Pamela is a novel written by Samuel Richardson, who borrowed the title name from Sidney's pastoral romance Arcadia. The novel is also known with a subtitle: Virtue Rewarded.

Pamela 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.

Now I'm going to discuss an extract taken from one of the letters that Pamela wrote to her parents to explain them the difficult situation in which she was involved : the letter XXI.

She is afraid for her master's attentions and she is preparing to go back to home.

The letter is made up by different sequences.

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.

Right from the start the reader can immediately understand the situation: Pamela is very afraid because of her master's behaviour. In the extract there is an important character: Mrs Jervis who is another servant. The two ladies are friends and there is a close relationship between them. The reader can also understand the deep interest of the master towards Pamela who feels afraid to loose her virtue. 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.

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 addition in the following paragraph Pamela describes her biggest fear: she is afraid by the possibility of losing her virtue.

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.

Pamela's fears continue to come to surface: she does not want to stay in the house and Mr. B., her master, says she shall go away but the governess informs Pamela that he 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". 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 a certain sense, Pamela is happy for her master's attentions because of a possible better future, but she does not admit it.

Pamela's characterization is built through the language she uses and her actions. The reader can imagine the character especially through the language she uses which refers of emotions and feelings.

Further more, 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 trust in her and she is fond on her; she wants to advice Pamela only for her sake. Moreover she might have a good relationship also with the master because she knows his intimate feelings for Pamela.      

The message that Samuel Richardson wants to communicate is linked to the relationship between social classes at that time (the 18th century). He speaks about the general attitude of nobleman towards young girl from lower classes. And he refers also to woman's behaviour in front of such situations.