Study Questions and Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. What are Clarissa's views on marriage?
Do they match those of the other characters? What defines the feminine sphere?
What the masculine? How do the spheres overlap?
2. Clarissa twice declines to seek help
from the law: she refuses to litigate for her estate, and she will
not prosecute Lovelace. Why does she resist the legal system in
this way? More generally, what roles do law, legal systems, and
legal metaphors play in the text?
3.
Clarissa is often
associated with the beginnings of realism in literature. To what
extent is the novel realistic?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Clarissa pits an exemplary woman
against a vicious libertine. How did Clarissa get to be so exemplary?
How did Lovelace get to be such a rake? Who educated them, and how?
2. Clarissa bills itself as a lesson
for parents and children. How are parenting and family life portrayed
in the text? What kind of familial philosophy does it promote, and
what kind does it criticize?
3. Clarissa's most defining characteristic is unimpeachable virtue.
What does virtue mean in her case? Is it the same as morality, or
ethics? Are there different standards of virtue for different characters?
4. How are gender divisions marked in Clarissa? Is
Clarissa an example for all human beings, or just women?
5. Is Clarissa Harlowe a tragic hero? Why or why not?
