Before the creation of the English postal system in 1660 under the charter of King Charles II, male family members read almost all outgoing and incoming mail to and from women. Female writers had absolutely no privacy because men inspected the contents of and censored letters. Women did not have the luxury of dropping off their post at the closest post office safe from prying family eyes. But with its advent, the postal system advanced the liberation of women, which is the single most important influence of letter writing and the postal system on the evolution of prose.

In Pamela by Samuel Richardson, Mr. B catches Pamela Andrews writing a letter and questions her about the recipients: "Who have you been writing to, Pamela?—I said, in my Fright, Pray your Honour forgive me!—Only to my Father and Mother." (Richardson 12) He then takes the letter from her hands and reads it: "He said, Well then, Let me see how you are come on in your Writing! O how I was sham'd!—He, in my Fright, took it, without saying more, and read it quite thro', and then gave it me again;..." (Richardson 12) Although Pamela does not give Mr. B permission to read the letter she wrote, he feels and acts as if he has a right to any and all of her mail simply because he is the master of the house.

As opposed to using the postal system, Pamela employs the family courier to deliver her post as she informs her parents in another letter: "Our John so often goes your way, that I will always get him to call that you may hear from me, either by Writing, for it brings my Hand in, or by Word of Mouth." (Richardson 15) Pamela gives all of her letters to John the courier. (Not using the postal system was illegal, but many wealthy citizens nonetheless refused to use it.) She later learns from Mr. B that her mail does not travel directly to her parents. As Mr. B tells Pamela, "I have seen more of your Letters than you imagine." (Richardson 84) Just as Pamela discovers, having male family member or employers read their mail was a problem many women faced before the advent of the postal system.

Therefore, women loved the postal system because it gave them freedom they had not had before. Although they knew the government was reading or at least skimming all of the letters that came through London, which was the center of the English postal system, female writers also knew that the postal officials were not concerned with the supposedly trivial affairs of women. The creation of a national postal system was liberating for women. They finally knew that male family members and employers could not read their letters. For example, in letter ten of The Post-Boy Rob'd of His Mail, a prostitute freely writes to a young man without worrying about unwanted friends or family reading her letter because she uses the postal system: "It was thus directed, to Mr. Times, to be left for him at the Post-House in Colchester in Essex, with care." (Gildon)

Eliza Haywood further narrates the importance of the postal system for women in Anti-Pamela, a book written partly in response to Richardson's portrayal of females in Pamela. As Syrena Tricksy writes in her first letter to her mother, "They don't know of my Writings, so I have no Compliments to send you." (Haywood 59) Unlike Pamela, Syrena uses the postal system and does not have to worry about her master or mistress reading her letters. Syrena takes her mail to the penny post herself, and, thus, her employers do not know of her letters or the contents. Only when her letters are later intercepted does she experience major problems.

Letter writing and the epistolary novel also brought about the Language of Sensibility. Developing in the eighteenth century, sensibility focuses on awareness, emotions, spontaneity, and virtuous feelings (Todd). Although some critics, particularly feminist critics, dislike the Language of Sensibility because it is a gendered type of prose used mostly by female writers or men writing like women as in the case of Richardson and Pamela, sensibility also empowered women because it gave them a language of their own. Women were no longer limited by male dominated prose. Also because of the Language of Sensibility, virtue became fashionable as opposed to just moral. Therefore, when Pamela refuses Mr. B's advances, her actions are considered virtuous and stylish, not prudish.

Finally, women used letter writing and the postal system as a means of freeing themselves literally and figuratively. Christiana only leaves on her journey with her sons and Mercy in volume two of The Pilgrim's Progress after she receives the letter from God through Secret (Bunyan 171). She probably would not have left the City of Destruction for the Celestial City had the letter not arrived. In The History of the Nun, Isabella herself becomes a letter in the last two paragraphs during her execution. When she delivers her speech, she becomes a letter delivering a message: "She made a Speech of half an Hour long, so Eloquent, so admirable a Warning to the Vow-Breakers, that it was as amazing to hear her, as it was to behold her." (Behn) Isabella then delivers herself to the executioner by removing her veil like the opening of an envelope: "After she had done with the help of Maria, she put off her Mourning Vail, and, without any thing over her Face, she kneel'd down..." (Behn) Isabella gives the message warning against breaking vows to everyone in the story.

Likewise, Aphra Behn delivers the same message to all her readers, particularly the Duchess of Mazarine, to whom the novel is dedicated. However, like Bunyan who places distance between himself and the message by calling the story a record of a dream, Behn conveys her message through another character. When she claims The History of the Nun is a true story, the message warning against vow breaking does not belong directly to Behn but rather Isabella. By putting this distance between the writer and the message, Behn gives herself a lot more leeway in what she writes. She successfully uses the same literary technique as Bunyan to say what she wants without actually being the person to say it. Behn and other female writers make use of letter writing within books and the epistolary form to liberate their prose.

The single most importance influence of letter writing and the postal system on the evolution of prose is the liberation of women. Before the creation of the postal system in 1660, male family members and employers read all mail to and from women in the household. Female readers and writers had little to no privacy because men read their letters. However, once the national postal system began, women could take their mail directly to the post office where only government officials who did not care about female affairs read their letters. Female writers also learned to use the new language and techniques that developed from the postal system to their advantage. Thus, women loved the new postal system because of its advancement in their liberation.

Behn, Aphra. The History of the Nun: Or, The Fair Vow-Breaker. 1682.

Bunyan, John. Ed. W.R. Owens. The Pilgrim's Progress. Oxford: University Press, 2003.

Gildon, Charles. The Post-Boy Rob'd of His Mail. Excerpts. London: 1692.

Haywood, Eliza. Anti-Pamela. Ed. Catherine Ingrassia. Canada: Broadview Literary Texts, 2004.

Richardson, Samuel. Ed. Thomas Keymer and Alice Wakely. Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. Oxford: University Press, 2001.

Todd, Janet. "Letters and the Language of Sensibility." Sensibility: An Introduction.