Once Evelina meets Madame Duval (her grandmother), she is introduced to Madame Duval’s extended family, the Branghtons, a rowdy bunch who have made a significant amount of money via Mr. Brangton’s silver shop. With the Branghtons, Burney is satirizing self-made middle-class people who will strive to join the upper class but are never able to do so.
While Burney is certainly satirizing the late-18th century English class system as a whole for making social mobility virtually impossible, with the Branghtons she is specifically satirizing middle-class people who refuse to accept the rigid hierarchy and, instead, try to squeeze their way to the top via repeated failed attempts. To make this point, Burney has Evelina attend the theater with the Branghtons and witness how, even though Mr. Branghton believes that he’s paid for his family to be seated in the pit with the wealthy patrons, they are led to the gallery, where the lower-class people sit.
Burney’s satirical intentions also come across in the ways that Mr. Branghton and his son Tom scheme to have Evelina marry Tom (so they can access her potential inheritance) but ultimately fail at that as well. Mr. Branghton’s daughters Miss Branghton and Polly also consistently lack proper etiquette, embarrassing themselves by fighting with their father in public and flirting with men in improper ways. Despite their unrefined behavior, they view themselves as successfully showing off their sophistication.
With the character Mr. Lovel, Burney is satirizing upper-class English society, particularly the ways that aristocrats in late-18th century England prioritized maintaining their appearances above all else. This comes across early in the novel when Mr. Lovel confesses that he only comes to the theater to be seen and to meet his friends:
“For my part,” said my Lovel, “I confess I seldom listen to the players: one has so much to do, in looking about, and finding out one’s acquaintance, that, really, one has no time to mind the stage. Pray,”—(most affectionately fixing his eyes upon a diamond-ring on his little finger) “pray—what was the play tonight?”
“Why, what the D—l,” cried the Captain, “do you come to the play, without knowing what it is?”
“O yes, Sir, yes, very frequently: I have no time to read playbills; one merely comes to meet one’s friends, and shew that one’s alive.”
Mr. Lovel proves in this passage that he cares more about maintaining the appearance of enjoying theater than actually enjoying it. The tongue-in-cheek way that Burney describes how Mr. Lovel “fix[ed] his eyes upon a diamond-ring on his little finger” while inquiring what the play was that he just sat through highlights how she means to mock this character for his materialistic ways.
Captain Mirvan’s alarm at Mr. Lovel’s complete lack of concern for the performance highlights Burney’s satirical intentions—having a character name the absurdity of Mr. Lovel’s superficiality helps readers to see it as well.
With the character Madame Duval, Burney is satirizing upper-class women who care more about their appearances than about their character. While Burney spends a great deal of the novel highlighting the ways that young women in 18th-century England are forced to prioritize their appearance and reputation in order to secure a partner, Madame Duval’s relationship to appearance is different.
For one thing, Madame Duval is no longer a young woman (and has already been married), so she does not need to appear desirable as a young woman out in society does. Evelina notes as much while witnessing Madame Duval get dressed one day:
She endeavoured to adjust her headdress, but could not at all please herself. Indeed, had I not been present, I should have thought it impossible for a woman at her time of life to be so very difficult in regard to dress. What she may have in view, I cannot imagine, but the labour of the toilette seems the chief business of her life.
Here, Evelina notes that Madame Duval is “difficult in regard to dress” “for a woman at her time of life.” She goes on to state that “the labour of the toilette seems the chief business of [Madame Duval’s] life,” an exaggerated claim that highlights Burney’s satirical intentions for the character. (The “business of the toilette” refers to attention to dress and make-up.)
Madame Duval’s obsession with wigs and hats (as seen in the quote via her constant adjusting of her headdress) also underlines her over-the-top obsession with maintaining appearances. By covering her real hair, she is hoping to prove to the world that she is not aging and will be young and desirable forever.
