Writing, Reading, Identity

Question 1

How is writing an act of self construction?

Answer 1

Crusoe’s journal keeping - writing is a medium which rationalises the chaos of thought
- also writing is the physical manifestation of thought I.e an extension of inner consciousness and self

Pamela’s letters
The letters she writes hold an intrinsic relationship to her identity and selfhood - her letters embody the apogee of her beauty and innocence - I.e why the Master is so desperate to find them in order to conquer every aspect of her character and self

Question 2

How does Hunter suggest the novel to be a form of realism?

Answer 2

He adds there is ‘a focus on ordinary people people in familiar everyday circumstances”

• the novel then acts as a utility which rationalises fiction through words - by burdening recognisable people with unpleasant circumstances the novel taps into a realism which is frightening and yet cathartic

‘The novel of social and cultural history’ (p. 9)

Question 3

How can John Locke’s notion of Tebula Rasa be linked to Defoe’s Pamela?

Answer 3

“The mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characteristics, without any ideas, how comes it be furnished? To this I answer, in one word, from experience”

• Locke believes experience gives birth to the self / the psyche / ideas / culture
• Pamela records of all of her daily experience through writing, thus she creates a soul bond between her inner self and the letters

Question 4

O how my eyes run!…

Answer 4

O how my eyes run! Don’t wonder to see the paper blotted!

Pamela’s body merges with her writing
- the words should be smudged but there is a clarity within her letters

Question 5

“Thus foolishly dialogu’d I with my Heart

Answer 5

“Thus foolishly dialogu’d I with my Heart; and yet all the time this Heart is Pamela.”

• synecdoche ? I.e ‘dialogu’d’ = the mind
• Pamela feels a discontent between her intellect / rational / mind and her heart and emotion - as if each organ operates with autonomy
• Regardless of what presuppositions or hesitations she may feel in her head, there is an honesty to the love she feels in her heart and believes that it must listened to

Also, notice how it is ‘dialogue’ and words which Pamela used to communicate with her heart - again indicative of how words are used as a medium to rationalise abstract and complex emotions