We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Allegories of Error in Samuel Richardson's Clarissa.
- Authors
Callis, Jonathan P.
- Abstract
ABSTRACT Drawing on Renaissance romances from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso to Spenser's Faerie Qveene, the major characters of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa use allegory to frame their lives according to spiritual and metaphysical narratives. While Lovelace recycles Renaissance rape narratives to justify his abuse of Clarissa, Clarissa herself alludes to the Bible and The Faerie Qveene to move from the errors of temporal life to the spiritual wholeness of eternity. Clarissa subsumes Lovelace into her allegory of Christian repentance. She weaves into her epistolary narrative the "pilgrim allegory" of the English Puritans, which shows how error can be used to sanctify the Christian's soul.
- Subjects
CLARISSA: Or, the History of a Young Lady (Book : Richardson); RICHARDSON, Samuel, 1689-1761; RAPE in literature; ALLEGORY; LITERARY characters; PURITANS in literature; CHRISTIANS in literature; CHRISTIANITY in literature
- Publication
SEL: Studies in English Literature (Johns Hopkins), 2018, Vol 58, Issue 3, p613
- ISSN
0039-3657
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.1353/sel.2018.0024