Two Scenes from "Clarissa" 1795

Editor: This is "Two Scenes from 'Clarissa'" by Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki. It looks like an illustration with two different moments depicted. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see the eighteenth-century novel "Clarissa" visualized through the lens of gendered power dynamics. The scenes hint at the protagonist's constrained agency within patriarchal societal structures. Consider the implications of these domestic spaces as sites of confinement. Editor: Confinement? Curator: Yes, what does it tell us about the limited roles available to women in that time, and how might this image be interpreted as a subtle critique of those limitations? Editor: I see what you mean! Thanks for highlighting the social commentary. Curator: It's all about looking at the work through the lens of its time.