Clarissa (1991)

Saskia Wickham: Clarissa Harlowe

Photos 

Quotes 

• Clarissa : I cannot admire a man with no morals.

  Anna : Clarry, men put on their morals as we put on our stays!

• Clarissa : I could have loved him.

• Clarissa : Do not be sad. I am not sad. Rejoice with me that all my worldly troubles are so near an end.

• [refusing Lovelace's marriage proposal] 

  Clarissa : I would not bind myself in covenant with you for a thousand, thousand worlds.

• Lovelace : [after he has raped Clarissa]  I love you.

  Clarissa : Some new strategem?

  Lovelace : Believe me.

  Clarissa : Again? Like I believed Captain Tomlinson and Lady Betty? How you all must have laughed. Such a witty masquerade.

• Clarissa : I have always heard that you prefer not to confine your pleasure to more than one lady entirely.

• Bella : You know the rules. No letters.

  Clarissa : Not even to Anna?

  Bella : Your go-between to Lovelace?

• Clarissa : [writing to Anna]  You once told me adversity was my shining time, and so I think it is.

• Clarissa : Dig a hole deep enough to conceal this unhappy body for I fear that those who would not stir to protect me living will move heaven and earth to defend me dead.

• Clarissa : I should as soon die here as anywhere.

• Clarissa : You tell me that my uncle, a man I never knew to lie, now requires me to pretend I am already married?

• Clarissa : Look at me sir, not at him.

• Clarissa : My soul is above you, man. Do not urge me to tell you how much I know my soul is above you.

• Clarissa : Kindness, Bella, would suit you better.

• Anna : How cruel of you to rob Bella of the only lover she ever had.

  Clarissa : Me? It wasn't me. She refused him.

• Clarissa : Was Lovelace here?

  Belford : He's gone now.

  Clarissa : Can he never leave me in peace? Will he pursue me to the grave?

• [Talking about Lovelace] 

  Anna : Don't you like him at all? Not even a teeny bit? He's so handsome.

  Clarissa : So wild!

  Anna : So vain!

• [after Lovelace has raped Clarissa] 

  Clarissa : What further evils are reserved for me? I find I am your prisoner.

• Lovelace : I trust you slept well.

  Clarissa : I did not sleep.

  Lovelace : Scribbling? Is that wise? Letters can be traced.

  Clarissa : As you should know.

  Lovelace : I hope at least you used an alias.

  Clarissa : I leave all such subterfuge to you.

• [as Clarissa is dying in prison, her coffin is brought into her cell] 

  Doctor : What shocking sight is this?

  Clarissa : Why shocking? Are we shocked in church to see the monuments of our ancestors with whom we hope one day to rest in peace?

• Bella : Don't Mr Lovelace say you have fine eyes?

  Clarissa : Is that what he told you?

• Clarissa : [on arriving at the Sinclair house in Dover Street, Clarissa is welcomed as Mrs Lovelace]  *Mrs* Lovelace?

  Lovelace : The lady is a very moral woman. What more could I do?

  Clarissa : I would rather you did less, Mr Lovelace, not more.

• Clarissa : Do you think to make me your whore?