Theme Of Heroism In Fantomina

A Comparison of Heroism in Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina and Samuel Richardson’s Pamela Heroin figures in novels are typically thought as to be the hero of the story, with qualities that uniquely set them apart from “normal” people. Usually, these traits are characteristic of perseverance, courage, or nobility. However, though these traits can be expressive of a heroin, the way in which the hero of a story carries them out can be quite unique in its own way. Perseverance, for example, could be a noble soldier slowly fighting his way through a battle for days. Or, perseverance could be a prisoner ever so slowly digging a trench to escape imprisonment. Both of these examples exhibit the characteristic of persevering, however, show perseverance executed …show more content…
Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded by Richardson is a collection of letters that details the life of a poor maid employed by a wealthy estate owner. Pamela, the maid, must continue to work for the owner of the estate, Mr. B. in order to provide financially for her family. This, however, is more complicated than it sounds. Mr. B. is an extremely aggressive and perverted man, only wanting Pamela around to take advantage of her sexually. Throughout the novel, Pamela continually avoids the attempts made by Mr. B. to sexually assault her in his estate. Continually Mr. B. would try to attack her and she would conjure up some plan to outsmart the witty physician. Pamela also befriends the other housemaids whom, at first seem rude and of no help, but eventually come to her rescue. At one point as Mr. B. proceeds to carry out another advance on Pamela, he requests that Mrs. Jarvis (a housemaid) attend to matters elsewhere. Knowing that this would leave Pamela prone to Mr. B., she becomes outraged, exclaiming “’You shall not hurt this innocent’” (CITE PAMELA 2818) and proceeds to shield Pamela. As Pamela faints at the sheer occurrence of this, Mrs. Jarvis battles a malicious Mr. B. and protects the young