convinces Clarissa to elope with him to avoid the conflict with her parents. Joseph Leman, a servant of the Harlowe family, shouts and makes noise so it may seem like the family has awoken and discovered that Clarissa and Lovelace are about to run away. Frightened of the possible aftermath, Clarissa leaves with Lovelace but becomes his prisoner for many months. Her family now will not listen to or forgive Clarissa because of this perceived betrayal, despite her continued attempts to reconcile with them. She is kept at many lodgings, including unknowingly a brothel, where the women are disguised as high-class ladies by Lovelace so as to deceive Clarissa. Despite all of this, she continues to refuse Lovelace, longing to live by herself in peace. Lovelace is too cynical to believe that virtuous women exist and he is desperately trying to seduce Clarissa, despite declaring that he loves her. Although he puts her under increasing pressure to submit, Clarissa does not waver. Under the pretense of saving her from a fire, Lovelace at last gains entry to Clarissa's bedroom but she thwarts his attempted assault with vigorous resistance. She promises, under threat of rape, to forgive and marry him. However, she considers this promise made under duress as void; soon after she makes her first successful escape from Lovelace, concealing herself in lodgings in Hampstead. Enraged by Clarissa's flight, Lovelace vows to seek revenge. He hunts her down to the lodgings where she is hiding and rents all the rooms around her, effectively trapping her. He hires people to impersonate his own respectable family members to gain her trust. During this time he intercepts a letter to Clarissa from Anna Howe warning her of true extent of his deception and roguery. He commits forgery to put an end to the communication between them. Eventually, he persuades Clarissa to accompany his imposter-relatives out in a carriage and thus carries her back to the disguised brothel. There, with the assistance of the prostitutes and brothel madam, he first drugs and then rapes her. After the rape, Clarissa suffers a loss of sanity for several days, presumably brought on by her extreme distress as well as the dose of opiates administered to her. (This temporary insanity is represented in her "mad letters" by the use of scattered typography.) When Clarissa recovers her senses Lovelace soon realises that he has failed to "subdue" or