Clarissa · Chapter
Letter 6: Miss Clarissa Harlowe, to Miss Howe explained
Clarissa updates Anna on family tensions following her brother's injury.
What happens
Clarissa updates Anna on family tensions following her brother's injury. Her parents grant permission for her to visit Anna, but her brother James insists she must not see Lovelace. Clarissa accepts the condition but notes the family's inconsistency in allowing her to leave home to avoid Lovelace's visits.
Themes in this chapter
Family Obligation and Rebellion
Clarissa navigates family demands while asserting her own will, particularly against her brother's overreach.
Power and Manipulation
James uses his injury and the threat of Lovelace to manipulate family decisions and control Clarissa.
Characters to notice
- Clarissa Harlowe
Narrates the family conference and her relief at being allowed to visit Anna, though she is wary of her brother's hostility.
- James Harlowe Jr.
Still resentful over his injury, he rudely interrupts and insists Clarissa must not see Lovelace, showing his controlling nature.
- Mrs. Harlowe
Supports Clarissa's visit to Anna and defends her daughter's prudence against James's objections.
- Mr. John Harlowe
As Clarissa's father, he grants permission for the visit but commands her not to see Lovelace.
- Arabella Harlowe
Interjects to remind Clarissa of the condition attached to her visit, showing her alignment with James.
- Antony Harlowe
Uncle who comments that Lovelace's visits are better elsewhere than at Harlowe Place.
Key passages
“My brother being in a good way, although you may be sure that his resentments are rather heightened than abated by the galling disgrace he has received, my friends (my father and uncles, however, if not my brother and sister) begin to think that I have been treated unkindly.”
Though my brother is recovering, his anger has only grown from the humiliation of his injury; still, my father and uncles are starting to see that I have been treated unfairly.
Clarissa observes that her family's sympathy is shifting, except for her brother and sister.
“But this application has not met with the attention of one single soul.”
No one in the family has paid any attention to Mr. Solmes's proposal.
Clarissa dismisses Solmes's initial offer as ignored by the family.
“Will you engage, my dear, that the hated man shall not come near your house?—But what an inconsistence is this, when they consent to my going, thinking his visits here no otherwise to be avoided!”
Can you promise me that Lovelace won't visit your house? Yet how inconsistent of my family to allow me to leave, believing that's the only way to avoid his visits here!
Clarissa points out the irony in her family's reasoning for permitting her visit to Anna.