How we cite our quotes: (Letter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
But you want to clear up things—What can you clear up? Are you not gone off—with a Lovelace too?—What, my dear, would you clear up? (144.3)
Let's get this straight. Is Mrs. Hervey basically saying that Clarissa is out of options? What's with the major guilt trip? Oh right: no matter what happens to a woman in the eighteenth-century, you can assume that everyone else is going to blame her for it.
Quote #8
The affair is over. Clarissa lives (257.1)
Notice anything, Shmoopers? While guilt and blame practically litter every other sentence, there's none of it in the most pivotal sentence in the book—when Lovelace confesses to raping Clarissa. Why do you think that is?
Quote #9
But pray, miss, don't make my Nancy guilty of your fault, which is that of disobedience (296.3)
This, folks, is what piling it on looks like. Mrs. Howe is pretty merciless in her take-down of Clarissa, particularly considering that it's the first letter after the rape. No sympathy here, just blame and shame.