see their letters. I am sending you a big package as you requested, because I have a safe way to deliver it, but I am not including everything I have received, since my family's letters are too harsh for anyone who does not love them to read. _Clarissa explains she is withholding some of her family's letters due to their severity._ > I must insist that you suffer no soul but yourself to peruse them; and that you return them by the very first opportunity; that so no use may be made of them that may do hurt either to the original writer or to the communicator. I require that you let no one else read them, and that you send them back at the earliest chance, so that they cannot be used to harm either the person who wrote them or the person who shared them. _Clarissa demands strict confidentiality and prompt return of the enclosed papers to prevent harm._ > O my dear, the world we live in is a sad, a very sad world!⁠—While under our parents’ protecting wings, we know nothing at all of it. Book-learned and a scribbler, and looking at people as I saw them as visitors or visiting, I thought I knew a great deal of it. Pitiable ignorance!⁠—Alas! I knew nothing at all! Oh my dear, this world is truly sorrowful! While we are sheltered by our parents, we are completely ignorant of it. I thought I knew a lot from books and from observing visitors, but that was a pathetic ignorance—I knew nothing at all! _Clarissa laments her former naivety about the world's cruelty, now revealed through her suffering._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/clarissa_se/chapters/letter-405-miss-clarissa-harlowe-to-miss-howe - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/clarissa_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/clarissa_se/chapters