I'm going to discuss an extract from Pamela, one of Samuel Richardson's novel.

It is an epistolary novel, it means that it is made up by letters, in  particular by letters written by Pamela to her parents.

She is a young girl, she is fifteen, and she works as a maid in an aristocratic family.

One day her mistress dies and her son becomes more powerful and tries to seduce her. She behaves as if she didn't return his attentions but at the end she will fall in love with him.

She is the model of a virtuous girl, as a matter of fact the novel's subtitle is "virtue rewarded".

In the first paragraph of Letter XXI Pamela tells to her parents about her situation: she feared her master might arrive but it was only the governess coming.

From the first sequence the reader can understand the situation Pamela lives in, right from the start the language used by she refers to emotion and feelings. She uses verbs like "feared" and "dread" that make clear to the reader her fear for her master.

Moreover the reader from the sentence "I always rejoice to see dear Mrs Jervis" understands that there is an other character, the governess, Mrs Jervis, to whom Pamela was fond on.

In the second paragraph Mrs Jervis provides to Pamela and to the reader  an important information, she lets the reader know that Pamela's master is very interested in her but he does not want she knows that ("I must not tell you...").

In the third short paragraph Pamela describes her biggest fear: she is afraid by the possibility of losing her virtue.

Pamela's opinion about her witty is expressed in the fourth paragraph: she thinks that if any lady in the land is wit as she, they must be poor ladies, because she is not able to manage her life. The last sentence "but let that pass" sound as if she were trying to send away her thoughts.

In the fifth paragraph Pamela expresses her thoughts, she thinks she vexes him because "he can't make a fool of such a one as I".

Going on reading Mrs Jervis lets the reader understand that there is something real in Pamela's words, her master is angry because he has shown her so much favour.

Pamela's fears continue to come to surface, she does not want to stay in the house, also her master says she shall go away but the governess informs Pamela that the master added he "wished that he knew a lady of birth, just such another as yourself, in person and mind, and he would marry her tomorrow".

The reaction of Pamela betrays her real feelings, as a matter of fact she is interested by the word "marry" but immediately after she criticizes his behaviour and also the possible one of the lady of birth.

The dialogue between Pamela and Mrs Jervis seems to become a discussion; Pamela underlines once again that she knows which is the real aim of the master and her great fear. She adds she will feel safe only when she will be at home with her parents.

In the last part of the letter Pamela seems to add a list of reasons that obstruct her departure, but the intelligent reader may understand that all the reasons seems to be only pretexts not to leave.

All the letter is made up by exchanges of dialogue that speed down the reading but the free direct speech lets the reader feel as if he were present on the scene, as if he were observing the situation from the inner.

The narrator is a first person inner narrator who is also eye-witness. All the information are filtered by the speaking voice, so the reader is not free to make an objective opinion.

He has only two possibilities: he may believe what Pamela says or he may reject what she says.

The introduction of Mrs Jervis is useful to give more realism to Pamela's situation and also to add information on her characterization.

In this letter it is made up mainly by her feelings and thoughts but Mrs Jervis opinions, her thoughts about Pamela adds pieces of information and details to the characterization.     

In my opinion from this letter the intelligent reader can also understand some important aspects of Mrs Jervis's characterization.

She is characterized thanks to her actions and what Pamela says about her. She is a good friend because Pamela thrust in her and she is fond on her; she wants to advice Pamela only for her sake. Moreover she must have a good relationship also with the master because she knows his intimate feelings for Pamela.