英文摘要 |
The aim of this paper is to examine how Robert Lovelace struggles between his sentimental feeling and libertinism in his relationship with Clarissa and the meaning of this process in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa. Lovelace is a professed libertine to the opposite sex, as Richardson describes in the preface of the novel. Many critics take Lovelace to be a Restoration type of libertine because he and other Restoration libertines are often ruthless in their behavior to their female counterparts. While finding this argument forceful, I contend that Lovelace is not a typical Restoration libertine character due to his possible feelings of sentiment. After meeting with Clarissa, Lovelace vows to seduce our heroine. Had Lovelace been a merciless libertine, he would have become a flat, insipid libertine character owing to similarities he shares with his Restoration antecedents. In fact, Lovelace’s compassion amid his desire for conquest is also gradually awakened over the course of the novel because he from time to time sympathizes with Clarissa’s ordeals. At this moment, Lovelace is at a loss to know what to do with Clarissa since his seduction and benevolent feeling are contradictory to each other. In order to carry out his plan, Lovelace tries to avoid those sentimental feelings or “reflections,” as he terms them in the novel. Nevertheless, his efforts prove to be in vain, since these “unspeakable” feelings constantly haunt him. By looking at how these sentimental feelings traumatize Lovelace in his relationship with Clarissa, I will conclude that not only victims but also oppressors, such as Lovelace, may sometimes be baffled and silenced by others’ misfortunes, even though they are the cause. Thus, examinations of how the discourses of silence and ineffable feelings are wrought in Richardson’s Clarissa should not be fixed to the portrayal of the victimized heroine, but they should be extended to that of Lovelace’s dilemma. By doing so, we can arrive at a more nuanced understanding of how Richardson characterizes Lovelace. |