“Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded” by Samuel Richardson: Pamela, frightened, has three-hour memory gap, a dissociative reaction

Beautiful young Pamela, who has been writing letters to her parents, assuring them she will not succumb to her wealthy employer’s sexual harassment, is in the room of Mrs. Jervis, an older, protective, female employee, in the mansion where they both work, when their employer jumps out of the closet and harasses Pamela.

“I found his Hand in my Bosom, and when my Fright let me know it, I was ready to die; and I sighed, and scream’d, and fainted away…Pamela, Pamela! said Mrs. Jervis, as she tells me since…my poor Pamela is dead for certain!—And so, to be sure, I was for a time; for I knew nothing more of the Matter, one Fit following another, till about three Hours after, as it prov’d to be, I found myself in Bed, and Mrs. Jervis sitting up on one side…and no Master, for the wicked Wretch was gone. But I was so over joy’d, that I hardly could believe myself…Where have I been? Hush, my Dear, said Mrs. Jervis, you have been in Fit after Fit. I never saw any body so frightful in my Life!” (1, pp. 63-64).

Comment: Why did Pamela have a three-hour memory gap? Fear may make an experience hard to forget; whereas, a dissociative reaction may leave a person with a memory gap, a cardinal symptom of multiple personality (a.k.a. dissociative identity disorder). Will these issues be clarified in the rest of the novel?

1. Samuel Richardson. Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded [1740]. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Added Wed., Aug. 23: I lost interest and will not complete this novel.