Religion plays a major role in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, with its titular protagonist frequently praying to God to endure her lowest moments and thanking God for her successes. One of Pamela’s core beliefs is that a person should only have sex after marriage, and this throws her into conflict with her master, Mr. B, who initially just wants to have sex with Pamela as soon as possible. Much of the novel hinges on the lead-up to the marriage of Mr. B and Pamela, with marriage meaning something different to each of them. For Mr. B, marriage begins as just a formality to trick Pamela into a sexual relationship, and he’s willing to resort to a sham-marriage if necessary, not caring about what role religion plays in marriage. For Pamela, however, marriage and religion are permanently linked. She considers the marriage ceremony an explicitly religion ritual, and her religious beliefs inform her ideas about how to act as a wife. The chapel that Mr. B’s family owns represents the conflict between Pamela and Mr. B’s different ideas about marriage and religion. For a long time, Mr. B and his family used the chapel as a lumber storage shed, showing how they put their earthly economic interests above spiritual ones. Pamela’s influence over Mr. B makes him more religious, and so her insistence on getting married in the chapel shows how she has made him more spiritual.
Nevertheless, while Pamela wins the argument over the chapel, Mr. B’s secular ideas about marriage still hold true as well. As Mr. B’s convoluted affair with Sally Godfrey demonstrates, marriage can be a complicated legal and economic agreement that involves whole families. Furthermore, as Mr. B matures, his secular ideas about marriage become more altruistic—for instance, he demonstrates his care for Pamela by making contingency inheritance plans in case of his own sudden death. Pamela explores how marriage can be both a religious and a legal ceremony, arguing that Christian morality theoretically can lead to a happy marriage, but also acknowledging how marriage involves more earthly, economic issues in practice.
Related Themes from Other Texts
Religion and Marriage ThemeTracker
Religion and Marriage Quotes in Pamela
Say no more, Mrs. Jervis; for by G—d I will have her!
Mr. Williams came to see us, and took a Walk with us once; and while her back was just turn’d, (encourag’d by the hint he had before given me,) I said, Sir, I see two Tiles upon that Parsley-bed; might not one cover them with Mould, with a Note between them, on Occasion?—A good Hint, said he; let that Sunflower by the Back-door of the Garden be the place; I have a Key to that; for it is my nearest way to the Town.
This Act of Despondency, thought I, is a Sin, that, if I pursue it, admits of no Repentance, and can therefore claim no Forgiveness.—And wilt thou, to shorten thy transitory Griefs, heavy as they are, and weak as thou fanciest thyself, plunge both Body and Soul into everlasting Misery! Hitherto, Pamela, thought I, thou art the innocent, the suffering Pamela; and wilt thou, to avoid thy sufferings, be the guilty Aggressor? And, because wicked Men persecute thee, wilt thou fly in the Face of the Almighty, and distrust his Grace and Goodness, who can still turn all these Sufferings to Benefits?
Fine clothes, sir, become not me; nor have I any ambition to wear them. I have greater pride in my poverty and meanness, than I should have in dress and finery.
Since you so much prize your Honour, and your Virtue; since all Attempts against that are so odious to you; and since I have avowedly made several of these Attempts, do you think it is possible for you to love me preferably to any other of my Sex?
Odd! my pretty mistress, said she, you had best take care of yourself; for you are hard beset, I’ll assure you. You will never be married, I can see; and will die of your first child. Out upon thee, woman! said I, better thou hadst never come here.
I have no Will but yours, said I (all glowing like the Fire, as I could feel:) But, Sir, did you say in the House? Ay, said he; for I care not how privately it be done; and it must be very public if we go to Church. It is a Holy Rite, Sir, said I; and would be better, methinks, in a Holy Place.
My master kindly said, Come, Mr. Andrews, you and I will sit together. And so took his Place at the Bottom of the Table, and set my Father on his Right-hand; and Sir Simon would sit on his Left.
And thus, my dearest, dear Parents, is your happy, happy, thrice happy Pamela, at last, marry’d; and to who?—Why, to her beloved, gracious Master! The Lord of her Wishes!—And thus the dear, once naughty Assailer of her Innocence, by a blessed Turn of Providence, is become the kind, the generous Protector and Rewarder of it.
But canst thou have the Vanity, the Pride, the Folly, said she, to think thyself actually marry’d to my Brother?
’Tis even so, my Dear, replied he; and you remember my Sister’s good-natur’d Hint of Miss Sally Godfrey? I do well, sir, answered I. But this is Miss Goodwin. Her Mother chose that name for her, said he, because she should not be called by her own.
Oh! What a poor thing is human Life in its best Enjoyments!—subjected to imaginary Evils, when it has no real ones to disturb it!
