Pamela, or, Virtue Rewarded
How is everyone reconciled at the end of the novel?
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In Section 15, Mr. B's return to dinner on Tuesday with some of the neighboring gentry parallels his invitation to the Lincolnshire gentry, as does the praise these gentlemen bestow upon Pamela. Pamela's introduction to the young ladies at the boarding school foreshadows the discovery that Miss Goodwin is Mr. B's illegitimate daughter; this is quickly fulfilled and the fulfillment of this foreshadows Mr. B telling Pamela about his affair with Sally Godfrey. Mr. B does so immediately. Pamela's request that Miss Goodwin visit them at Bedfordshire shows her generosity and her maternal instinct. At church, Pamela further shows her generosity by giving alms to the poor. The neighboring gentry all attend because Pamela is the newest novelty in the neighborhood and all are anxious to see her. Repetitively, Pamela is praised. On Tuesday, foreshadowing is fulfilled when Mr. B explains that his preoccupation in the library is due to making alterations to his will in order to leave Pamela independent in case he dies. Pamela's happiness serves as an example of the rewards that can occur from extreme examples of virtue and chastity. The final portion of the novel is an interruption by the narrator to praise Pamela and to conclude all of the events of the novel happily.
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