A Higher Judgment Outside Humanity essays

A Higher Judgment Outside Humanity essays As we see the innocence of Clarissas character tragically lost, Samuel Richardson displays the destruction caused by youthful fancy and parental oppression. Through Clarissas death, the reader is left with an overwhelming feeling towards Clarissas virtue as the epitome of goodness that Richardson wishes us to revere for its constancy. However, because of the self-willed nature of her untimely demise, the text sheds light to the inhumanity of bearing such ideological thoughts and regimented way of life in reality. What remains evident throughout the novel is that because of her overwhelming desire to be virtuous, Clarissa alienates herself from the judgments of society, is alienated and estranged from her family, is disembodied from her own humanity. What we find is that Clarissas death does not stand necessarily as social commentary against the injustices of the world, but rather as evidence of Clarissas inability to reconcile her personal beliefs and the laws of the world, her imag ined existence and compromises necessary in order to survive. From its onset, the narrative sets up Clarissa as an obedient daughter, a social wonder and joy in terms of her virtues. Her primary and only disobedience against paternal law is when she is asked to compromise her values and marry an unintelligent man whom she has no love for, Solmes, to increase the material and titular gain for her family. Up until this point, Clarissa, in her arguments and letters, seems to value the will of her father above all else; that she submits to the necessity of patriarchal authority and filial duty bound in the government of the community. However, when asked to marry Solmes, Clarissa finds her fathers judgment lacking in comparison to her own standard of morals-which are divined from the Bible, from God Himself; and by rejecting her familys pleas, Clarissa alienates and disengages herself from their judgments, from the ...