Messenger and Pupils of Death in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa

Michael Andindilile

Abstract


Abstract
This article looks at the didacticism associated with death that Samuel Richardson
carefully crafted in Clarissa at a time when religion very much had a stronghold
on the psyche of the society reading the work, but which still resonates with the
contemporary world’s religious informed good dying and bestial dying, which
the Tom captures in connection with the varying deaths of characters in the
epistolary novel. The article demonstrates how the novel uses these characters to
pass on the didacticism on good/evil living and attendant dying. Its argument is
that the novel encourages people to live well to die well. In this regard, the
novel’s themes emerges to be timeliness and relevant to the contemporary period.
Key words:
Didacticism, Good and Bestial Dying, Richardson, 18th Century Novel

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References


References

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