How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
No, don't go, Pamela; I have something to say to you; and you always fly me so, whenever I come near you, as if you was afraid of me. (14.1)
Pamela must have a pretty good spidey sense, because she senses that something is off about Mr. B even before he lays a finger on her. Plus, violence was a way of life for eighteenth-century aristocrats—if they weren't assaulting their servants, they were hunting or dueling or otherwise getting out their aggression in no longer socially approved ways.
Quote #2
I tell you this, that I am very much displeased with the Freedoms you have taken with my Name to my House-keeper, as also to your Father and Mother; and you may as well have real Cause to take these Freedoms with me, as to make my Name suffer for imaginary ones: And saying so, he offer'd to take me on his Knee, with some Force. O how I was terrify'd! (18.11)
Pay attention here, because this little exchange is emblematic of Pamela's relationship with Mr. B in the early part of the novel: he refuses to admit that he's done anything wrong and threatens to rough her up a bit to go along with it. Sounds like the basis of a happy marriage to us … not.
Quote #3
Pretty Fool! . . . how will you forfeit your Innocence, if you are oblig'd to yield to a Force you cannot withstand? Be easy . . . for let the worst happen that can, you'll have the Merit, and I the Blame, and it will be a good Subject for Letters to your Father and Mother, and a Tale into the Bargain for Mrs. Jervis. (18.11)
Check out this pretzel logic: Mr. B is trying to get Pamela to calm down by arguing that if she is physically unable to resist his advances, she can't be held responsible. In other words, the more violent he is, the better off she is. Seems legit.