Shamela Essay Questions

What is Parson Williams advocating in his sermon?

Shamela writes, “Well, on Sunday Parson Williams came, according to his Promise, and an excellent Sermon he preached; his Text was, Be not Righteous over much; and, indeed, he handled it in a very fine way; he shewed us that the Bible doth not require too much Goodness of us, and that People very often call things Goodness that are not so. That to go to Church, and to pray, and to sing Psalms, and to honour the Clergy, and to repent, is true Religion; and 'tis not doing good to one another, for that is one of the greatest Sins we can commit, when we don't do it for the sake of Religion. That those People who talk of Vartue and Morality, are the wickedest of all Persons" (23). The sermon is a particularly brilliant part of Fielding's text, for it is multifaceted. One the one hand, Williams is fair to suggest that the Bible does not demand perfection, that people are fallible, and that simply walking around and talking about being virtuous does not mean one actually is virtuous. But on the other hand, we know why Williams is delivering such a sermon—he is a self-serving hypocrite, quick to excuse away his bad behavior and bad behavior in others who serve him.

How do Pamela/Shamela and Mr. B/Squire Booby represent the King and Sir Robert Walpole?

Critic Earla Wilputte sees Pamela and Mr. B as representative of Richardson's hope for a harmonious rule between the ruler and his chief minister, but Fielding's characters are much more critical depictions of the two. Shamela is "representative of Walpole, but [Fielding's] heroine is a feminized, devalued presentation of the Prime Minister. Whereas Richardson hopes for a nationally beneficial relationship between king and country, Fielding sees only the meretricious behaviour of a selfish minister who sells the country out from under a foolish ruler. Through Shamela, Fielding stresses Walpole's effeminate characteristics of greed for material goods and luxury, ambition for greater social status and power, while emphasizing the minister's lack of manly public-spiritedness and generosity." Modern readers might not pick this up immediately, but contemporary readers would not have much trouble understanding what Fielding was doing, making this short novel much more than just a satire of the popular Pamela.

What does critic Morris Golden mean when he says the "novel is a burlesque of the aspiring turbulent self?"

Fielding's three main characters of Shamela, Squire Booby, and Parson Williams are examples of how allowing oneself to be swayed by wants and desires that transcend what is appropriate for one's class and position can both reflect and lead to larger societal problems. Shamela "always wants rights denied to others," and Booby is a "ruler ruled by passion combined with the pride that denies only for itself the normal consequences of actions," is gullible sexually," and "has criminally invited his own exploitation. Any pander can rule him, and through him his dependents, for he is seducible lay pleasure." Parson Williams wants to hunt on lands that do not belong to him, which is extended to his "hunting" the Squire's wife, who does not belong to him.

Why is Shamela in an epistolary format?

Firstly, and most obviously, it is in such a format because Pamela was in such a format: this lets Fielding remind his readers even on the structural level what he is doing, which is parodying Richardson's novel. Eric Rothstein notes that "By writing an epistolary novel, Richardson played directly into Fielding's satiric interests and tested abilities," and the opening letters, Hugh Amory writes, "satirize...the unthinking enthusiasm of the lower clergy for Richardson's book." Secondly, the format allows the reader to see directly into the minds of the characters, unfettered by any other narrative constraints. We can see Shamela's lack of "vartue," her machinations and her selfishness in the most immediate way possible, making it impossible to see her as anything other than the conniving and striving servant she is.

Why is Tickletext's initial impression of Pamela so different than Oliver's?

Certainly there is the fact that Oliver knows the "truth" of Pamela, meaning that she is actually Shamela and that the things that transpired within Richardson's novel are mostly untrue. But there is a bit more to it—we are supposed to infer that Tickletext was aroused by Pamela. He is a clergyman whose access to lewd materials is, obviously, limited, and the story of Pamela is just enough to entice him. This theory is supported by his name, which does not just refer to someone who "tickles" a text in terms of interpreting its meaning in numerous, sometimes self-serving ways, but also to a particular activity he might engage in when reading the text.