In 18th-century England, significant social concern arose regarding one's social and economic status. Three broad status categories existed, including the gentry (made up of aristocrats and nobles), the middle class (made up of civil servants and merchants), and the lower classes (made up of artisans and farmers). Samuel Richardson shows the tension and emphasis on social and economic classes in 18th-century England in his novel Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded, as Pamela, a lower-class teenage servant, is exposed to the aristocratic world through her employment and subsequent marriage to an aristocratic man, MB Theoretically, it was impossible to climb the social ladder in 18th-century England, but this was not a common phenomenon. While it was not so difficult to make your way within one social group, moving to another, higher social group was more difficult and rarely achieved except through a happy marriage, like Pamela . This immense social contrast and tension between Pamela and MB's environment illustrates the transformation of Pamela's perception of herself from a modest and poor condition to her new position in the aristocratic class once married. . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Another social concern, primarily within the female community, included the need to maintain or defend one's virtue. Samuel Richardson depicts the strong influence of social class on Pamela, which reinforces the assertion that her true intention in upholding her virtue is to move up the social ladder. Pamela extensively describes the low value of her clothing to incite pity and to support the proudly poor image she has of herself. She describes the clothes her lady gave her as “too rich and too beautiful for me, of course” (Richardson 18). When Pamela plans to return to her poor parents, she buys "good, sad-colored things" from farmers in order to better integrate into their social and economic class. By calling the clothes “sad,” she invites readers to associate poverty with feelings of discontent and sorrow. However, once married to MB, a wealthy aristocrat, she describes in detail the beautiful clothes she began to wear again: "And so put on fine linen, silk shoes and fine white cotton stockings, a beautiful quilted coat . , a delicate dress and coat in green mantua silk, a French necklace, a lacquered head, a handkerchief and clean gloves… but I forgot not to thank God for being able to put on this dress with so much comfort” (Richardson 303). This event discredits everything she had once said about her poor and sad clothes, as well as her desire to return to her comfortable and familiar lifestyle with her poor parents. It is through Pamela's desire for beautiful clothes and her connection to a high social class that calls into question Pamela's true intentions to save her virtue. The word "poor" is not only used to describe Pamela's clothes, but also her life before her marriage in the aristocratic sector of society, of which she is proud, as well as the low social status of her parents. The use of her low status in life cleverly conceals Pamela's reasoning to protect her virtue, in the presence of Mr. B. and his parents. Pamela wrote to her parents: “I owe everything, besides the goodness of God, to your piety and your good examples, my dear parents, my dear poor parents, I will do it, because your poverty is my pride, as.